Genre: Drama
Director: Charles F. Haas
Starring: Mamie Van Doren, what lies in front of Mamie Van Doren, what lies behind Mamie Van Doren (Gigantor?), just all of Mamie Van Doren, also Mel Torme and Paul Anka (and Harold Lloyd Jr. and Charles Chaplin Jr.?)
MST Season: 6
The Movie
Listen to me girls, watch your P's and Q's,
Boy you're gonna have the Girls Town blues!
Hey, Mamie! It's been a while! We haven't seen you since you were an Untamed Youth! Oh you still are an Untamed Youth? Well that's because you haven't gone to Girls Town! This film sees the the endowed sex symbol as a 16-year-old (yeah right) named Silver framed for the death of a boy she stood up on the night he was killed. She is sentenced to Girls Town, a house for troubled girls who need guidance. But her wild ways has her butting heads with the head nuns and the straight-laced girls at the school.
For a good long while Girls Town isn't a bad movie, just very simple. It's got a cute story of the bad girl surrounded by morality, even though it's funny that it portrays the supposed rule-followers as the bullies, while Madam Van Doren is the poor girl with an attitude getting picked on, but it's kind of fun in a role reversal sort of way. The worst this movie has going for it is a subplot involving a sociopathic resident who has a crush on a singer played by blossoming singer Paul Anka, and goes full blown delusional in her devotion to him. While her suicidal storyline does have give some urgency in the plot of the movie down the road, it can be a bit over the top at times. And it's final solutions to her delusions? Become a nun. That cures psychosis right up!
I kind of want to see the thriller sequel to this movie where this character deals with a sort of Norman Bates style disorder while living at Girls Town. Now THAT'S a movie!
The movie doesn't get too out of control until its third act, which throws a lot of nonsense into the mix. In addition to Paul Anka, another hot singer of the time, Mel Torme, has a role in this movie. Torme plays the villain of the piece, as he is the only witness to the crime, figures out that the sister to Van Doren's character is the actual culprit just as she coincidentally hitches a ride with him, takes her to a drag race for some reason where some other punk gets killed, then they get chased by the police, only to have her get caught making her a witness to his crime, only for him to kidnap her again and plan to highjack her to Tijuana so he doesn't get fingered. This is one hell of a convoluted plot point and the movie just throws it at the audience. Luckily Van Doren and the ladies of Girls Town break out to the rescue!
Weirdly enough this movie stars the namesake sons of two silent film legends, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, both of which died young in their 40's and both have Girls Town as one of their final credits. Harold Lloyd Jr. even plays the ill-fated Chip, the masher who falls off a cliff and springs the plot into motion. Chaplin Jr. plays some dude named Joe. With both of these legacy children in the film, it has to be intentional casting. But that legacy is likely lost on the 50's teen audience, who don't give a flying fig about dirty old silent comedy. Girls Town is just a silly movie to stimulate a teenager's rebellious side while surrounding it with the comforts of 1950's conformism to hopefully keep them in check. Who knows if it worked, but they got to see Mamie strut her stuff so I doubt anybody complained.
The Episode
I think it's probably worth saying that Girls Town is the I Accuse My Parents of the Mike era. It's a weird little teen drama that feature some deceptive protagonists who don't really take responsibility for their own actions. Girls Town isn't quite as bizarrely misguided as I Accuse My Parents, but both feature wildly funny riffing just the same. Girls Town targets things you'd expect, such as Mamie Van Doren's measurements and the all-girl setting bringing a bunch of chatterbox, cat fight, and girl talk riffs. But Girls Town is also echoes I Accuse My Parents in the way it treats Paul Anka's stalker, as they endow further delusions of her relationship to Anka upon her, and it's pretty hilarious. I'm also a sucker for un-nunly riffs on nun characters, of which this riff has plenty, while neither Paul Anka nor Mel Torme get out without a scratch.
And, of course, Mamie's swiveling hips bring Mike fond memories of "Gigaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnntor!"
The season six premiere also brings about the Umbilicus to the series, a sort of tether that Dr. Forrester attaches to Gypsy to better connect the Satellite of Love to Deep 13. The purpose of it? Ehhhhh...debatable. I guess it allows them to send stuff up to the Satellite easier, but the show has never really bothered with explanations for things before so it's hard to see why they'd start now (How does he eat? How does he breath?). But the idea of Gypsy being a connection to the Mads is a neat idea, and it does set up a good Three Stooges pie gag! Other host segments involve Tom Servo scatting like Mel Torme (to the dismay of Mike and Crow), Mike and the Bots envisioning the woman of the future, and Mike puts the Bots on the honor system (and regrets it).
Though in my opinion Girls Town is one of the better premieres of the series, as the riffing is wildly funny and the movie is watchably stupid. And all the men and bi-curious ladies get a gander at Mamie Van Doren in her prime, so we're all winners here! It's worth taking a trip to Girls Town!
Classic
The DVD
Girls Town was one of the last episodes to hit home media on Shout Factory's Volume XXXIX set, which as of this writing is the final collection of classic MST episodes. Video is pretty solid, though the audio in the movie has a slight hiss in dialogue that that was typical of video tapes at the time. I feel like it's safe to assume that it's not a flaw in the transfer of the episode but a flaw in the copy of the film they viewed.
Bonus features include Anatomy of a Theme, which is an interview with Chuck Love, who helped Joel Hodgson create the MST theme song. He talks about the creation of both it and the ending "Love Theme," and how it's his most covered composition. Also here is a trailer for Girls Town.
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