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Europe's fascist regime unmistakably recognized in a county correction school, "a tough place for tough girls." The racketeer (Jack Randall) has the run of the city, a roadside rubout is reflected in his henchman's little shrug, he's found not guilty to the local judge's disgust. Among his operations is the reformatory for women run by a chiseler and packed with militaristic matrons, the moll's sister (Arline Judge) joins the staff to help out the earnest flatfoot (Roger Clark). "The system is all wrong. I'd like to see something done about it." Painted cityscapes, thirtysomething juveniles, mismatched stock footage, interminable drunk routines, Edgar G. Ulmer jumbles it all into an astringent waking dream. "The devil is hopping around our metropolis like an evil grasshopper," in his pocket is the political doyenne who wields a mighty hair pin during board meetings. Inmates include kleptomaniacs and runaways, exploitation replaces rehabilitation as the institutional goal, foul gruel and burst appendices are the norm. (A "NO THINKING" sign hangs in the mess hall before a riot, typical of Ulmer's shaving of images to their nub.) The screen is a blank wall on which barred shadows slant, or a bare chamber split by steel mesh. The unlikely soul turns out to be the officious doormat (Emmett Lynn) who grows sozzled with indignation, "the spirit of civic righteousness" enduring bravely despite being pushed off a patchy Hoover Dam insert shot. "You sure can pick dames," as Cromwell (Caged) and Demme (Caged Heat) would have it in their subsequent analyses. With Robin Raymond, Barbara Pepper, Dorothy Burgess, Clancy Cooper, Patricia Knox, Betty Blythe, Peggy Stewart, and Sid Milton. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |