“You lousy double-crossers!”

Drake’s rating: Caaaaaaaaahn!

Drake’s review: Anne Carson is having a tough time fitting into her new digs. It’s bad enough that the walls are concrete and every window has iron bars, but to make it even worse, her new roommates are just plain mean! Jenny is a control freak, Dorothy is a delusional psychotic, and Melanee is interested in being more than just roommates and won’t take no for an answer. What’s a girl to do?

Unfortunately for Anne, she can’t just pick up and move as her current residence is a women’s prison, where she’s cooling her heels after being involved in a bank robbery. And to make matters worse, everyone knows about the robbery and the money is still missing. Anne claims she’s innocent, but no one cares about that. They just want to find out where all those greenbacks are.

Anne’s problems stretch beyond the prison walls, though. On the outside her former accomplice Paul is searching for the cash as well and is strong-arming Anne’s father into revealing its whereabouts. Not that Pop Carson needs much convincing once he realizes the amount of money involved. He’s all too willing to coerce his daughter into giving up the lettuce if it means he has a shot at collecting a share of it himself. Anne’s only hope might be Reverend Fulton, the prison chaplain who thinks Anne might still have a chance to set things straight.

Girls in Prison is another low-budget flick by director Edward L. Cahn, a silent film editor who went on to direct scores of movies in the following decades. I’ve reviewed his work before with Dragstrip Girl and Girls, Guns and Gangsters, and this one is very much in the same vein. It’s decidedly drive-in fare, but Cahn was lucky enough to work with solid acting talent, which generally elevates his work above many of his peers in the exploitation movie biz.

And honestly, that’s probably the one saving grace for Girls in Prison. It’s a regrettably drab-looking movie, with most of the action taking place behind the very grey prison walls and with the women in very grey prison dresses. It’s the nature of the setting, of course, but even so, Girls in Prison never quite finds its footing as it wanders from Anne’s travails behind bars to Pop Carson’s interactions with Paul, with Rev. Fulton barging in like clockwork to grind the scene to a halt and drone on and on in his decidedly pedantic manner. It’s not a bad flick, but it lacks energy and drifts listlessly from scene to scene and, at 87 minutes, it just runs too long.

Girls in Prison isn’t a bad watch, but it is at times a trying one. There are a few surprises here and there, including an earthquake as a plot device to facilitate an escape from the prison, but otherwise this is a rather pedestrian flick. And it doesn’t help that Joan Taylor, while an accomplished actress, can never quite channel the “bad girl” energy she needs to make Anne Carson more of a fun lead.

Now if only they’d somehow managed to snag Mamie Van Doren for this one…

Intermission!

• So who was the acting talent in this one? Glad you asked!
• Star Joan Taylor was literally born into show business. Her father worked in movie prop departments and her mother was a vaudeville performer. She was married to Leonard Freeman, the creator of the Hawaii Five-O television show and took over the show’s production after her husband’s death in 1974.
• Perhaps not so coincidentally, co-star Richard Denning (of Creature from the Black Lagoon fame) became a regular on Hawaii Five-O, appearing in 69 episodes as the governor of Hawaii.
• If you recognize Dorothy, it might be because she was Lois Lane in Superman and the Mole Men, as well as the first season of the Adventures of Superman TV show.
• Kindly Matron Jamieson was played by Jane Darwell, an Academy Award winner (for Grapes of Wrath) who started in silent films and went on to act in a slew of movies, including classics such as My Darling Clementine and 3 Godfathers.