Line #10 Film/SoYoungSoBad


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/so_young_so_bad_1950_1.jpeg]]
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3	''So Young, So Bad'' is a 1950 drama film, directed by Bernard Vorhaus, about a barbaric reform school for girls. The film is actually not a straight example of GirlsBehindBars, and could almost be seen as a {{deconstruction}} of the genre before it even became popular. It also has some striking similarities with the film ''Film/{{Caged}}'', which was released one day before it.
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5	The main character is Dr. John Jason (Creator/PaulHenreid), a Polish-American psychiatrist who has taken a job at the Elmview Corrective School for Girls. He arrives there at the same time as four new attendees. They are:
6	* Loretta (Creator/AnneFrancis), an implied former prostitute who had a baby out of wedlock and put it up for adoption.
7	* Dolores (Creator/RitaMoreno, billed as "Rosita Moreno"), a runaway who faced racial discrimination when she was younger and is now emotionally unbalanced.
8	* Jane (Enid Pulver), a girl who never knew her father and has a history of being abused.
9	* Jackie (Anne Jackson), a surrogate big sister to Jane who pretty much does all her decision-making for her.
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11	Dr. Jason arrives at the school, hoping to help these girls and many others. A social worker, Ruth Levering (Catherine [=McLeod=]), is also sympathetic to the girls, but they face difficulties from Mr. Riggs (Cecil Clovelly), who runs the school and sees the girls as little more than criminals and animals, and Mrs. Beuhler (Grace Coppin), the sadistic matron who carries out punishment.
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13	Film debut for Rita Moreno and Anne Jackson.
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15	----
16	!!This film provides examples of:
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18	* AmbiguouslyGay: Jackie's attachment to Jane comes across as less like a Big Sister thing and more like a romantic devotion. Notably at a dance the girls have, Jackie rebuffs any boys that ask her to dance. Jane's likely not gay though.
19	* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler: Loretta decides to keep her baby after leaving the school]].
20	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Beuhler catches the rabbit Jane had been keeping as a pet and is seen squashing it with a GoryDiscretionShot.
21	* BettyAndVeronica: Subverted. Loretta tries to be the Veronica to Ruth's Betty and seduce Dr Jason. He sees through her FilleFatale act straight away and has no part in it.
22	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Loretta and Jackie arrive in the nick of time to expose Riggs and Beuhler]].
23	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Riggs and Beuhler have been thrown in jail and Loretta and Jane leave the school fully reformed. However Dolores is dead and Jason and Ruth will likely have their hands full with the next batch of troublesome girls]].
24	* BreakTheCutie: The raison d'etre of Mrs. Beuhler. [[spoiler: She succeeds with Dolores]].
25	* CerebusCallBack: Inverted. Dolores tells a traumatic story from her childhood about her parents not speaking English. When her parents visit, Dr. Jason can't understand Spanish. However he and Dolores both laugh and Dolores translates for him.
26	* CoolBigSister: Jackie for Jane, though they're not related.
27	* CrapsaccharineWorld: The school looks nice and pleasant from the outside, inside not so much.
28	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of GirlsBehindBars. The blonde sexpot is underage and has had to use sex as a means of survival and as a weapon for most of her life. The innocent has faced racism in the past and her innocence borders on mental illness. As for the two "lesbians" their relationship is more like a caring and devoted one rather than exploitative, plus the "butch" doesn't end up dead.
29	* DevilInPlainSight: Mrs. Beuhler, the cruel matron. Riggs is more of a BitchInSheepsClothing, while she's up front about her nastiness.
30	* DisappearedDad: Jane never knew her birth father. [[spoiler: She is eventually reunited with him]].
31	* DisproportionateRetribution: Beuhler [[spoiler: cuts off Dolores's hair]] when she won't snitch on who took a perfume bottle from her room.
32	* TheDogBitesBack: When Beuhler confiscates all the girls' personal items and throws them in the furnace, the girls all set their dormitory on fire.
33	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: When the new girls arrive at the school they are forced to strip out of their own clothes and wear identical drab uniforms with all belongings confiscated. The intended effect was clearly to mirror concentration camps.
34	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Dolores hangs herself towards the end]].
35	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: It's no coincidence that flirty and promiscuous Loretta is a blonde.
36	* FilleFatale: Deconstructed with Loretta, who attempts to be a seductress. The psychologists on staff are able to reach her and convince her to stop using sex as a weapon.
37	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Dr. Jason tells Dolores she has pretty hair, Mrs. Beuhler is shown reacting to that...
38	* FourGirlEnsemble: Vampy, seductive Loretta is the pretty one. Tough, AmbiguouslyGay Jackie is the mannish one. Sweet, delicate Jane is the childish one. Caring social worker Ruth is the TeamMom.
39	* GildedCage: The school becomes this under Dr Jason and Ruth's supervision.
40	* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler: Ruth and Dr Jason at the end]].
41	* HighSchoolDance: The staff decide to organize one to give the girls something to look forward to.
42	* HotForTeacher: Loretta for Dr. Jason.
43	* HowWeGotHere: The film opens with Jackie, Loretta and Jane running out of the school and we then get a flashback/narration by Dr Jason about the events of the previous months.
44	* KarmaHoudini: The girls that actually did take the perfume bottle from Beuhler's room don't get punished.
45	* MoodWhiplash: The tragic scene of [[spoiler: Dolores getting her hair cut off]] switches quite suddenly to the bouncy music of the dance downstairs. This goes the other way around when the girls go upstairs to find [[spoiler: Dolores has hung herself]].
46	* ParentalAbandonment: A case where the parent is persuaded to abandon the child since she's unmarried.
47	* SexySoakedShirt: Not played straight and completely FetishRetardant as, while Loretta is soaking wet in her uniform [[spoiler: she's also barely conscious from having been sprayed repeatedly with a fire hose]].
48	* SheCleansUpNicely: All the girls when they get a dance thrown for them.
49	* TokenMinority: Subverted with Dolores. She is the only non-white girl of the four, but is given plenty of character that doesn't revolve around her race. In fact, the story from her childhood about her parents not being able to speak English isn't really related to her race, per se, as Dr. Jason is able to relay a similar story about his Polish father.
50	* TraumaticHaircut: [[spoiler: Mrs. Beuhler cruelly cuts off Dolores's hair when she won't snitch on the other girls.]]
51	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Inverted. The tyrants are in charge at the start but the kind and benevolent people take over.
52	* UnusualEuphemism: They say "meditation room", they mean "solitary confinement". They say "occupational therapy", they mean "hard labor".
53	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Whichever girl left scissors in plain sight in the dormitory ended up [[spoiler: getting Beuhler to cut Dolores's hair off, the girl hanging herself and nearly getting Ruth and Dr. Jason fired]].

Context Film / SoYoungSoBad