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| Mamie Van Doren, publicity photo for 'Girls Town', MGM 1959. |
‘Girls Town’ was an MGM attempt to capitalise on the teen ‘exploitation’ B-movie genre that was popular in the 1950s. The dramatic plot centres around a teenage misfit named Silver (Mamie Van Doren) trapped in a juvenile detention facility run by nuns, whilst trying to save her sister (played by Elinor Donahue) from being sold into the Tijuana slave trade by Mel Tormé’s character. Featuring appearances by The Platters and Paul Anka, starring as themselves, this quirky and not particularly good film ended up being a financial loss for MGM and was later lampooned in the 1990s on ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’.
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| Elinor Donahue. Photo: Virgil Apger/Archive Photos/Getty Images |
Elinor Donahue said of her part: ‘I would just as soon forget the whole thing. In the first five minutes of the picture it was established that I was a good girl, being pushed into being a bad girl. The rest of the picture I spent doing practically nothing but crying and saying, 'Help me, help me!' It was fun making it, but it was an awful picture’.
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