EXPLOITATION DVDS
TEENAGE DOLL
Image Entertainment
Movie: 2.5; Disc: 3.5When the name of Roger Corman is mentioned, we either think of his 1950s monster movies or his 1960s Poe series, even though Corman produced and directed many other types of films.
During the 1950s the J.D. or teenage delinquent movie become a popular sub-genre, and Roger Corman more than dabbled in the genre, with his Teenage Doll being a solid example illustrating his contribution. Imagine a Corman movie, made in 1957, scripted by Charles Griffith, photographed by Floyd Crosby, starring June Kenney, Fay Spain, Ed Nelson, Ziva Rodan that wasn't horror or science fiction.
The print, coming from the Wade Williams Collection, is pristine and contains excellent contrast. The only extra on this DVD is the theatrical trailer, a nice addition.
The film's opening credits, like Corman's Little Shop of Horrors , are animated, but unlike Little Shop , the animation is stark and noirish, setting the tone for a serious drama of the streets. The movie opens up like a precursor to West Side Story with the Black Widows, an urban all-girl gang, discovering that one of their own, Nan Baker, has been pushed to her death, and her death must be avenged. All the girls in the gang are a little too well-scrubbed or their hairstyles just a tad too fancy, but their energetic, stark characters make each one a well-defined delight. We have the blonde leader who comes home to find her slob father making out with a young chick while her mother works nights to make ends meet. We have the nilhistic brunette living with an older sister who is trying to get ahead in the world by dating her boss, the younger delinquent making allusions to her sister sleeping with the boss so she can move "uptown." Another ethnic and seemingly innocent member goes home to the family business, and, while adults are busy dealing with each other, she steals some needed cash from the business cash register, unseen. Another gang member steals a pistol from her father, a cop. In other words, every member of the Black Widows is a girl with a problem, seemingly forcing each troubled girl to bond with her sisters in crime to provide the only real family each girl knows.
The film, photographed in gritty grays and blacks, mostly at night, features setpieces straight out of urban hell; in fact the film's climax occurs at an auto junkyard where gangs and girls clash, the two innocent girl gang members surrendering to now-concerned parents as the more defiant ones retreat into the night. The film's tone is almost self-righteous, transforming what could otherwise be pure drive-in fun into a message/problem picture (foreshadowing Corman's biker pics of the later 1960s, which these J.D. films most resemble). However, with its beat sensibility, over-the-top dialogue and interesting stereotypes, Teenage Doll remains a marvelous example of what Corman was doing during the 1950s besides making monster movies.