YMMV / So Young, So Bad

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Pseudo-Romantic Friendship between Jackie and Jane. As noted on the main page, Jackie appears to be gay (if the part where she rebuffs boys at the dance is an indicator). But it's open as to whether Jane is too or views Jackie as a surrogate big sister.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • Jackie and Jane are coded as lesbians, and they do separate at the end (while also framing the below scene with Loretta and her son as something Jackie weeps that she'll never experience) - but their relationship is portrayed as a loving and healthy one. It's in fact Jackie's influence that encourages Jane to save the day with her confession.
  • The film does kill off the only non-white protagonist, but at the same time shows institutionalized racism and how it can affect immigrant families. Dolores is shown as nothing but a Woobie who is truly wronged by the system.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ruth's speech about how she used to be an idealist like Dr Jason but sold out for job security; it sadly parallels how the filmmakers were blacklisted by Hollywood during the McCarthyism period.
• Heartwarming Moments: Loretta is left alone with her baby son and at first rants at him for ruining her life before then wondering if his adoptive parents will take good care of him. He starts crying and she tries comforting him, which works and she tearfully hugs him close. Jackie is watching this from outside and is moved to tears at the sight. The line that'll set most people off.
  Loretta: Well, do you like me?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Anne Francis stars as a Fille Fatale who must abandon her seductress ways and embrace motherhood. She'd later get typecast in Ms. Fanservice roles, notably in Forbidden Planet.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Riggs and Beuhler cross it when they attack the girls with hoses. It's what helps Jason and Ruth overthrow them temporarily.
  • Beuhler definitely solidifies herself as genuine evil when she cuts off Dolores's hair for refusing to tell her who stole the perfume bottle. This results in the poor girl's suicide.
• Narm: Critics poked lots of fun at the title back when the film came out.
• Retroactive Recognition: Three of the young actresses, Anne Francis, Anne Jackson and Rita Moreno.
• Tear Jerker: Dolores's hair being cut off and the girls discovering she killed herself afterwards.
• Unbuilt Trope: Along with Caged the Girls Behind Bars setting is codified here, but it seems more like a deconstruction of it. The blonde sexpot is a teen prostitute and has to confront the reality of giving up her baby, the 'innocent' is a Woobie who appears to be mentally ill, and the Ambiguously Gay duo have a relationship based on mutual affection rather than Girl on Girl Is Hot. The 'hose the rioting inmates' down scene is not played for Fanservice at all.
• Values Dissonance: Loretta is treated as heartless and cruel for wanting to give her baby up for adoption. These days a 16-year-old unmarried mother who has no family would be forgiven for giving the baby up to a family that could take care of it.
• Vindicated by History: The film was mocked for its title at the time and because it was independently produced, as well as some accusing it of ripping off Caged. These days, people are more likely to call it a forgotten gem from the 1950s.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Dolores has clearly had to deal with being mocked for her race and she is the real innocent of the group. After being abused too much by Beuhler, she commits suicide.
  • Loretta hides it under layers of sarcasm, but she's implied to be a former prostitute and had to give up her baby.

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