Reform School Girls (1986)

Director:

Tom DeSimone

Writers:

Jack Cummins (additional dialogue)
Tom DeSimone (writer)

Release Date:

22 August 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | Crime

Tagline:

Some Get Tough. Some Go Insane. Some Will Die...

Plot:

Jenny is sent to a women's reform school. It is run by evil warden Sutter and her henchwoman Edna. Jenny...

Plot Keywords:

Evil | Bully | Warden | Escape | Death

Cast

Linda Carol	...	Jenny
Wendy O. Williams	...	Charlie Chambliss
Pat Ast	...	Edna
Sybil Danning	...	Warden Sutter
Charlotte McGinnis	...	Dr. Norton
Sherri Stoner	...	Lisa
Denise Gordy	...	Claudie
Laurie Schwartz	...	Nicky
Tiffany Helm	...	Andrea 'Fish' Eldridge
Darcy DeMoss	...	Karen 'Knox' Charmin
Andrea Darnell	...	Paula
Robin Watkins	...	Kelly
Winifred Freedman	...	Terri
James Staszkiel	...	Truck Driver
Fred D. Scott	...	Judge Carter

Also Known As:

Naked Birds (Philippines: English title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

West Germany:18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Norway:18 (video premiere) | UK:18 | USA:R | Philippines:R-18

Company:

Balcor Film Investors

Trivia:

Wendy O. Williams would come to work and do 200 sit-ups before coming onto the set.

Quotes:

Edna: Keep your fingers above the sheets. We only change 'em once a week!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cheerleader Autopsy (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Reform School Girls

Not quite as trashy or sensational as I expected.

I found this film to be rather boring, though the shower scenes livened things up a bit. A few general comments:

Linda Carol actually did a fair job in the lead role, though her lack of experience was pretty obvious. At least she was the only one who wasn't chewing the scenery. Was she really 16? Seems to me that she was a bit young to be making exploitation films like this. She certainly had the body for it, though.

Wendy O. Williams is just sad in her role. As someone who actually saw the Plasmatics play and who still has three of their vinyl LPs, I can't help but wonder where she went wrong in her career. I believe that she was 37 when this film was made, but she looks like she is in her late-40s. Totally inappropriate casting. Plus, her accent/dialect/speech mannerisms are possibly more irritating than Fran Drescher's. On the other hand, I have to give her an A- for keeping in shape like she did. It's a shame that she ended up taking her own life, but there was always that underlying impression of her that told you she had been seriously damaged during her life.

You may also think that you will get to see some of Sybil Danning's assets, but, sadly, this is not the case. In fact, unless you have a uniform fetish, Danning is about as close to gender-neutral in this movie as you can get. Even Pat Ast exhibits some sexuality in this move...but not Sybil.

Finally, I was prepared for a little more skin than the movie actually showed. Based on other comments, it sounded as if the movie was 40% shower scenes. In reality, though the "girls" are pretty skimpily clad throughout the movie, the actual nude scenes are quite brief. Now, I'm not saying that the movie would have been better or worse with more nudity, but that I expected more based on what others had written. I think you actually get more nudity in "Starship Troopers".

Overall, this was an interesting movie and I was able to watch it all the way through, so I give it ** out of *****. With a few funnier scenes, it might have made it half a star higher.