“WELCOME TO THE CLUB”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 11—Girl Gang/Pin-Down Girl, a double bill of so-bad-they’re-funny early 1950s “crime” movies. They were marketed as such, but they were really what passed for softcore in those days. If the movie ratings had existed then, these two gems would likely have been rated “R.”

These delicious and suitably sleazy pictures in the “Forbidden Fruit” series were made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system. They were distributed independently in the manner of a circus sideshow, often by renting a movie theater for a few nights, advertising in the local papers, and promoting the scandalous title as “educational.” It’s certain, however, that in this case both Girl Gang and Pin-Down Girl are not educational in any way except to show you how to use illegal drugs (uh oh!), and to appeal to prurient interests.

Producer George Weiss specialized in fare that defiantly challenged the Production Code and therefore made cheap—very cheap—exploitation flicks with filmmakers and actors who were not, shall we say, A-list material. For example, Weiss produced Ed Wood’s notorious Glen or Glenda (1953), along with Test Tube Babies (1948, previously reviewed in Cinema Retro as part of the “Forbidden Fruit” series). Weiss is responsible for both titles in Volume 11.

Girl Gang (1954) is a hoot. Unintentionally hilarious, it’s one of the better titles in the series. Exploitation film regular Timothy Farrell is Joe, the sleazy leader of a “girl gang” of outlaws—all of them thieves, drug users and dealers, and con artists who use sex as bait. Joe gets help from alcoholic Doc Bradford (Harry Keatan), who regularly checks the young women for, presumably, pregnancy and venereal diseases. There are a handful of young men in the gang who act as muscle, but mostly the members are 1950s-era Bettie Page-types who, for example, might hitchhike to stop an unsuspecting male motorist. Once two of the girls are in the car with him, two more drive up. The four women beat up the man, rob him, and hijack his car. Back at headquarters, Joe gives them “weed to make them less anxious.” Some of them have already graduated to heroin. The alpha-gal is June (Joanne Arnold, a popular pin-up model and occasional actress of the day), and she sets out to make a big score by seducing and fleecing an insurance agency head who she gets a part time job working for. Yes, folks, you’ll hear some of that devil boogey-woogey rock ‘n’ roll and see pot-smoking, smack-shooting, gunplay and beatings, and scantily clad women, all in a head-spinning 63 minutes.

There are truly some laugh-out-loud moments, such as when one of the girls has been shot in the gut. She’s brought to the Doc, who is forced to operate on the filthy kitchen table. The tremendously bad acting, the clumsiness of the direction, and the wince-poor editing make it a scene worthy of the Three Stooges.

Pin-Down Girl is the second feature, made three years earlier by the same producer (Weiss) and director (Robert C. Dertano). The movie is also known as Racket Girls, and The Blonde Pick-Up, which is what is seen in the opening credits. This one stars real-life lady wrestler Peaches Page as “herself.” Peaches gets involved in a ladies’ wrestling “club” that is a front for a gang that practices racketeering, prostitution, and bookmaking. Timothy Farrell appears again as Scalli, the gangster who manages the club. One might say it’s more of a crime tale, although it is sprinkled throughout with sequences of the leotard-and-tights-wearing women wrestling in the gym for those in the audience who are into that stuff.

While Girl Gang is unintentionally bad and funny, Pin-Down Girl is just unintentionally bad. At 55-minutes, though, perhaps it’s worth it for anthropological study.

Kino Lorber continues its fabulous job in the presentation of the Forbidden Fruit series. Girl Gang looks pristine in its digital restoration. It comes with an audio commentary by the always-interesting film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, plus the theatrical trailer.

Pin-Down Girl is a bit choppy in places (missing frames of splices) and shows more damage to the source material. It comes with an audio commentary by Eric Schaefer, author of the book Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films and one of the curators of the Forbidden Fruit series. The theatrical trailer is included.

For fans of midnight-movie sensationalism and nuttiness… Girl Gang/Pin-Down Girl is for you!

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