Line #44 Film/GirlsTown


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/girls_town_1959.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:... trying to crowd a lifetime of thrills into one night [[DramaticPause ...]] '''''[[BoldInflation EVERY NIGHT]]!''''']]
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4	''Girls Town'' is a 1959 Creator/{{MGM}} pseudo-exploitation flick, directed by Charles F. Haas and starring Mamie Van Doren, Mel Tormé, and Music/PaulAnka.
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6	The movie [[ColdOpen opens cold]] on a date between teenagers Mary Lee Morgan (Elinor Donahue) and Chip Gardner (Harold Lloyd Jr.). Chip attempts to force himself on Mary, and in the process of defending herself, she pushes him off a cliff to his death. Chip's body is found by his best friend Fred Alger (Tormé). Fred knows Chip was supposed to be with Mary Lee's sister Silver Morgan (Van Doren) and when he finds Silver's lipstick at the scene he reports her as the killer. Silver has an alibi, but she's currently on probation and so the police give her a choice: go to jail or enroll in the Catholic church-run Girls Town, a home for young women in trouble with the law. She reluctantly chooses the latter.
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8	At Girls Town Silver meets Serafina Garcia (Gigi Perreau), an orphan who's been sent to Girls Town for [[StalkerWithACrush obsessively stalking]] IdolSinger Jimmy Parlow (Anka). The two become friends (or "henchmen") and spend the middle act of the movie bonding and trying to decide what to do next as Serafina continues to struggle with her obsessions and Silver tries to escape and to deal with the machinations of Chip's father, who is bent on revenge against her.
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10	Eventually Fred figures out that it was Mary Lee, not Silver, who was there when Chip died. Still refusing to accept that it was an accident, he decides to take revenge by {{blackmail}}ing her into a dangerous hands-free GameOfChicken. When (surprise, surprise) the other driver crashes and dies, Fred plots to ship Mary Lee off to Tijuana, Mexico so that she can't tell anyone he was at the scene.
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12	Silver catches wind of Fred's plans and knows she needs to save her sister, but can't convince the other girls to let her go do it. Serafina, meanwhile, finally has had enough of Jimmy not loving her and overdoses on pills in the hopes of killing herself. Jimmy sings a heartfelt rendition of ''Ave Maria'' for the two of them and inspires Silver to get religion, earning the respect of the other girls. They then join the nuns and Jimmy and go beat up Fred with a baseball bat.
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14	Fred is sent to jail and Silver exonerated. The movie closes with Silver seeing another newcomer sporting the same bad attitude she had when she first went there, and Silver wryly commenting that "[She'll] learn."
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16	For tropes associated specifically with the ''[=MST3K=]'' version, check out the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S06E01GirlsTown episode recap page]].
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18	----
19	!! ''Girls Town'' has examples of:
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21	* AssholeVictim: Chip, whose KarmicDeath kicks off the plot. He was killed by accident while attempting to rape his date.
22	* AttemptedRape:
23	** By Chip against Mary Lee at the beginning of the movie, before he slips and falls to his death.
24	** Later in the movie, Fred tries it too, again on Mary Lee, and is stopped by the arrival of Silver and friends.
25	* BatterUp: Jimmy uses a baseball bat against Fred in the climax.
26	* BystanderSyndrome: If Fred hadn't ignored Mary Lee screaming for help while he made out with his own date for several minutes in the opening scene, Chip might not have gone off the cliff in the first place.
27	* CatFight: Between Silver and two of the other girls, on Silver's first day at Girls Town. Silver loses, only to cheap-shot her opponent and shut her in a locker.
28	* CluelessAesop: The movie tries to be a straight-up morality tale about religion and friendship turning around the life of an angsty juvenile delinquent. The problem is, though she'd previously hit a teacher and violated parole, the event that got Silver sent to to Girls Town is something that she didn't even have anything to do with. It makes it seem like the message is "getting punished for things you didn't do is the best way to better yourself."
29	* ColdOpen: The scene with Chip getting killed and his body being found takes place before the title card and the opening credits.
30	* {{Delinquents}}: A whole boarding house full of female delinquents. Fred and Silver herself also run with gangs called the Jaguars and Dragons, respectively, who engage in typical things like races and rumbles.
31	* DisneyVillainDeath: Chip. While chasing his date with the intent to rape her he slips and falls off a cliff.
32	* DisproportionateRetribution: According to Mary Lee, Fred's determination to send her to Tijuana -- where, it's later implied, she'll be sold into sexual slavery -- is motivated by a fear that if she testifies in Chip's murder case, she'll also spill the beans that they were both in that drag race with Stan, and Fred's dad'll take away his convertible.
33	-->'''Silver:''' You mean that rat would ship a 15-year-old girl to Mexico just to save his hot-rod?!
34	* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Done by accident; when Jimmy expresses discomfort in taking Serafina to Girls Town, he asks if it's a "kind of reform school", to which Mother Superior sagely replies that it's "a home for girls who've had problems with the law, who the court feels can be rehabilitated if they're placed under the proper influence" -- in other words, a reform school, just a private Catholic one.
35	* DownLADrain: Where Fred and Stan's chicken race takes place. As detailed below, just because it's got a lack of immediate obstacles doesn't mean it's any less dangerous.
36	* GameOfChicken: Fred forces Mary Lee to take part in his ''hands-free'' drag race down the L.A. River against Stan and his girl -- first one to touch the steering wheel loses. In a bit of cruel irony, since Stan is driving a fragile, lightweight V8 hot-rod against Fred's heavier Triumph, he's the one who dies upon forfeit; right after his girlfriend panics, grabs the wheel, and swerves away, their car flips over twice after running against the embankment, breaking Stan's neck.
37	* HoneyTrap: The "smoldering deliveryman" who takes Mamie on a date is actually trying to get her to incriminate herself in Chip's murder.
38	* {{Hypocrite}}: Fred. He hates the Morgan sisters because one of them was present when his friend Chip died, even though it was an accident (which he knows, although he won't admit it), and he's willing to go so far as to {{Blackmail}} them to get revenge. Later, his own actions lead to the accidental death of another of his friends, during a GameOfChicken, but now all of a sudden it's okay, and he's willing to ship a teenage girl off to Mexico to escape punishment.
39	* IdolSinger: Jimmy Parlow is a famous teenage singing sensation, just like his actor, Paul Anka.
40	* ItsAllAboutMe: After the fatal GameOfChicken, Fred seems far less concerned with the fact that one of his friends is dead and far more concerned that his Dad is going to find out he was hot rodding again and take his car.
41	* JiveTurkey: Basically everyone speaks in the closest Hollywood approximation of 1950's teenage slang, except the nuns and The Platters.
42	* JerkAss: Fred, who is willing to force an underaged girl out of the country so his Dad won't take his car.
43	* KnightTemplar: Fred, again. All of his villainy is done in the name of getting justice for his dead friend, Chip. That said, his definition of justice is profoundly twisted and by the end even he admits it's just an excuse to torment a girl for his own selfish reasons.
44	--> '''Fred:''' If I say he slipped, he slipped. If I say you pushed him, you pushed him.
45	* KnightTemplarParent: Chip's father. You can give him credit for being absolutely vicious with the girl he thinks killed his son, but he loses that credit for jumping to conclusions and basically admitting he doesn't care if she's guilty or not, he just wants revenge on ''someone''.
46	* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Serafina. Aside from her obsession with Jimmy, she also seems to become obsessed with anyone who shows her even the slightest bit of affection, resulting in her getting fairly clingy with Silver too.
47	* MaleGaze: Silver Morgan wears a dress that accentuates her large bosom, which she also likes to aim directly at the camera.
48	-->'''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mike]]:''' A subtle evening gown that says LOOK AT THIS!
49	* MeaningfulEcho: Upon arriving at Girls Town, Silver requests the right to call the Mother Superior something else, saying "mother is a dirty word to me." Another girl says the exact same thing when she arrives at the end of the movie, with Silver smiling knowingly and saying "You'll learn."
50	* MessianicArchetype: Jimmy is actually a pure-hearted guy who honestly wants to help others. He refuses to press charges against Serafina no matter what crazy things she does, and honestly believes that he can help her. He also manages to help Silver get religion and earn the other girls' trust.
51	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: After discovering Serafina's obsession with him, Jimmy tries to be friends with her on a platonic level, hoping he can help her out. All this really accomplishes is to convince her that he really ''does'' love her, leading to yet another psychotic episode and her attempting suicide. Even Jimmy recognizes this is his fault, even though he still thinks he can save her.
52	* NonActorVehicle: The movie was an attempt at turning Paul Anka and Mel Tormé into actors.
53	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Silver tells Jimmy that he has no idea how she feels until he reveals to her that he grew up in very similar circumstances as her.
54	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Only Serafina believes it when Silver says her sister has been kidnapped and that's why she's trying to leave. The other girls restrain her and won't even listen when she begs them for help. But then she starts praying in front of the saint she earlier mocked, and that ultimately convinces the others she's serious.
55	* StalkerWithACrush: Serafina, to the extent that she counterfeits a love letter to herself from Jimmy (Paul Anka's character) and tries to use it to blackmail him into dating her.
56	* ThereAreNoTherapists: As caring as the sisters are, no one considers a mental health professional might do Serafina more good. In large part this is due to ValuesDissonance and ScienceMarchesOn, as Serafina's obsession was unlikely to be properly diagnosed as a psychiatric condition, and instead she's merely considered a troubled girl in need of being loved. This in turn drives Jimmy's efforts to be her friend, rather than file a restraining order or remand her to a facility of psychiatric care.
57	* TooDumbToLive: Playing [[GameOfChicken Chicken]] is already dumb enough, but in the movie they up the ante by making it ''hands-free''. Each driver has his girlfriend with him and it's up to her to pull the wheel or not. The fact that only ''one'' of the four people involved dies is amazing in and of itself.

Context Film / GirlsTown