Friday, April 2, 2021

Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965) Doris Wishman

Director Doris Wishman either never learned or never bothered to record live sound. The dialog is dubbed. But she didn't want to go through the trouble of getting the lip synch right, so we mostly hear the dialog when we can't see the actors' mouths. Which makes it look interesting. The camera pans around the room while people talk, or it cuts to whoever's listening. People mocked her for that, but it worked pretty well. It was better than showing two people standing there talking. Non diegetic music covers up the lack of sound effects.

Bad Girls Go to Hell was what they called a "roughie", a grim mix of sex and violence. A married woman is raped by a guy in her apartment building so she packs a bag and flees.

She meets a nice guy who turns out to be a Dr Jekyll & Mr Drunk. There are Lesbians. She rents a room from a married couple and is attacked by the husband. She goes from place to place, fleeing each time she's assaulted. She never heard of calling the police.

Objectionable but a lot better than anything Ed Wood or Herschell Gordon Lewis could do.

Filmed in New York City. Black & white. 64 minutes.

Available on the Criterion Channel strangely enough.

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