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Image Entertainment presents

Bad Girls Go To Hell/Another Day, Another Man (1965/1966)

"I wonder if Della suspects anything. I must try to act as if nothing is the matter, but I can't."- Ellen Green (Gigi Darlene)

Stars: Gigi Darlene, George Laroque/Barbie Kemp, Sam Stewart, Mary O'Shea
Other Stars: Sam Stewart, Darlene Bennett/Gigi Darlene, Darlene Bennett, Rita Bennett
Director: Doris Wishman

Manufacturer: WAMO
MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (Nudity, violence, sexual situations)
Run Time: 01h:04m:24s/01h:10m:43s
Release Date: 2000-09-12
Genre: offbeat

Style
Grade
Substance
Grade
Image Transfer
Grade
Audio Transfer
Grade
Extras
Grade
A B-A-A- A-

 

DVD Review

From Something Weird comes something weird! First, this isn't one for the kiddies. What we have here is a double bill from a very unique director, Doris Wishman. Billed as a Drive-In Double Feature, Bad Girls Go To Hell and Another Day, Another Man are served up in true drive-in style, complete with a feature countdown, trailers for the snack bar and an intermission. More on that later.

Doris Wishman is an interesting director, with an editing style all her own. For these two "roughy" films, a style that features a lot of brutality towards women, Doris shoots completely handheld, but what makes her films unique is her constant cutaways to inanimate objects, people's feet or anything else. Her films are all self-financed, and are pretty rough in appearance—shaky camera work, hard edits, lots of feet, and a good use of recycled footage from her other films. For the most part she avoids any on screen dialogue, preferring to have actors do their looped lines off camera or carefully avoiding showing mouth movements. Those shots where actors actually speak onscreen are really poorly synced, which in itself adds a certain charm to them. All right, let's go to the movies.

Bad Girls Go To Hell

Gigi Darlene stars as Meg Kelton, a neglected housewife who finds herself in hot water when her husband goes off to work one Saturday morning. After puttering around the house in her see-through nightie, she takes out the trash, only to have the janitor lurking in the stairwell attempt to rape her. Escaping from harm, she returns home, but finds a note threatening that the janitor will tell her husband about the incident, so she of course goes to the janitor's apartment where, surprise, surprise, she gets attacked again. This time, she fends the man off by whacking him in the head with an ashtray, which kills the poor guy. Not knowing what to do, she leaves town for New York, changing her name to Ellen Green, and hoping to get lost in the crowd. With no plans or money she sobs in the park, where a stranger (Sam Stewart) consoles her and invites her back to his apartment. He starts out as a nice guy (don't they all), but when alcohol is mentioned he flys off the handle, starts guzzling booze, and turns into a raging sadist, whipping her with his belt. Needless to say she moves out, only to run into a woman who takes her to her cousin Della's place to stay. Della (Darlene Bennett) turns out to be a lesbian (of course), and although Ellen partakes of the wild side (off camera as is the case throughout), she has to leave here as well. We follow Ellen through a series of places until we find out just how far into this living nightmare she can go.

Another Day, Another Man

Featuring the same sets and cast as Bad Girls Go To Hell, Another Day Another Man opens with prim and proper Ann (Barbie Kemp) living with her prostitute roommate Tess (Mary O'Hara). She condemns Tess' lifestyle, but can't tell her own boss she is newly married. After her husband gets a promotion and buys a furnished apartment, Ann moves in with him and quits her job to become a housewife. With Ann gone, pimp boyfriend Bert (Sam Stewart) moves into Tess' apartment, and tells the tale of his little racket, which includes a pair of twins (Darlene and Rita Bennett) and a new girl (Gigi Darlene), who all share an apartment. The only problem is the new girl's hayseed boyfriend finds out about his fiancée's new job and does what all good boyfriends seem to do in these films—clubs her! However, he later rethinks his actions and comes back to apologize, only to run into the twins, who jump his bones. What's a guy to do when that happens...?

Back at the newlywed's apartment, trouble is brewing when Ann's husband gets sick and can't work. With the mounting doctor bills and no work there is only one choice—sign up with Bert as a callgirl! What will happen next!?

Both of these films contain a lot of violence against women, as was typical of this style of film. There is some nudity, but not as much as they would suggest—most of the "action" is left to the imagination. Scenes are stitched together with all of Wishman's cutaways, and I can't say I've seen as much "footage" of feet in any other movie as I have in these. The films do have a unique style, but are fairly mediocre otherwise, though they have some pretty humorous moments. For camp trash though, there is a good deal here.

Wishman also wrote these two films (as Dawn Whitman), but is probably most famous for her pair of features (pardon the pun) starring well endowed Chesty Morgan as a secret agent in Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73 . Check out dOc's review of an earlier Wishman feature Nude On The Moon (all three are also available from Image).

Rating for Style: A
Rating for Substance: B-

 

Image Transfer

 One
Aspect Ratio1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratioyes
Anamorphicno


Image Transfer Review: Aside from the extras, which look exactly like one would expect at a drive-in, these two black and white films look extremely good, with excellent contrast, good black levels and well rendered, fine film grain. The source for both features is in really good shape, with minimal dust or scratches. These are pretty near mint. There are only a few scenes where the lighting levels are off, but this looks to be in the source material. These actually look better than they should!

Image Transfer Grade: A-
 

Audio Transfer

 LanguageRemote Access
MonoEnglishno


Audio Transfer Review: Audio is also well presented in mono. As mentioned earlier, lip sync is way off, but this is trademark Wishman style. The raucous horn driven soundtracks are well represented in a suitable audio quality. Remember to replace the speaker before you leave the theater...

Audio Transfer Grade: A- 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Scene Access with 8 cues and remote access
2 Original Trailer(s)
4 Other Trailer(s) featuring Indecent Desires,A Taste Of Flesh, My Brother's Wife, Too Much, Too Often
Packaging: Snapper
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: RSDL

Extra Extras:
  1. "Let's Go To The Drive-In!" feature
  2. Stills gallery/slide show
Extras Review: Here is where this disc earn high marks. Image has presented these in "Drive-In" format, which is a whole heck of a lot of fun. You can choose the films and supplements separately, or you can "go to the drive-in" which plays all but the stills section in order. We start off with a three-minute warning and an invitation to the snack bar (beat up print, in authentic drive-n style!). More warnings come up, and we are then treated to a series of previews for other Wishman pictures Bad Girls Go To Hell, Indecent Desires, and A Taste Of Flesh before the first feature starts. Following the first film, we have an intermission and another trio of trailers (Another Day, Another Man, My Brother's Wife and Too Much, Too Often), plus a promo for a set of adult books and more snack bar promos! We get a whole evening out at a sleazy drive-in, including exit trailers. I love this feature!

Also included is a slide show of Wishman exploitation poster art. Doris would initially come up with the poster idea, title and advertising slug, then write her scripts around them. My only complaint is that you can't pause playback to read what each screen says. There is also an easter egg accessable only if you watch the entire disc, but I won't spoil that for you.

Extras Grade: A-
 

Final Comments

Not exactly the type of films you bring to the family picnic, this duo of campy exploitation flicks is well presented here. The added drive-in feature is what makes the disc. You can file these right next to your Russ Meyer laserdisc collection. If this is your thing, Image has done a good job.

Jeff Ulmer 2000-09-20