Delinquent Daughters (DVD)

Hotrods, hold-ups and hell-raisers are driving Detective Hanahan to desperation. The teens in his sleepy town are on a downhill slide into debauchery. The town judge, a local reporter and even Hanahan himself put the blame on neglectful and abusive parents. The moralistic lawman has his sights set on a rowdy juke-joint run by shady Nick Gordon. Gangs of rebellious teenagers have been using Nick's Merry-Go-Round Cafe as a staging ground for late night mischief. In the wake of a suicide, an armed robbery and a hit-and-run accident, the crooked restaurant owner decides that it's the perfect time to pull a payroll heist using one of the kids as a gunman.

Delinquent Daughters is one of the last works by prolific director Albert Herman. From the 1920s through the '40s he made more than 170 films, including dozens of B-westerns and Mickey Rooney comedy shorts.

Fifi D'Orsay easily steals the show as Nick Gordon's girl, Mimi. Generally cast as a French coquette, Fifi, "the French Bombshell," was actually Canadian and never set foot in France. In 1971, at the age of 67, she appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning Broadway musical, Follies, singing "Ah, Paris!" to rave reviews.

• exploitation