Though it didn't rise to true popularity until the 1970s, the "girl gang" film has been a movie genre at least since the drive-in days of the 1950s when the tempting vixens from film noir suddenly decided to join together in criminal packs hell-bent on terrorizing the innocent men of nice, normal, suburban America. Here the vicious she-pack is led by Vera Parkinson (Mara Corday), a semi-reputable nightclub owner who spends her off-time organizing robberies. For her latest heist she joins forces with Agnes (Abby Dalton), a company employee perfectly positioned to pull off a massive payroll heist. However, the partnership is torn apart by a sudden crisis of conscience, and with the involvement of dogged police lieutenant Bill Hanley (Peter Mark Richman), the body count soon begins to climb.

Girls on the Loose (1958) was one of the few completed releases for Jewell Enterprises, a short-lived production company also responsible for 1952's bizarre Untamed Women and, most famously, the Americanized 1956 version of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (which included additional shots with Raymond Burr). The film was actually distributed by Universal Pictures, a studio prone to alternating its prestige titles with a healthy slate of horror, western, and exploitation titles. Though the title sounds a bit generic, the film is elevated by a strong, provocative lead bad girl in the form of Corday, who had already gone from a small role as a teen in juvenile hall in Problem Girls (1953) to leading roles in monster movies such as Tarantula (1955), The Giant Claw and The Black Scorpion (both 1957). Despite her strong showing here, she focused primarily on TV work afterwards (perhaps connected to her appearance the same year as a Playboy Playmate of the Month for October shortly after the release of < B>Girls on the Loose) and eventually took a two-decade sabbatical to focus on her marriage to actor Richard Long (star of TV's Nanny and the Professor) and their children. After her husband's death, she reappeared occasionally at the behest of her friend Clint Eastwood for roles in his directorial efforts including The Gauntlet (1977), Sudden Impact (1983), Pink Cadillac (1989), and The Rookie (1990) before a permanent retirement.

While the cast of Girls on the Loose may not offer any huge surprises, many film buffs might be quite unprepared for the name of its director: Hollywood veteran Paul Henreid. The Hungarian-born actor made the transition from minor German films to a substantial Hollywood role in 1939 with Goodbye, Mr. Chips and enjoyed a solid run of major hits capitalizing on his suave, debonair persona including Now, Voyager (1942), Of Human Bondage (1946), and his most enduring role as Victor Laszlo in 1942's Casablanca.

However, the 1950s proved to be a far more rocky transition than anticipated as he was blacklisted by Hollywood as an actor following an investigation by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Undaunted, Henreid jumped into directing after the respectable debut effort of 1952's For Men Only. In fact, 1958 saw another Universal "bad girl" film from Henreid, the equally lurid Live Fast, Die Young, about two sisters joyriding through a cavalcade of seedy '50s situations.

Henreid's surprising flair for pulpy genre tales propelled him into a busy career as a TV director (including notable stints on Universal TV properties like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Thriller), though he still returned to the big screen for the occasional directorial effort like Dead Ringer (1964, a gothic-laced noir with Bette Davis as a pair of twins). His occasional acting appearances were relegated primarily to "special guest star" status in titles such as Vincente Minnelli's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962), Operation Crossbow (1965), The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), and a truly odd choice for his final film, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), after which he retired from the screen entirely.

Perhaps less surprising than Henreid's participation are two other names behind the camera who were just coming into their own at Universal and would both go on to become regular collaborators with director Blake Edwards. Girls on the Loose was also the very first credit for cinematographer Philip H. Lathrop, whose efficient and clean compositions on both of Henreid's 1958 films ensured a gig on Blake Edwards' popular TV series, Mr. Lucky. He went on to shoot every Edwards film through 1971's Wild Rovers before branching off for a wide variety of disaster films and movie projects for directors like Walter Hill, Sam Peckinpah, and Wes Craven.

Slightly more experienced at the time was composer Henry Mancini, who had been working as a second-string composer at Universal on films such as It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), and This Island Earth (1955). He quickly came into his own in 1958, however, scoring not only the two Henreid films but another nine feature films including his big breakthrough, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. He quickly became one of Hollywood's busiest and most popular composers, scoring all of Blake Edwards' films and scoring major chart hits with the likes of The Pink Panther (1964) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) as well as a string of hit instrumental pop albums.

As for the "girl gang" genre of which Girls on the Loose remains a proud member, the trend which had started roughly in 1952 with the simply-titled Girl Gang largely remained the domain of second- or third-billed drive-in titles for much of the decade thanks to the likes of Roger Corman's Teenage Doll (1957), the Ed Wood-penned The Violent Years (1956), and the bizarre 1966 favorite, Teenage Gang Debs. Eventually the genre began to mutate, fusing with bikers, truckers, and prison inmates (a few examples: She-Devils on Wheels [1968],Switchblade Sisters [1975],Truck Stop Women [1974],Women in Chains [1972],Reform School Girls [1986],Caged Heat [1974], etc.). However, if you want to see this lucrative if disreputable segment of American cinema at the beginning of its peak period, look no further than this low-budget oddity from a truly unexpected auteur.

Producers: Richard Kay, Harry Rybnick
Director: Paul Henreid
Screenplay: Julian Harmon; Alan Friedman, Dorothy Raison (screenplay and story); Allen Rivkin (story)
Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen, Robert Emmet Smith
Music: Henry Mancini
Film Editing: Edward Curtiss
Cast: Mara Corday (Vera Parkinson), Barbara Bostock (Helen Parkinson), Mark Richman (Lt. Bill Hanley), Joyce Barker (Joyce Johanneson), Lita Milan (Marie Williams), Abby Dalton (Agnes Clark), Paul Lambert (Joe, bartender), Ronald Green (Danny, gigolo), Fred Kruger (Mr. Grant), Monica Henreid (Lili, cigarette girl), Jon Lormer (Doctor).
BW-77m.

by Nathaniel Thompson