This is a serious and heartfelt exploration
of the exploitation of young prisoners forced to work the cotton fields of
the south. Wrenching stories of injustice and destroyed lives. Nah. Just
kidding. Do I watch films like that? Well, I do if they star Mamie Van Doren
singing in a bra and Eddie Cochran singing in the cotton fields. This gets
a 4.0 on IMDB. Which is an insult to humanity. A red scar upon critical cinematic
thinking. What exactly did people expect from a Mamie Van Doren film? Great
writing? Elegance? Fine acting? An intricate look at the human condition?
No way. What you want is a plush Van Doren and that is what this film gives
you. On the Van Doren scale this is pretty good.
After her role in the mainstream western film Star in the Dust, Mamie moved
to the parallel universe of mildly trashy B films and basically stayed there
all her career with a few exceptions - Teachers Pet with Gable and Doris
Day and she is also in an Italian film that sounds pretty good. Whether this
career change was her own decision or her only option I don't know but thank
goodness. We need films like Vice Raid, The Beat Generation, Guns, Girls
and Gangsters. Without Van Doren they may not have been made. She has four
musical numbers here - the bra number, two rock numbers and a faux Calypso
number. And she stuns with her looks and honestly her voice isn't bad at
all. If you even bother to listen as she sways her hips and shakes, rattles
and rolls.
Penny (Mamie) and her sister Jane (Lori Nelson) are hitchhiking to Hollywood
to start a musical career. On the way in some hokie small town, they decide
to go skinny dipping and get arrested for that and hitchhiking. Thirty days
in the slammer or working on a cotton picking ranch. They choose the ranch.
It is all kind of a scam though as the female judge and the rancher (John
Russell) are getting wealthy off of cheap labor. But these kids - including
Cochran - work all day and then party all night. Not so bad really except
maybe the dog food for dinner. And even after a long day picking cotton in
the blazing sun, Mamie manages to look like she is going on a date. Lots
of groovy dancing and singing. And a little romance of course. Probably for
Van Doren fans only but then who isn't?
