Tuesday, October 4, 2022

BAD GIRLS IN THE MOVIES (1986) ** ½

Bad Girls in the Movies is a compilation flick clocking in at just under an hour that showcases clips, scenes, and trailers for exploitation movies featuring bad girls, tough dames, racy women, and hot harlots.  

The framing device revolves around a bad girl named Tina (Ella Fial) being thrown in jail.  She gets sent to see the prison shrink (Ann Sherwood) who demands to know what being a bad girl is all about.  Tina gives her a lot of lip before eventually making with the clips.  Segments are devoted to movies about prostitutes, bad things happening to “good” girls, worthless men, and women who can fight and shoot.

The wraparound scenes with the babe behind bars are pretty unnecessary and feel like padding more than anything else.  Because of the prison motif used in the framing device, I thought they’d at least show some clips from juvenile delinquent or at the very least, Women in Prison movies, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  If they cut back on all that jazz and stuck to playing B-movie clips, it might’ve been a real winner because there is some great stuff here.  

Fans of Al Adamson and Doris Wishman will be happy as many snippets of their films are featured.  My favorite moments include highlights from the trailer for Wishman’s Another Day, Another Man and the great “Want to see some boobies?” scene from Adamson’s Angels’ Wild Women.  Most of the scenes are taken from films from the ‘70s, but I liked that it also showed a lot of newsreel footage and scenes from “Scare” films of the ‘30s.  

For whatever reason, the scenes from Wishman’s movies are taken from the trailers.  Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen them in their entirety.  (The only one that’s shown in its complete form is, appropriately enough, Bad Girls Go to Hell.)  Fortunately, the best parts from the trailers are often used.  

Writer/director Domonic Paris made another compilation (that also had way too many wraparound scenes), Film House Fever, the same year.  

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