The late 1950’s and the early 1960’s were the heyday of the juvenile delinquent movie. Parents during this time were worried sick that young people were going out of control. This was because of a crime wave of juvenile delinquency that rocked the nation during this point in time. Juvenile delinquent movies became so popular that even film creators such as Edward Bernds who was best known for directing comedies such as Three Stooges shorts, movies based on the long running Blondie comic strip and even the Zsa Zsa Gabor sci fi flick The Queen of Outer Space became involved with a juvenile delinquency film project, Reform School Girl.
The film begins with alleged teenager Donna Price (played by a 24 year old Gloria Castillo) standing in front of the mirror in her underwear. Turns out that she is an orphan who is living with both her crazy aunt and her sleazy uncle. The uncle is a really sleazy character who has devised a way to spy on his niece and look at her when she is more or less undressed.
Meanwhile, there is a young hoodlum named Vince (Edd Byrnes who soon found fame as “Kookie” on 77 Sunset Strip) steals a car. Like Donna, Vince is another 24 year old pretending to be a teenager. Vince is a real piece of work and he spells trouble for Donna.
Along with his good buddies Gary Metusek (Wayne Taylor) and Josie Brigg (Luana Anders), Vince shows up at Donna’s apartment. There, for the first time ever Donna’s perverted uncle is making his strong feelings open to Donna. Vince and friends show up right in the nick of time and save Donna from her evil uncle with a few quick blows to the head of the startled man. This turns out to be the only good thing that Vince does the entire movie.
If you are familiar with juvenile delinquency films, then you should be able to predict what happens in the rest of this flick. Reform School Girl is basically a formula driven movie.
However, there is one way in which Reform School Girl does not execute the formula for juvenile delinquency films. It is almost completely lacking in self righteousness and preaching to the audience about what an awful thing it is for young people to go crooked. This departure from the norm helps rob this film of the stuff that made the juvenile delinquency films of this time period seem so unintentionally funny to more modern audiences.
As unlikely as it sounds Reform School Girl actually spawned a mini-franchise. In 1986, there was a parody of this movie entitled Reform School Girls. In 1994, there was a Reform School Girl made for TV movie remake.
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