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| Stars behind bars: the solid of 1962’s ‘Home of Girls’ from WB. |
WB’s Home of Girls is mostly a rehash of Caged. The primary distinction is the ‘62
semi-remake is a “B” flick and 1950’s Caged
was an Oscar-nominated hit. The one factor they’ve in widespread is many campy
moments! However Home of Girls’s camp is
cartoonish, whereas the sooner Caged’s
comes from censorship period coded innuendo.
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| ‘The Home of Girls’ are able to rumble. Love the look on Constance Ford’s face! |
Then-ingénue Shirley
Knight is surrounded by a veteran solid of acquainted faces: Barbara Nichols,
Virginia Gregg, Jacqueline Scott, Patricia Huston, Margaret Hayes, Virginia
Capers, and Andrew Duggan. Two future cleaning soap grande dames, Jeanne Cooper and
Constance Ford, are on reverse sides of the bars on this pulp jail image.
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| Shirley Knight provides a brand new that means to wide-eyed because the harmless who’s incarcerated. |
Knight’s the wide-eyed
lass right here, Erica Hayden, who goes alongside for the crime experience and finally ends up a convict.
Whereas Shirley’s con does not get her lustrous locks lopped off like Eleanor
Parker in Caged, Erica additionally finds out
that she’s pregnant. Younger Shirley Knight, with lengthy wavy hair, jogged my memory right here
of Cybill Shepherd in The Final Image
Present. Home of Girls from each
sides of the bars have large hair, courtesy of WB hairdressers Peggy McDonald and
Jean Burt Reilly.
The next scene
provides you an concept of the delicate drama that’s Home of Girls. An inmate described
as “the butch” goads fellow con Doris (Patricia Huston): “Ahhh,
what’s so particular about Troy Donahue?”
Doris snaps again, “Honey,
you are the sort that might by no means know!”
Troy’s largest fan
then hurls a handful of lunch time spuds on the inmate over the chopping remarks
about WB’s very personal Donahue. When the essential inmate attracts a moustache on her
autographed image of Troy, Doris actually goes berserk! She marches straight
out to the jail yard the place the offender is enjoying baseball and the sport turns into
a brawl. Later, Andrew Duggan’s hard-nosed warden Frank Cole repeatedly calls
Troy Donahue “Dona-who?” He asks the drunken jail doc about Troy,
who pleads ignorance, “I am extra of an Elizabeth Taylor man myself.” No, I did
not write the script.
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| When one inmate defaces an inmate fan’s autographed image of Troy Donahue, after all you recognize this implies warfare, as fellow WB star Bugs Bunny would say! |
Earlier than Duggan’s warden
was employed, this ladies’s jail was progressive, even permitting the inmates to
have their kids on website for a restricted time. This units up a dramatic scene,
when Erica’s child will get taken away proper earlier than her birthday celebration. You haven’t
lived till you’ve seen a kiddie birthday celebration flip right into a ladies’s jail riot!
And like Caged, a kitten sparks a
tragedy, adopted by one other riot
that makes the primary appear to be, properly, a kiddie get together!
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| The workers in ‘Home of Girls’ are mentally updating their resumes! |
Constance Ford, the
frigid mom in A Summer time Place and later
beloved as no-nonsense cleaning soap mother Ada in One other
World, has a discipline day as a troublesome cookie inmate. Ford, who all the time reminded
me of a traditional model of Shelley Winters, all the time provides humanity along with her frightened
eyes and downcast face. Nonetheless, Connie actually chews the surroundings when her Sophie
Brice (versus Fanny Tucker?) suffers a private tragedy and acts out.
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| Connie’s received a gun! Constance Ford as Sophie, who suffers a tragedy. Seeks revenge! |
Jeanne Cooper,
legendary as battleaxe Kay Chancellor on The
Younger and the Stressed, is Helen Jennings, a troublesome however truthful jail matron.
However that cuts no ice with Ford’s Sophie, particularly when she goes off the
rails. Their two face-offs are enjoyable, particularly realizing a decade later they’d be
enjoying their most memorable roles on daytime TV. Cooper is so restrained her
that she appears about to implode, in comparison with Ford’s risky con. Jeanne’s
placing cat eyes and robust bone construction make her each concurrently beautiful
and extreme.
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| Jeanne Cooper because the cool however truthful jail matron provides me a Catherine O’ Hara vibe! |
Virginia Gregg, who appears
to have been in the whole lot from the ‘50s by the early ‘70s, is most well-known
because the voice of Norman Bates’ mom in Psycho.
Whether or not villainous or sympathetic, Gregg’s all the time stable, enjoying a humane parole
officer singled out for Ford’s wrath.
Shirley
Knight does what she will be able to along with her character Erica, however does resort to a wide-eyed
waif that borders on eye-popping, not seen since WB’s Bette Davis!
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| Younger Shirley Knight jogs my memory of Cybill Shepherd circa ‘The Final Image Present.’ |
Barbara Nichols is the
loveable broad named Sweet Kane—are you able to guess her former occupation?! Nichols,
virtually all the time the tart with a coronary heart, is nice to look at right here, going from brassy
to sassy, and all the time plausible.
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| Barbara Nichols, left, all the time performs the brassy broad, however she’s so good at it! |
Andrew
Duggan, typically solid as authority figures, performs the chilly and low-cost new Warden
Cole. Natch, he has a previous that made him that approach. Quickly, he solid his sights on
candy Erica to assist him regain his religion in womankind! Andrew Duggan is personification
of a “me too” jail warden!
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| Andrew Duggan, he of the large head, is the hard-headed warden in ‘Home of Girls.’ |
Even
extra drama got here from behind the scenes, when powerful producer Bryan Foy (of the
legendary Foy performing household) fired director Walter Doniger half approach by
the shoot and changed him with screenwriter Crane Wilbur. The change within the
movie’s high quality upset star Shirley Knight sufficient to get out of her WB contract,
not an uncommon incidence at WB with actors!
This
movie is tacky camp, however very watchable, and has moments of random
authenticity.
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| ‘Home of Girls’s’ jail riot, Spherical 1: Cooper’s matron lets Ford’s con select Door #3! |
Can’t
get sufficient of broads behind bars? Take a look at my tackle 1950’s Caged right here: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/02/caged-never-classic-but-still-packs.html
