The supporting cast includes the offspring of two major silent cinema stars: Charles Chaplin Jr. and Harold Lloyd Jr. Also featured is James Mitchum (son of Robert Mitchum) and (as a nun) gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. Elinor Donahue of Father Knows Best also acted in the film. A year after making it she said: "I would just as soon forget the whole thing. In the first five minutes of the picture it was established that I was a good girl, being pushed into being a bad girl. The rest of the picture I spent doing practically nothing but crying and saying, 'Help me, help me!' It was fun making it, but it was an awful picture."[2]
Girls Town was lampooned in July 1994 on movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. About 15 minutes of the actual film were cut from this version.
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) 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), who was there. Fred blackmails Mary Lee into being his partner in deadly "hands-off drag racing", then prepares to take her to Tijuana 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". A scene set in a nightclub features The Platters singing "Wish It Were Me".
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.[1]
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 imposed the removal of the scene in which Silver is showering while singing "Hey Mama"[3] because it was considered to be offensive to decency.[4] The official document number is: 32004, it was signed on 1 June 1960 by Minister Domenico Magrì [it].[4]
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Girls Town was featured in episode number 601 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode debuted July 16, 1994, on Comedy Central.[5] 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.[6]
The episode was ranked number 72 on the Top 100 list of episodes as voted upon by MST3K Season 11 Kickstarter backers.[7] 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".[8]
The MST3K version of Girls Town was included as part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume XXXIX DVD collection, released by Shout! Factory in November 21, 2017. The other episodes in the four-disc set include The Amazing Transparent Man (episode #623) and Diabolik (episode #1013). The fourth disc, titled "Satellite Dishes", collected non-movie segments from MST3K episodes that are unlikely to be collected on DVD.[9]
^ abItalia 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.
