Gun Girls (1956)

Rating: *
Review Date: 6/16/07
Cast: Jean Ferguson, Jacqueline Park, Eve Brent, Timothy Farrell

Low grade sleaze packaged as public service propaganda to warn of the dangers of juvenile delinquency. Teddy (Jean Ferguson) is a bad girl from a wealthy family who gets her kicks by mugging unsuspecting men. She manages to recruit two other teenage girls, Dora and Joy (Jacqueline Park and Eve Brent), into her racket and sets them on the road to ruin. The girls finally scrape up enough money to purchase some guns from a shady crook named Joe (slimy Timothy Farrell), which significantly raises the stakes for the girls' extra-curricular activities. With incredible insight and clarity, Dora nails the very root of my fascination with girls and guns:

"I understand it now. With a gun, you're somebody!"

When the girls decide to rob the warehouse where Joy works, the job goes horribly wrong and Teddy and Dora flee town. Joy stays behind after learning that she's pregnant with Joe's baby, and after he refuses to marry her, she shoots him dead. Meanwhile, reckless driving makes corpses out of Teddy and Dora, but not before Dora has a chance to repent her wicked ways by explaining that she was an unwanted child and all she ever wanted was to belong to a family. Being in a gang gave her that sense of belonging. What a pity.

The film really has nothing going for it, and the morality sermons from Teddy's parole officer are amazingly awful. The girls appear to only own one outfit which they wear through the majority of the film. However, we do get to see them disrobe down to their 50's era bullet bras at one point, which is rather amusing (Eve Brent is quite stunning). While the girls are supposedly teenage delinquents, all of the actresses look like they're in their late 20's or early 30's. Even with the "tough chicks with guns" angle, I had a very hard time getting all the way through this film.