Before he moved into making TV movies, Michael Miller made Silent Rage and Class Reunion in the same year, as well as another rough film, Jackson County Jail. Street Girls is more raw than all of them, a movie that seemed to be sleazier than the majority of New World's catalogue.
Shockingly, it was co-written by Barry Levinson.
Yes, the same person who directed Rainman.
Angel (Christine Souder in the only movie she'd ever make) goes from college girl to exotic dancer to getting hooked on heroin. Her father (Art Burke) decides to go the Hardcore route four years before that movie was made and head out into the filthy streets to find his little girl. At first, he has the help of her co-worker Sally (Carol Case, also in her only movie) until he learns that she was Angel's lover. Disgusted, he abandons her and continues his search.
This also shows the life that Angel is in, down to a scene where a client brings her a swimming mask so that he can urinate on her. She locks herself in a filthy motel bathroom while he keeps banging on the door, begging for the opportunity to defile her. This scene goes way beyond any small town girl gone wrong movie than any I've seen in mainstream movies.
It's not great, but man, it's not afraid to show how cheap life can be.
Plot summary
When a middle-aged father searches for his dropout daughter, Angel, his quest takes him into the underworld of prostitutes, pimps, drug addicts and thieves. Angel has become a dancer in a topless bar, and her dealer boyfriend is turning her on to heroin.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
July 17, 2024 at 12:34 PM
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Top cast
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A sleazier Hardcore
Cheap and Dull
After losing contact with his daughter a middle-aged man decides to investigate her disappearance and he eventually finds himself navigating nightclubs in a seedy section of an American city. It's during this time that he comes across a disturbed young man named "Michael Albert" (Michael Weber) who tells him that she used to live with his sister "Sally" (Carol Case) but that she has moved out and is living with a guy named "Mario" (Jay Derringer). He then offers to show him the nightclub where both of the young women work as dancers. Once he gets there, however, he doesn't find his daughter "Angel" (Christine Souder) there he does meet Sally who tells him things about Mario that makes him even more concerned-and that's just the beginnings of his troubles. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather cheap sexploitation film which suffered from a shallow plot and inconsistent acting. And while both Carol Case and Christine Souder performed adequately enough, there just wasn't anything else worth mentioning about this film and I have rated it accordingly.
Reality of a drug addicted street girl is not easy to watch but would be beneficial for teenagers to watch
The film quality may be lacking from a cinematic perspective but when you measure the film against the seedy backdrop of strip bars, back alleys and low rental apartment buildings where most of the film scenes were taken than you get the feeling that the director was attempting to make the film as realistic as possible. It is possible that maybe the film director and/or producer have experienced some of the seedier part of drugs and poverity in their personal lives or know someone close to them who has lived it on the streets and brought their reality to the screen.
With the abundance of drugs and alcohol that are readily available, and the ease of pimps and their Johns to find women who are willing to satisfy their own drug related needs with sex then the film Street Girls needed to be developed if only to remind vulnerable young women what can happen to them if they fall victime to becoming street girls themselves. The fathers persistence in attempting to find the truth what has happened to his baby girl was more relaistic than hiring a 1970's TV detective such as Columbo, Kojak or Starsky and Hutch.
This may not be a film classic but it certainly is a story that needed to be told and in my humble opinion should be shown to teenagers 14 and older (even though there is some nudity) to dissuade them from participating in recreational drug use.
I give the film a middle of the road 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.