Girls Beware
Girls Beware is a short film from 1961 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
Like its precursor Name Unknown (1951), Girls Beware is a trilogy of tragedies brought about by teenage girls' attempts at independent behavior. The first, a story of a young woman who accepts a babysitting job from a man whom she does not know, ends with a report that her body has been found on a lonely desert road. As Norma Neufner (the policewoman who narrates the film) says, "You can never find the right words to tell a mother her daughter has been murdered. Judy hadn't done anything wrong, she'd only been careless." The second part tells how two young teens, craving male attention, permit themselves to be picked up by two older boys they meet at the movies, boys who are strangers. Sally's mother wisely forbids her from going out with the boys again, but Elizabeth rides up to the top of "Lookout Peak" (actually San Pedro Hill in Los Angeles County) with the two and pays a high price for her adventurism.
The third story concerns Mary and Robert, who meet at the "Ah-Ha" hamburger stand, an artifact of the early sixties L.A. landscape. In this environment, kids enjoy a great deal of freedom, and it's precisely unrestrained freedom that will get them into trouble. Mary meets Robert, who "frequented the malt shop in his spare time, which was considerable as he had finished high school and didn't work. Here he sought out the company of young teenagers because he wasn't accepted by those of his own age group." Robert, a slacker par excellence, corrupts Mary. In the words of Patrolwoman Neufner, "They began to go to secluded places and their relationship became more intimate. Mary knew things were getting out of hand because Bob became more and more demanding, but not wishing to lose his friendship, or the prestige she enjoyed from her friends from having an older boyfriend, she complied with his desires." The camera rises from the couple making out on the ground to a shot of the trees and sky, somehow alluding to an unspeakable reality. "Then Mary found she was in trouble and had to tell her parents. But now it was too late for advice and Mary had to be taken out of school and placed under the guidance of juvenile authorities."
Girls Beware isn't just a warning against the possibility of murder, rape and abduction by strangers, but about the negative consequences of ordinary sexual activity, such as pregnancy and coming under the control of juvenile authorities. It responds with a message of fear to the strong impulses of sexual energy and adventurism that adolescents feel, and implicitly tells its young audience that society cannot offer a safe haven to independent or unguarded women.| Girls Beware | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Davis (Sid) Productions |
Production company | Davis (Sid) Productions |
| Distributed by | Davis (Sid) Productions |
Release date | 1961 |
Running time | 10:00 |
| Language | English |
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