"Donna Price" (Gloria Castillo) is a teenage girl who lives with her Aunt Rita (Claire Carlton). The problem is that the man Rita has married, "Mr. Horvath" (Jack Kruschen) is always trying to make a play for Donna. So when Donna decides to get away from Mr. Harvath, by going joy-riding with a young man she hardly knows things begin to take an immediate turn for the worst. She soon realizes that "Vince" (Ed Byrnes) is a violent, hot-headed thug who has stolen the car she is riding in. To complicate matters, Vince kills a pedestrian while trying to evade the law leaving Donna alone to face charges. Fearing for her life if she testifies against Vince, she remains silent and is subsequently sent to a reform school for juvenile delinquents. But even there things begin to get out-of-control. At any rate, rather than reveal what happens next I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty good movie. The acting was decent and there were some attractive young ladies like Yvette Vickers (as "Roxy") and Luana Anders ("Josie") which certainly didn't hurt the overall scenery. I also liked the 50's slang the girls tossed around at every opportunity. Even so, this film may not suit everyone's taste. Slightly above average.

I was expecting some cheesy, low budget, morality infomercial, but this movie was very touching and did a great job of making me care about the main characters, especially Donna. I think Gloria Castillo was a good choice to play Donna. She came across as an all-American girl who found herself in bad situations that became overwhelming. Plus, she was very pretty and easy to look at. This role was similar to her part as Ruby in Night of the Hunter, where she was a lost, teenage orphan that needed to be loved. Anyway, Gloria Castillo's performance really sucked me into Donna's world and made me care about her.Was this film perfect? No, of course not. Some of the problems I had with it: 1) Why would Donna's uncle be afraid of some young punk - not very realistic? 2) I found the "code of silence" thing to be very frustrating. It was acceptable up to a point, but when you are facing possible death, self-preservation would kick-in and make you say or do anything to stay alive. I couldn't believe that Donna or her friend didn't "squeal" after having a baseball bat thrown at them by Jethrine (Sally Kellerman - boy, did she look AWFUL!). Again, not very realistic. 3) The newspaper article that said Donna was the one who informed the authorities about the blond girl being involved with certain crimes is ridiculous! Think about it - a person tries to be a good citizen and reports a crime and then the newspapers tell the whole world you're an informant! I wasn't alive in 1957, but I seriously doubt this would happen. What would Joe Friday say about that!?!

Low-budget crud with a great, campy title and a marvelously-designed graphic poster, instantly calling up nostalgic memories for baby-boomers of the drive-in movie era. Sleazy, hilariously awful melodrama from A.I.P. stars Gloria Castillo as a harried young woman, pawed at by all men, who gets sent to a girls' home where she fights with the other teenagers. Edward Byrnes, 'Kookie' to his "77 Sunset Strip" fans, is odious as a windbreaker-wearing delinquent, although a very green Sally Kellerman (in her debut) isn't too bad as one of the inmates (watch out for those scissors!). Supporting players Jack Kruschen and Luana Anders look properly embarrassed. Remade (sort of) in 1994 for cable TV. *1/2 from ****

Reform School Girl (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4)A good but troubled girl gets into a car with a psycho who runs over a man, killing him. The girl refuses to give the psycho's name so she's sent to reform school where she gets into more trouble but thankfully there's a teacher there who wants to help her. There were countless juvenile films released during the 1950s due to the success of Rebel Without a Cause and this one here was one of the more popular ones but it hasn't aged too well. The film is stupid, pointless and rather boring from start to finish, although the film does contain a few campy moments. The performances are all rather bad but this adds a little charm to the film.