HOODLUM GIRLS (1944) **

Katy (Joy Reese) is a goody-two-shoes teenybopper who becomes indignant when her bad girl sister Laura (Kay Morley) stays out late with her older louse boyfriend Al (Michael Owen) who says things like, “Laura’s free and just old enough for me!”  Al is a burgeoning criminal who urges Laura to steal her father’s gun so he can go out and commit armed robberies.  To curb the alarming rise of juvenile delinquency, a friendly cop named Amy (Mary Arden) encourages the community open up a “milk bar” so the wild and wooly teens have a place to blow off steam (and for the movie to showcase superfluous musical numbers to pad out the running time).  Things become complicated when Al and his gang spikes the punch at the milk bar and causes the teens to become a bunch of lushes.  The cops quickly swoop in and shut the place down.  When Al refuses to marry Laura, she pulls her father’s gun on him, and predictably, it ends tragically for everyone.    

While Hoodlum Girls isn’t exactly what you would call “good”, it’s certainly interesting.  It’s basically an early example of a Juvenile Delinquent movie  (it was released around the same time as I Accuse My Parents), but it also takes some cues from the “Scare Films” of the decade before, although it’s not nearly as explicit.  We do get a suggestive shot of Morley wearing a revealing (for the time) slip though.  Since it has a foot in each genre, it never quite has the pull those films usually have.  (Never mind the fact, there’s only one damned Hoodlum Girl.)

Like the Scare Films, the scenes of blatant sermonizing are shockingly dated, and therefore quite funny.  Yes, while most of the blame is thrown at the parents for their lack of guidance, the teenage girls are also taken to task for “not taking an interesting in making a home”.  Hey, no one said these things were progressive.  

Hoodlum Girls also acts as a precursor to the Rock n’ Roll movies of the ‘50s as the structure is awfully similar.  The plot stops cold for several musical performances (Drum solos, dancing trios, a bartender who moonlights as a crooner, etc.) while the teenage characters jump and jive at the milk bar.  It must be said that none of these performances are especially memorable.  

So, what are we left with?  A movie that is more interesting as a patchwork of past and future genres, I guess.  It also unknowingly blazed the trail for a genre to come, which is notable, I suppose.  On the other hand, it doesn’t do it particularly well.

AKA:  Youth Aflame.