08.08
A long time ago, back in the days of USA Up All Night, I saw a movie that featured an all girl school of some type, and it was pretty funny. I could never remember what it was called, and since then, have never been able to find it again. In my quest to find this movie, I have submitted myself to several hours of bad movies. Now, normally these bad movies also feature half naked young girls doing sexy things, so I can’t complain too much I guess.
The latest part of this quest took me to Reform School Girls, a movie that skirts the line between raunchy 80′s skin flick, and serious movie about a women’s prison. It’s pretty well written, the acting is pretty good, and none of the girls seem to own anything other than lingerie.
The movie stars Wendy O. Williams (of the Plasmatics) and Linda Carol as fueding inmates, Pat Ast as Edna, and Sybil Danning as Warden Sutter. It should be noted that Wendy, while she may have had the mentality of a girl in need of reform, didn’t quite have the appearance of one, this can be expected of course, as she would have been 37 when the movie was released. The other actresses all looked to be at least close to the appropriate ages.
The story follows that of new inmate Jenny (Carol) as she tries to first make her place in the “school” then escape. Charlie (Williams) is in charge of the main gang of girls causing trouble in the school. Charlie seems to have something going on with Edna, and while they never really come out and show it, you are lead to believe that the two are lovers. The girls only friend within the place is the doctor. Through out the movie, she continously threatens to file reports about the treatment of the students, but for some reason, fails to do so. Eventually she goes on a three day leave from the school, only to return and find that all hell broke loose in her absense, following which, she threatens to file reports once again…
The girls all wear short dress like uniforms, but beneath them, it would seem that they are allowed to wear whatever lingerie they want. I always thought that when you were sent to prison you had to wear prison issue clothes, but not here.
I could understand this lapse in dress code if the school were run by men, but it’s not. And while it is suggested that Edna is a lesbian, she’s only got eyes for Charlie. The Warden however has eyes for nobody, and even after the Warden clamps down and removes all privelages, the girls are still wearing all kinds of fancy things.
This isn’t just what they wear under their uniforms either, sometimes it’s all they wear, and by sometimes, I mean most of the time. The dorm is where most of the movie takes place, and when they are in the dorm, they strip down to almost nothing. If you are trying to keep a group of rebelious girls under control, I would think that the last thing you would want to do is have them parade around in sexy lingerie.
OK, that is the first thing I would WANT them to do, but it’s probably the last thing that I SHOULD do…
Anyways…
The movie reaches a climax after one of the girls falls to her death and the rest riot in the dorm, and finally all that paper work gets filled out to have those previously threatened reports sent in. All it tood for the friendly doctor to file her report was the death of one of the girls, and another to be beaten unconscious. This all culminates in a mass break out and protest by all the girls to get the attention of the visiting youth services board members. Edna both burns and falls to her death. And we are lead to believe that Dr. Norton is now in charge of the place, good news I guess, as long as you don’t ever need her to do any paperwork. Which, of course, is how just about anything gets done from requisitioning new uniforms to buying food. So I guess it’s happily ever after for about three weeks when the food runs out and all the girls are now naked and resorting to cannibalism…