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Bad Girls Go To Hell
[Something Weird]
1965; b&w
Directed by Doris Wishman
Starring: Gigi Darlene, George La Rocque, Sam Stewart & Darlene Bennett
Another Day, Another Man
[Something Weird]
1966; b&w
Directed by Doris Wishman
Starring: Barbie Kemp, SAm Stewart, Mary o'Hara, Gig Darlene, Darlene Bennett & Rita Bennett
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This DVD is another double feature offering from SWV; first up we have Bad Girls Go To Hell, one of Doris Wishman's more notorious films despite the fact that it didn't see an official theatric release until 1998. After the credits roll we see a young couple lying in bed. From their pillow talk we learn that fair young Meg, the female part of the equation, is bummed that her man, Ted, has to work on a Saturday. He swears he can't get out of it and promises her a fun night on the town that evening, which placates her for about twenty seconds. After showering, dressing and fighting off Meg's advances in the shower, off goes Ted. Once he splits, Meg pouts some more and rolls around on the bed in her totally sheer black lace nightie in a sleepy fashion. When she finally decides to get her ass up, she putters around the apartment for a bit before slipping her panties on (under the nightie) for a quick run to the trash repository to empty her, ahem, can. She doesn't get but two or three steps from her apartment's front door though before encountering the building's totally lecherous and nasty looking janitor, who was either multi-tasking by sweeping up and waiting to find a victim or was just spontaneously driven to sexual assault by the sight of a lingerie clad woman in the hallway—I'm not sure which. Either way, he drops his broom and pounces on our poor heroine. She struggles against him but to no avail. Meg is saved from actually being raped by the sound of approaching footsteps though and quickly retreats to her apartment where she breaks down in tears. Within seconds a cryptic note is slipped under her door, summoning her to another apartment in the building and threatening to tell Ted what happened if she doesn't go. Surprisingly, Meg quickly regains composure and heads for the other apartment. Not surprisingly, the note turns out to be from the janitor who proceeds to re-pounce on our poor, apparently not too bright, heroine and attempts to finish what they'd started in the hallway. Seeing her situation growing ever dimmer, Meg decides it's time to open up a can of whoop tushie on the situation so she grabs the first thing she can get her hands on - in this case, a heavy ceramic ashtray - and whacks ol' Amos the janitor upside the head with it. Good move, sister; but as I learned in Temple University's Physics 101, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and in this case the janitor's reaction to Meg's ashtray to the face maneuver is death. For whatever reason, she feels like she can't just call Ted and confess the gory details her day; she simply must flee and leave all this unpleasantness behind her. So she does, heading straight to the Big Apple where she knows she can blend right in. Unfortunately for Meg, or "Ellen Green from Chicago" as she will be known for most of the rest of the film, New York was still in it's "blue" period so she isn't any safer in the city. One after the other she meets a succession of men and women who attempt to, and to certain degrees succeed, in preying on her various weaknesses. (I'd keep going with the scene by scene details but I don't wanna spoil it for you. This movie is classic Wishman; you should really see it for yourself.) Oh, if only she had never left Boston! If only this was all some sort of horrible dream… or an equally horrible premonition of something yet to occur… or, possibly, both… In Doris' world anything can happen and, baby, it always does.
Next up is another Wishman roughie, Another Day, Another Man. This one mainly revolves around the lives of two women: Ann, an innocent young secretary who's secretly married (for reasons only explained by the following sentence fragment, her boss prefers to have unmarried women in the office) to a kind, gentle, strapping young fellow named Steve; and her best friend and soon to be ex-roommate Tess, a prostitute with a typically mean and evil pimp named Bert for a boyfriend. (The viewer also gets to see how Bert built up the rest of his stable in some kind of crazy dream sequence/flashback he has while dozing in Tess' pad and there's a whole section involving the two twin sister hoes attempting to molest the fully green and mid-Western boyfriend of Bert's newest recruit Meg but mostly the film focuses on Ann, Steve, Tess & Bert.) Anyway, as is probably the case with most prude and whore friendships, Ann disapproves of her gal pal's profession. She's always trying to get Tess to stay away from Bert and get a real job but Tess has her priorities - i.e. making a lot of cash with a little amount of effort - and isn't in any hurry to give up the game. Nonetheless the two happily co-habitate, mostly in their underwear, until Steve drops a bomb on Ann. A good kind of bomb. He's gotten a big raise and promotion, allowing her to quit her job and the two of them to finally live together as husband and wife. Meanwhile Tess' life is getting much worse. Before, Ann's stern presence kept Bert from barging into the apartment whenever he felt like it; with her out of the picture, he's taken the opportunity to do just that and be more of a dick than ever. Soon each gal's respective situation starts to work itself out but, unfortunately, not for the better. Steve has suddenly contracted an odd medical infliction causing him to be bedridden for six months, and Ann is forced to turn to Bert in order to gain the quick cash she needs to avoid losing their happy home. (She tells Steve her old boss rehired her but she can only work nights.) Her ex-roomie Tess doesn't have it any easier these days. After a typical "home visit" she attempts to pick the pocket of her sleeping john and gets nothing more than seriously roughed up for her efforts. And to make matters worse, she's pregnant. With Bert's child no less. (Oy. What kind of mirror did Tess break to get a run of bad luck this bad?) We never really find out what happens to her, or her unborn child, but rest assured there's a typically Wishman, i.e.: totally kooky and rather unexpected, ending to the Ann/Steve plotline waiting for you at the film's end.
—Bunny
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