mrb1980 When I saw the title "Girl Gang", I assumed I'd see a Mamie Van Doren movie imitation, with lots of dumb situations, ridiculous dialogue, and a laughable script. This movie about drug addiction in the early 50s is incredibly cheap and not funny at all.A group of high schoolers looking for fun unwisely become involved with "Joe" (Timothy Farrell) and "Doc" (Harry Keaton), a drug pusher and his doctor supplier, respectively. A few puffs of "weed" lead to addiction, robbery, murder, blackmail, prostitution, bankruptcy and just about everything else. The kids graduate from "weed" to heroin, becoming so addicted that their lives are ruined. The acting is horrible and the situations unbelievable, but for some reason the proceedings just aren't funny.I did learn a lot: a heroin injection is a "joy pop", heroin withdrawal is "the jumpin jives", a person can overdose almost fatally on "weed", and 10-minute piano solos seem to be a lot of fun. Instead of being unintentionally funny like "Reefer Madness" however, "Girl Gang" is really pretty depressing. Its frank (though poorly acted) treatment of heroin addiction is just sad. Most of the actors never appeared in another film, which tells me something. If you want to laugh, watch "Untamed Youth" or "Girls Town", but be warned that "Girl Gang" is depressing and not funny. Maybe it was meant to be that way.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS**** Movie about juvenile delinquency in the mid 1950's USA with a gang of teenage girls and their boy hangers ons, for drugs sex and party going, working for this sleazy drug pusher Joe who uses them to steal cars and blackmail, by screaming rape, their male victims. It's Joe's #1 squeeze June a drug addicted hooker who together with disbarred doctor, for preforming abortions on the side, Doc Bedford who run the operation luring clueless teenager into their gang and corrupting them with both drug & sex.Joe overplays his hand by staging a gas station robbery that goes bad with two of his main players or robbers Bill & Wander ending up being gun down by the gas station attendant after he himself was shot down by them. With Wanda barley hanging on to life she's rushed to Joe's hideout where Doc Bedford is ordered to preform a life saving operation on her without an antistatic. Being barley sober, after taking a few shots of whiskey, to get the job done he screws up big time letting Wanda die on the operating or better kitchen table after going into shock due to loss of blood. That's just as the police storm the place busting Joe & June with Doc Bedford taking to flight.***SPOILERS*** Doc Bedford's attempt to escape the long, in this case short, arm of the law ended up in disaster for the old guy. Shot in the back while fleeing the police, despite being unarmed, the Doc ends up fatally wounded in a drainage ditch and dies before medical help can arrive. As for Joe & June their facing long hard time behind bars for what they did as well as reprisals from their fellow convicts who in many case were, in being addicted on drugs, victims of theirs. P.S "Girl Gang" was released as a double feather with the Ed Wood classic "The Violent Years" that covered much of the same material, juvenile delinquency, that it did.

nostalgiste An archetypal fifties roadshow flick – which, if you don't know, means that it showcases material too strong for regular bookings. The credits proudly announce that it was "Produced Under Personal Supervision" of exploitation maestro George Weiss, and it stars two of the genre's most recognizable veterans, Timothy Farrell and Harry Keaton. But in spite of this sterling pedigree, Girl Gang might not otherwise be very watchable. It's weighed down by long sequences in which the principals demonstrate the mechanics of shooting up heroin in dreary, drawn-out detail. Even for a 1954 audience the shock value of this dismal process must have worn off quickly, given the static presentation.But GG's lame execution is offset by its one splendid asset – the completely fabulous Joanne Arnold. Although she had face, form, and figure to spare, Miss Arnold's real appeal is the deliciously cool, laid-back vibe she brings to her character of June. You remember all those film noir leading ladies in the fifties, busy emoting all over the place? Well, Miss Arnold never allows her thesping to be tainted by any high-culture pathos. No matter how sleazy the business at hand, her bad-girl persona remains unflappably natural and unforced. She makes depravity look as easy as falling off a log – or in her case, as easy as falling into bed with the boss she's going to blackmail.There's a further aspect of GG that will endear it to gents of a certain age (geezers as old as the nostalgiste, in other words). Several of the "gang" members were actually popular pin-up models of the era: marvelous Mary Metier, prim Peggy Winters, and likable Thelma Montgomery. Now, fans may not recognize them right away in their movie get-ups. They're wearing long pencil skirts, loafers, and even bobby socks - quite a contrast to their normal working attire. Which would have been, ah, nothing at all. But this is apparently their only feature film – don't pass up this chance to see them with their clothes on!Scattered throughout the running time are some additional redemptive bits that can generate chuckles. There's the incidental music; there's Timothy Farrell's kissing technique; and best of all, there's the sex club initiation room with its flashing "occupied" light (no, I can't explain this, you've got to see it). But the real filling in this cheesecake is Joanne Arnold. And what a tasty booze, bullet, and dope-laced filling it is!

dolly_the_ye-ye_bird Girl Gang is so bad it's good. The acting is sub-par, yes. The direction isn't great. But the plot is actually pretty well thought out: Drug dealer uses a couple of his regulars to recruit young 'greenhorns' to his 'candy'. Once they get hooked on weed, he moves them on to heroin and all of them eventually find that the heroin habit is more expensive, therefore they 'owe' the dealer more and more money. He then basically forces the girls into prostitution and 'rape' allegation shakedowns to get the money to pay him back. Time goes on and they get deeper in debt to him and get into worse and worse criminal activity to support their habit. This is certainly not a family night movie, what with all the sex and prostitution and blackmail. There is even a point where it shows step by step how to freebase heroin...you learn something new every day! If you have no sense of humour, or the slightest understanding of the time period in which this film was made, I don't suggest you waste your time. On the other hand, if you love 'Teenagers Going to Hell' delinquency films of the fifties and sixties as much as I do, you'll love this monstrosity! It's a campy cheese-fest worthy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that actually holds up decently on it's own!