Reform School Girls

Plot synopsis:
The film is a satire of the women in prison film genre and deliberately implements many of the tropes commonly found in such films. Such scenes include nude shower scenes, fight scenes, and a suggested romantic relationship between one of the inmates and an administrator. The overall plot involves a new influx of girls coming to the school. They are immediately confronted with Charlie Chambliss (Williams), who is the de facto leader of the school and has an exceedingly close relationship with the head of the ward, Edna (Ast). Charlie and her circle are given special privileges by Edna and it is suggested that Charlie and Edna enjoy a more intimate relationship. Charlie runs a secret society of girls who are loyal to her and to whom she offers protection. The two main new girls break several of Edna's rules and are punished decisively for their infractions.
Jenny (Carol) comes to the school after becoming mixed up in a shoot out. When she and another group of girls arrive, they are forced to strip in front of the prison nurse and then take a shower, while being informed that they will be "inspected inside and out." Afterwards, they are forced to stand naked along a wall while the nurse sprays them with DDT delousing fluid. At one point while being deloused, the nurse tells the girls to "bend over…spread them wide", suggesting that the girls will be given their cavity checks.
Jenny tries to break out after befriending a male driver with whom she has a romantic encounter in the back of his truck. She makes arrangements that he will drive her off the premises but is discovered by a guard and after a scuffle she is apprehended and immediately cast into isolation, where Edna forces her to strip naked before using a firehose to spray her with cold water. Lisa (Stoner) is a runaway who is captured and placed in the reform school. She suffers several losses while at the school including her stuffed bunny and a cat she tends to which was originally found while the girls were out performing hard labor. The cat is discovered by Edna in the dorms and she chases it until finally stomping it to death. Lisa is punished with isolation. After the death of her cat, Lisa attempts to climb to the top of the tower, followed closely by Edna. When she reaches the top she stumbles backward as Edna confronts her, breaks through the barriers and falls to her death. This causes Jenny to smash through a window, which starts a riot which is only quelled when Warden Sutter (Danning) shoots a shotgun into the ceiling.
The film culminates in a protest scene after Dr. Norton (McGinnis), a psychiatrist, forces a meeting of administrators over the conditions and treatment of inmates at the school. She intended to have Jenny testify but a doctor determines, despite all evidence to the contrary, that she is ill and will not be able to attend. Therefore, four other inmates are chosen and none of them has any complaints. During the meeting Jenny knocks out a guard and steals her keys, which allows all the girls to march out into the main open area and voice their grudges. Edna, however, gets a hold of a gun and opens fire on them. Edna shoots Charlie and climbs up the tower from which Sutter has broadcast religious-oriented messages as the girls are going to sleep. Charlie climbs a fence and commandeers a school bus, which she drives toward the tower with Edna standing at the top. Just before impact, Charlie leaps from the bus and it explodes as it hits the tower. The scorched body of Edna tumbles to the ground and many of the girls cheer. Charlie crawls and before she dies shouts out, "See you in hell!" to Edna. The final scene shows Jenny released and getting into a cab. She waves at Dr. Norton, who is implied to be in charge of the new, more benevolent order at the school, and three other girls who are still incarcerated.

Tags: violence, cult, cruelty, sadist

Review:
"Reform School Girls" is a deliciously exaggerated entry in the Women In Prison genre.
Linda Carol plays Jenny, a newcomer to a reform school named Pridemore Juvenile Facility, who mixes it up with both the overbearing head matron Edna (corpulent, big haired Pat Ast, who's an absolute riot) and swaggering top dog convict Charlie (punk rocker Wendy O.
Mind you, there are some scenes like that, but nothing more than you would expect in a woman-in-prison movie.
The actors play it straight, rarely acting like they're in a B-movie, as they seem to take their roles pretty seriously.
Set in a correctional facility for young female offenders, Reform School Girls is technically a Women in Prison movie, but don't expect anything too sleazy ala the films of Jess Franco—as far as the genre goes, this mid 80s effort from seasoned trash director Tom DeSimone is one of the lighter examples, designed to be fun rather than offensive.While it does deliver most of the standard WIP ingredients—cat-fights, communal shower scenes, bull dykes, fragile first-timers, and physical abuse—it's all done in knowingly camp fashion with tongue firmly in cheek.
The big-breasted women saunter round their dorm in sexy lingerie, the nastier inmates and members of staff are grotesque caricatures, the dialogue is deliberately tasteless ('I thought I smelled fish'), and the plot is about as cheesy as it could get.Let's face it, any film which sees a scantily clad Wendy O.
Williams, lead singer of punk/rock group The Plasmatics, stood atop a speeding bus on a collision course with a sadistic, overweight, shotgun toting head matron called Edna (a memorable performance from Pat Ast) was never intended to be taken all that seriously..
Even Pat Ast exhibits some sexuality in this move...but not Sybil.Finally, I was prepared for a little more skin than the movie actually showed.
In reality, though the "girls" are pretty skimpily clad throughout the movie, the actual nude scenes are quite brief.
A young woman gets sent to a reform school/youth prison after a botched bank robbery, and tangles with the corrupt warden and head matron, as well as a gang of vicious girls.
In anticipation of our favorite heiress going to jail next month, I wanted something that she might watch to give her an idea of what to expect, I found this movie with some bizarre characters like Wendy Williams, lead singer for the infamous 80s punk rock band, 'The Plasmatics,' who committed suicide a few years ago.
She was absolutely beyond belief as she paraded the entire movie in leather or panties, and even a thong at the end.Of course there was Sybil Danning, from the Grindhouse segment Werewolf Women of the SS as the bible-spouting Warden, who looked the part of an SS She-Wolf.Pat Ast was the 350-lb matron who burned a bunny, stomped on a kitten and got justice for her evil laugh.There were two shower scenes and one Rambo-type fire hose scene that was way more cool that Rambo: First Blood.Food fights, girl fights, riots, and bra and panties for most of the movie.
"Reform School Girls" (1986) is a highly entertaining, completely over the top, necessarily derivative contribution to the Women In Prison (WIP) subgenre.
Williams (despite the fact that Wendy was 37 when she essayed this teenage role, and looked exactly the same as when she fronted for the Plasmatics), as well as Warhol veteran Pat Ast, the story here nevertheless centers around Linda Carol's Jennifer, who is sent to the "graybar hotel" after abetting her boyfriend in an armed robbery attempt.
She immediately runs afoul of Wendy's Charlie Chambliss, the toughest chick in the "school" (the place really seems more like a prison than a school, it must be said), as well as Pat's grotesque head matron, Edna Dawson.
The film dishes out all the familiar WIP set pieces, such as shower scenes, catfights, a prison break, several riots, and a very uptight warden, here portrayed by cult actress Sybil Danning, underutilized in this particular role.
Entertaining as this whole spoof is, and despite the often very funny lines, I couldn't help thinking that the film that "Reform School Girls" seems to be mainly patterned after, the 1950 Eleanor Parker vehicle "Caged," is infinitely preferable in every department.
The monstrous matron played by Hope Emerson in that earlier film makes even Edna's rants of "complete control" seem tame in comparison, and good as Linda Carol is, she's no Eleanor Parker!
A lot of the violence was pretty brutal for the sort of movie it was and many of the scenes are quite realistic, with realistic, emotional performances from some of the key actors, which is quite at odds with that "women in Prison" titillation theme, especially when you have inmates incongruously wearing high heels, thigh high stockings and g-strings to bed!It seemed almost like a bizarre mash-up of two different films that'd been crudely rammed together: You have Wendy O Williams and her gang of ultra-sexy, violent, tough girls, and the huge lumpy, hilariously sadistic and over the top Pat Ast as "Eddie" doing their very best to make it a sort of Rocky Horror Show ridiculous soft core romp (which would have been marvellous), VS this other theme with the sympathetic characters Jenny, Lisa and Dr Norton where it's a serious look at abuse of power and the horrible toll abuse takes on its victims- almost as it they're going for Cool Hand Luke or Full Metal Jacket sort of stuff...That made a weird mix that didn't really fit together well at all.
It's got loads of nudity, some very sick wardens (the awesome Sybil Danning), and Wendy O.
It's a fun and cheesy movie that gives you exactly what you'd want from a women-in-prison flick.
Doesn't Know What it Wants to Be. I had heard that this film was a parody of women-in-prison films, so when I rented it I was expecting to laugh, as well as see the usual exploitation elements--hopefully lampooned--but they weren't.
This isn't a parody, though it tries for laughs in some places (who can forget the stomping-of-the-cat scene?), which makes it essentially just another women-in-prison flick.Here we have misunderstood blonde Linda Carol taken to a reform school run by Sybil Danning and her obese henchwoman Pat Ast. Linda takes mousy Sherri Stoner under her wing, but when she runs afoul of butch reform school veteran--and Pat Ast's main squeeze--she puts a target on her back that remains there throughout the film.
Sybil Danning fans will be disappointed because she has little to do here, other than issue midnight scripture readings over the PA system).NUDITY: $$$$ (Like most WIP films, there is plenty of it to go around.
Rough-looking Wendy O.Williams is topless in the shower, as is about every other woman in this film.
Neither a serious WIP drama, like director Tom De Simone's earlier "The Concrete Jungle", nor an outright spoof of the genre in the style of "Naked Gun", "Reform School Girls" is a film that suffers from identity crisis.
Williams (who also sings on the soundtrack) has an incredible, ROCKING 37-year-old body which she proudly displays throughout (RIP Wendy), and there is some nice girl vs.
Reform School girls is an over the top woman in prison cult classic that is FUN FUN FUN to watch.
Wendy O Williams is completely mesmerizing to watch, although her acting is pretty bad to say the least.
Pat Ast and Wendy O Williams make this movie what it is, and why Sybil Danning got the DVD cover I'll never know (she's barely in the film).Pat and Wendy (both who have since passed) make great villains though, and are thoroughly enjoyable to watch over and over again.
If you like low budget, entertaining prison films with lots of women, violence & nudity, then you will love Reform School Girls.
Well-intentioned spoof of women's prison films is a real disappointment....
Title:  REFORM SCHOOL GIRLSRating: ** (out of 4)Review:  The one small film genre I've never dived into yet are Women Prison Movies.
Linda Carol (who made her film debut a year earlier in the grade-Z high school comedy SCHOOL SPIRIT) stars as Jenny, a young teenage girl who finds herself going to reform school, and having to deal with a overweight monster of a warden (Pat Ast), as well as lesbian punkette and her gang, whose wardrobes seem to be limited to G-strings and a bra (Wendy O.
Sherri Stoner plays her best friend Lisa, who is been affected more by Ast and Williams, and former Playboy playmate Sybil Danning plays the Head Warden.
As an exaggerated guilty pleasure, the film is OK, with cheesy dialogue and mediocre acting (even by Williams!); overall, though, REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS is just plain forgettable.
First, I'm not a huge fan of Women in Prison films (W.I.P.), but like every men, i love beautiful women in underwear and thongs so this kind of movies always deliver in that department, at least.
Reform School Girls is more like a parody of the genre, or at least a not-that serious movie.
Williams is here performing a bad girl and she is always in thong, just like every other chick in this movie.Well, except for the obese wicked warden, thanks god she keeps her clothes on.
Thats a letdown for this kind of movies but overall, its entertaining and it features very good rock n roll music.
not to be taken too seriously as the many actors camp it up in this girl in prison plot line especially pat ast's character so aptly named Edna...who so happens to rule her little prison with iron and fist.
my favourite character had to be portrayed by none other than Wendy o.williams who is far from the age of a teenage delinquent as she prances around the prison yard like she owns the place.
REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS is the only movie I was carded for when I was a kid.
(This tape has served me well over the past decade or so, but I'm still hanging on to it since I don't see the other movies on it coming out on DVD anytime soon - someone let me know when SCREAM FOR HELP and CHOPPING MALL have been upgraded so I can use this beat-up tape to record MST3K eps.)Anyway, REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS is trashy, ridiculous, and endlessly entertaining.
This is the movie for you if you like scantily clad "juvenile delinquents" roaming around snarling with big 80's hair & makeup, nude shower scenes, & audio that leaves a lot to be desired.
This greatest trailer ever also perfectly captures the tone of the film, as it's a demented tongue-in-cheek bad girls penitentiary exploitation flick that definitely shouldn't be taken too seriously.
My best guess would be that writer/director Tom DeSimone is a pleasantly deranged and sleaze-obsessed guy that single-handedly wanted to bring homage to all "Women in Prison" movies at once.
The lead warden (played by no one less than Sybil Danning) looks an awful lot like Dyanne Thorne when she gave image to Ilsa, the She Wolf of the SS and several of the other supportive characters appear to be pure stereotypes as well.
This movie along with the 1983 film Chained Heat are the 2 best of these cult women in prison films.
The legendary punk rock goddess Wendy O Williams is the character Charlie the way too old for this film " teenager" villianess lesbo who is the queen of her cellblock.The young 16year old actress (at the time of this movie being filmed) Linda Carol is the heroine of the film as the character Jenny who when she speaks out against the horrors of the prison system and it's mistreatment of the young juveniles, is then terroized by the head prison matron Edna played by the great late actress Pat Ast. And to top off this wonderful b-movie cast is former Playboy Playmate of the Year 1972 Sybil Danning, who plays a dominatrix-like prison warden who nightly loves to torment these twisted juvenile deliquents with passages from the Bible being read over a loudspeaker system.It has a scene that is copied straight from the 1st ever  woman in prison film the 1950 film Caged, where the prison girls decide to take in a pet kitty and when the mean fat prison matron finds the kitty let's say it's a very disturbing scene.
This was supposed to be a spoof of the women in prison movies, but it comes across as just boring, even with lots of girls in the buff or tiny underwear.
I'm not sure what makes them all so interesting, but maybe it triggers a sense of "What would you do in this situation?" kind of interesting.But in all honesty, the only real reason I sat down to see reform school girls was Sherri Stoner, who played Lisa.
As a big animaniacs fan, it's kind of sad to see Sherri's serious dramatic talent wasted on this film, considering she wrote some of the funniest Animaniacs bits.The movie begins in a back alley where main character Jenny (Linda Carol) gets caught up in a shoot-out against her will.
The 2 of them are subjected to numerous inhumanities during their time in reform school, which is run more like a prison by it's Warden (Sybil Danning) the notorious Edna (Pat Ast) who in turn controls the meanest of the girls, Charlie (Wendy.
O. Williams) If you're going to see this movie, be prepared for a lot of cheese.
Not all the girls are as good as the others when it comes to acting, at times it feels like a softcore porn flick over a prison film.
it's aim is to be a parody of the WIP (Women in Prison) films that were made before it.If you've got nothing to do for 90 minutes, it's worth a view..
Even Danning was more convincing in her supportive role as prison warden.The most laughable I considered was matron Edna's posterior "complete control".
Don't waste your time like I did.Jenny is sent to a women's reform school.
Very much modeled on 1950's seminal wip film Caged, this one stars Linda Carol as a good girl who gets caught up in her boyfriend's crime and gets sent to jail for it where she must deal with a violent lesbian gang (led by punk star Wendy O.
Williams), a domineering warden (Sybil Danning) and a sadistic headmistress (Pat Ast).
This film is a absolutely fun resurrection/send up of the classic New World women in prison movies of the seventies.
This reform school seems to be made up almost exclusively of hot looking women in their 20's except for star Wendy O' Williams who was mid-thirties when this epic was made.
Evil Prison Matron- This is role Pat Ast was born to play and it is obvious that she is having the time of her life.
Sweet Innocent- This is where Reform School girls earns bonus points not just for casting an actress who is good in the film (Sherri Stoner) but someone who achieved celebrity years later as a figure model for Disney thus attracting a new audience to the film of people who want to see the little mermaid naked.
Prisoner who runs things- Many people have complained about Wendy O Williams in the film but I thought she was a lot of fun.
Bad people get their due ending-Fun ending which features gun fire and an exploding bus caps the film off in style with an added bonus of a killer song sung by Wendy O Williams played over the end credits.
Although many people were put off by the nudity and occasional violence I think anyone old enough to remember Caged Heat will have a great time with this film as long as they have a high tolerance for kitten stomping..
This movie is a lot of fun especially if your into WiP flicks.
Of course the plot and dialogue is kind of weak and at times I wondered why am I watching this movie, but there's just something about girls wearing lingerie in prison and those big eighties hair do's.
Surprisingly Jenny, played by the sexy Linda Carol, was only sixteen years old when this movie was made but looked like she was about twenty to me.
The plots pretty basic, Jenny the star, rails against the oppressiveness of the schools authoritarians played by Sutter and Edna, the warden and henchwoman.
This movie could have been a whole lot better but its still pretty entertaining..
They've taken the old "women's prison" cliché and essentially perfected it with this parody-homage hybrid.Linda Carol plays Jenny, a hot teen shipped off by the state to a deteriorating (is there any other kind?) reform school, headed by Ilsa-like Warden Sutter (Sybil Danning) and watched over by the hilariously evil and over-the-top matron, Edna (Pat Ast), who does a terrific job making you absolutely despise her.
Not to mention the fact that, although she looks great, she's well past reform school age (don't suffer the delusion that this wasn't intentional).Also, Sherri Stoner creates a very sympathetic character as 'Lisa', a sweet, innocent, naive, but also traumatized and neurotic girl who's been shipped from place to place and suffers the most abuse from Edna.
Actually it's not really a prison but a reform school.
How this woman, who looks like she's pushing 45, is still in a reform school is not explained.
Sitting on her hands is not the usual M.O. for a warden in a woman's prison flick.Anyway, the rest of the movie can't save the Danning disaster.
"Reform School Girls" didn't have its heart in the right place.
A mildly scuzzy women-in-prison movie of the 1980s, REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS is far too cheesy to be a successful movie.