Kicking off The second volume of AGFA/Something Weirds 'Doris Wishman' compendium. 'Bad Girls Go To Hell' is a textbook 'Roughie' and a ruddy well made one at that!

The plot follows Meg, a stay at home housewife with a loving husband whos a bit bored with the humdrum day to day living a housewifes role entails, who's also frustrated that her husband has to work on Saturdays. While heading out to grab the mail/paper, she's jumped by the apartments custodian, who attempts to molest her.

Meg manages to escape, but heads back to the Janitors apartment to try and straighten things out, only for him to attempt to molest her again. This time however, Meg manages to find a blunt object, and with a mighty 'Thwack' that Custodian wont be mopping anymore…

Terrified that noone will believe her situation, Meg packs a suitcase and flees the apartment complex, taking a greyhound bus from Chicago to Manhattan to try and lay low…and if necessary, start a new life. And what follows is Meg (now leading with an alias of 'Ellen Green') trying and failing to start a new life, as every avenue she explores to try and find a room-mate or lodger ends with her either moving in with an abject psychopath sadist who just wants her around as something to beat. OR, she ends up being taken in by someone who has the sole intention of ALSO trying to molest her…This goes on for the better part of 40 minutes. As we the audience try to figure out if Meg will ever truly find peace…

Im not the biggest fan of 'Roughie' cinema, I think it can have its moments if its handled in a sympathetic or tasteful way. But quite often i've found the genre almost border on the fetishistic in its explotation of the abuse of women. 'Bad Girls Go To Hell' treads a fine line, but I think it just about manages to find the sweet spot.

The script itself is a little 'rinse and repeat' (a common trend it seems for Doris Wishman films) but at the same time, it counter balances that with niche variation within those broader repetitions. in short, the scenario is the same, but how its explored varies enough to keep things interesting.

The pacing is to a clip, things move along nicely, and at 64 minutes long, theres barely any time for the film to get complacent. Which I think really works to the films strengths.

While character development is almost entirely centered on Meg, I do feel that the film gives her a decent arc of exploration and development, leaving the character in a significantly different way than we found her. Though, I will say the films ending (Which I wont spoil here) is very much a cop out, and something that Wishman would do multiple times across her filmography, which was dissapointing.

Otherwise? this is a pretty solid one, its got a clear 3 act structure, tonally its consistent, the pacing is also relatively solid across the runtime. and the characters are multi layered, and while the supporting casts time on screen is typically brief, there is a good level of depth to the cast to help shore up this gritty and unpleasent world Meg's been thrust into.

Direction wise, this is, for the most part, a gorgeous film. Having only seen Doris Wishmans colour offerings up until now, I was blown away by the way she handles black and white cinema. I feel that the sexploitation/exploitation 'roughie' genre is Wishmans 'home ground' so to speak. and she really brings the scenes to life with vivid and harsh sequences that really lean into the benefits of shooting on black and white film stock.

To that end, the cine is delightful, a rich, deep focus on shot setups and types, Wishman clearly knew how to light for Black and white, with some wonderful chiaroscuro and purposeful shadow work to really help bring out the beauty of the core cast, and to highlight the obscene nature of our antagonists. Is it a perfect work? no. theres still a few issues here and there with focus and some shots are a little under/over lit. But…I'll be honest, i've just come from 9 films Wishman attempted to shoot in colour, and frankly; this film feels like a Kubrick picture compared to those!

Sequences are well built with clearly thought out shot lists to help shore up the more impactful moments of the film, the edit is tight and feels professional. Wishmans apartment almost certainly appears in here somewhere (I dont think she made a film where her own home DIDNT appear at some point) but this is a tight good looking edit.

As for the performances, Gigi Darlene gets a meaty role to pick up on, and while I think shes maybe a bit thin on physical performance in some of this, when the script asks her to cut loose, she cuts LOOSE. Probably one of my favourite performances in a Wishman film up to this point. She feels well rounded, and more often than not knows when to keep things small, and when to play large. I thought she was excellent.

As is also the case with a lot of Wishman films, the majority of the supporting cast get very little dialogue, and are only on screen for between 5-10 minutes…meaning I can only really judge their performances physically really…and what we have here is a mixed bag, but more good than bad. As campy performances line up and compliment each other very nicely. I had very little to grumble on this one.

Add to that the soundtrack which is a jazzy 60s swing fest to help punctuate the darker side of Manhattan. And all in all? While 'Bad Girls Go To Hell' might not be of my FAVOURITE genre in the world. Its hard to argue that its not a great example of the genre. I think it would pair well with some of the 'Roughie' David F. Friedman flicks like 'A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine' or 'The Defilers'.

If your looking to get into Doris Wishman as a film maker and want a decent idea of what the majority of her output looks/ feels like. This is one of the better examples. Im genuinely surprised by the quality of this production given everything i've seen up to this point. It has left me though with more questions than answers as to what happened to Wishmans 'spark' between 1969 and 2009…

In either case, i'd recommend this one, and I'll almost certainly spin it again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bad-girls-go-to-hell/