''Girls Town'' is a 1959 film produced by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

, starring

Mamie Van Doren Mamie Van Doren (born Joan Lucille Olander; February 6, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and sex symbol. She is perhaps best known for the rock 'n' roll, juvenile delinquency exploitation film ''Untamed Youth'' (1957). Early life Van D ...

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

, and

Ray Anthony Raymond Antonini (born January 20, 1922), known as Ray Anthony, is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter, and actor. He is the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Biography Anthony was born to an Italian family in Ben ...

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...

also appears in his first acting role. Van Doren stars as a

juvenile delinquent Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

who is sent to a girls' school run by

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s, where she finds herself unable to help her sister. The film capitalizes on the 1950s rebellious-teen

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...

s, with catfights, car races, music from Anka and

The Platters The Platters was an American vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound bridges the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new burgeoning genre. The ac ...

, and sexy outfits. The supporting cast includes the offspring of two major

silent cinema A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

stars: Charles Chaplin, Jr. and

Harold Lloyd Jr. Harold Clayton Lloyd Jr. (January 25, 1931 – June 9, 1971) was an American actor and singer. Career The third child and only son of the silent film comedian Harold Lloyd and former actress Mildred Davis, Lloyd made several B-movies in the 1950s ...

Also featured is

James Mitchum James Mitchum (born May 8, 1941) is an American actor. Mitchum was born in Los Angeles, California, the elder son of actor Robert Mitchum (whom he closely resembles) and his wife, Dorothy Spence. His brother is actor Christopher Mitchum, and he i ...

(son of

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

) and (as a nun) gossip columnist

Sheilah Graham Sheilah Graham (born Lily Shiel; 15 September 1904 – 17 November 1988) was a British-born, nationally syndicated American gossip columnist during Hollywood's "Golden Age". In her youth, she had been a showgirl and a freelance writer for F ...

. ''Girls Town'' was lampooned in July 1994 on movie-mocking television series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

''. About 15 minutes of the actual film were cut from this version.

Plot

The movie opens with a young woman fending off an attempted rape. In the process, the would-be rapist accidentally falls off a cliff to his death. Circumstantial evidence places 16-year-old delinquent Silver (played by a 27-year-old Van Doren) at the scene, and she is sent to Girls Town, a rehabilitation village run by a group of nuns. There, she lives with Serafina (

Gigi Perreau Gigi Perreau (born February 6, 1941) is an American film and television actress. Early years The daughter of French-born Robert and Eleanor Child Perreau-Saussine, she was born Ghislaine Elizabeth Marie Thérèse Perreau-Saussine. Career Perrea ...

) and some experienced juvenile delinquents. Trouble and misunderstandings ensue. Troublemaker Fred (Tormé) saw the cliff incident from a distance and realizes it was actually Silver's sister, Mary Lee (

Elinor Donahue Elinor Donahue (born Mary Eleanor Donahue, April 19, 1937) is an American actress, best known today for playing the role of Betty Anderson, the eldest child of Jim and Margaret Anderson on the 1950s American sitcom ''Father Knows Best''. Early ...

), who was there. Fred blackmails Mary Lee into being his partner in deadly "hands-off drag racing", then prepares to take her to

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

to sell her into the slave trade. Silver finally wins the respect of her Girls Town friends, and finally they rescue Mary Lee. A subplot involves delusional Serafina believing famous teen idol Jimmy (Anka) is in love with her. During the film, he sings " Lonely Boy", "It's Time to Cry", "Girls Town Blues", and "

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's s ...

". A scene set in a nightclub features The Platters singing "Wish It Were Me".

Cast

as Silver Morgan *

as Fred Alger *

as Dick Culdane *

Margaret Hayes Margaret Hayes (born Florette Regina Ottenheimer; December 5, 1913 – January 26, 1977) was an American film, stage, and television actress. Early years Hayes was born in Baltimore, Maryland (some sources say Pottsville, Pennsylvania) into a ...

as Mother Veronica (billed as Maggie Hayes) *

as Jimmy Parlow * Cathy Crosby as Singer *

as Serafina *

as Mary Lee Morgan *

Gloria Talbott Gloria Talbott (February 7, 1931 – September 19, 2000) was an American film and television actress. Early life and career Gloria Maude Talbott was born in Glendale, California. Her great-grandfather Benjamin F. Patterson arrived from Oh ...

as Vida *

as Sister Grace *

as Charley (billed as Jim Mitchum) *

Dick Contino Richard Joseph "Dick" Contino (January 17, 1930 – April 19, 2017) was an American accordionist and singer. Early life Contino was born in Fresno, California. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Contino, and he attended Fresno High School. H ...

as Stan Joyce *

as Chip Gardner *

Charles Chaplin Jr. Charles Spencer Chaplin III (May 5, 1925 – March 20, 1968), known professionally as Charles Chaplin Jr., was an American actor. He was the elder son of Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey, and is known for appearing in 1950s films such as ''The Beat ...

as Joe Cates *

as Themselves *

Peggy Moffitt Margaret Anne "Peggy" Moffitt (born May 14, 1940) is a former American model and actress. During the 1960s, she worked very closely with fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, and developed a signature style that featured heavy makeup and an asymmetric ...

as Flo *

Peter Leeds Peter Leeds (May 30, 1917 – November 12, 1996) was an American actor who appeared on television more than 8,000 times and also had many film, Broadway, and radio credits. The majority of his work took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Working ...

as Michael Clyde *

Norman Grabowski Norman Grabowski (February 5, 1933 – October 12, 2012) was an American hot rod builder and actor. The heavy-set crew cut-wearing Grabowski appeared in minor roles in many films produced by Albert Zugsmith and Walt Disney. He was Polish-Ameri ...

as Skin (billed as Grabowski) * Jody Fair as Gloria Barker *

Nan Peterson ''Frontier Circus'' is an American Western (genre), Western television program, television series about a traveling circus roaming the American West in the 1880s. Filmed by Revue Productions, the program originally aired on CBS from October 5, 1961 ...

as Carhop

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $375,000 in the US and Canada and $500,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $65,000.

Censorship

When ''Girls Town'' was first released in Italy in 1960 the Committee for the Theatrical Review of the

Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the '' monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (v ...

imposed the removal of the scene in which Silver is showering while singing "Hey Mama""Hey Mama" out-take on YouTube
/ref> because it was considered to be offensive to decency.Italia Taglia
Database of the documents produced by the Committee for the Theatrical Review of The Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, from 1944 to 2000. The official document number is: 32004, it was signed on 1 June 1960 by Minister

Domenico Magrì Domenico is an Italian given name for males and may refer to: People * Domenico Alfani, Italian painter * Domenico Allegri, Italian composer * Domenico Alvaro, Italian mobster * Domenico Ambrogi, Italian painter * Domenico Auria, Italian archi ...

''Mystery Science Theater 3000''

''Girls Town'' was featured in episode number 601 of ''

''. The episode debuted July 16, 1994, on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

. The episode featured the debut of the Umbilicus, a tube or tether connecting the Satellite of Love, where Mike Nelson and his robot pals watched the movie, with Deep 13, where the evil scientists who sent him the movies worked and lived. The episode was ranked number 72 on the Top 100 list of episodes as voted upon by ''MST3K'' Season 11 Kickstarter backers. Writer Jim Vorel ranked the episode much higher, placing it at number 20 (out of 191 total ''MST3K'' episodes). Vorel laughs at the casting of Mel Torme as the movie's antagonist, although he appreciates Mamie Van Doren's pulchritude, even if she were years older than the juvenile delinquent she was supposed to be playing. Vorel calls the movie "one of the more inherently watchable dramas ever featured on the show". The ''MST3K'' version of ''Girls Town'' was included as part of the ''Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume XXXIX'' DVD collection, released by

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

in November 21, 2017. The other episodes in the four-disc set include '' The Amazing Transparent Man'' (episode #623) and ''

Diabolik ''Diabolik'' ( or ) is an Italian comic series created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. One of the most popular series in the history of Italian comics, ''Diabolik'' was created in 1962 and consists of more than 900 volumes, and has led ...

'' (episode #1013). The fourth disc, titled "Satellite Dishes", collected non-movie segments from ''MST3K'' episodes that are unlikely to be collected on DVD.MST3K: Volume XXXIX
Shout! Factory. Retrieved on 2018-07-10.

References

External links

* {{Albert Zugsmith 1959 films 1950s teen drama films American black-and-white films American teen drama films Films about Catholic nuns Films directed by Charles F. Haas Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1959 drama films Films about juvenile delinquency 1950s English-language films 1950s American films