Hide The Baby!

 

 (imdb)

THE GREEN EYED BLONDE-1957-This kind of female JD story takes place at the "Martha Washington School For Girls" where newcomer Betsy Able (Linda Plowman), a young girl who had a child out of wedlock, is being admitted just when the old crone head of the place Mrs. Nichols (Jean Inness) is welcoming new counselor Miss Maggie Williams (Sally Brophy). Nichols refers to Betsy as a "little criminal" when Betsy says she hates old people. Later Betsy is introduced to her new inmates: Green Eyes (Susan Oliver), Trixie (Tommie Moore), Ouisle (Beverly Long) and Joyce (Carla Merey). There's also another character named Cuckoo (Norma Jean Nilsson) who tries to kill herself at dinner. Miss Williams tries her best to integrate herself with the girls. At night Green Eyes meets with her boyfriend Cliff (Ray Foster) by a chain link fence. 

On visiting day Betsy's hateful mother (who has custody of Betsy's baby) questions Betsy about the father's identity. Since mom and her ineffectual boyfriend Ed leave the baby in their car unattended, Cuckoo steals it and brings it back to the dormitory. The girls decide to take care of the baby even though Betsy wants nothing to do with it. They use a book to get info and steal sheets for diapers. They call him Buddy. They sing very loudly to hide the baby's crying. Eventually Betsy comes to care for her son. Unfortunately Miss Williams discovers their secret. The girls implore her to wait until after Christmas and she agrees. More unfortunately the baby is discovered and taken away. The girls revolt and wreck the place. Many of them try to escape but the police intervene and Cuckoo dies. After Trixie is picked up by her father, Green Eyes runs away with Cliff ("See ya in the cemetery"). On Christmas they open presents for Buddy and learn Green Eyes & Cliff are killed in a robbery. The End.

 Juanita Moore and Stafford Repp have small roles. Passed over today GREEN EYES (aka THE GREEN EYED BLONDE) was written and co-produced by Sally Stubblefield, a pseudonym (front) for the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. Director Bernard Girard worked mostly in TV around this time with an occasional feature film. Years later he directed THE MAD ROOM.

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Not a Newton Room....

 

THE MAD ROOM-1969-In 1957 two children murder their parents and are placed in a mental institution. Their older sister a witness to the crime is now Ellen Hardy (Stella Stevens) a kind of live-in personal assistant to rich widow Gladys Armstrong (Shelly Winters) who's son () Ellen is engaged to. Things seem to be ok until Ellen gets a letter saying her to siblings are being released into her care. With no other choice Ellen brings them to stay in the Armstrong house where they get almost immediately into trouble for using Gladys private study as their “mad room”, a place to go when they are upset. Gladys winds up hacked to death after she learns the history of the two and her dog carries her severed hand around.

 

The pretty predictable story also features Severn Darden as a builder and Beverly Garland as Mrs. Racine, a drunken floozy who's husband/masseur is having an affair with Gladys. Her death scene is the highlight of the whole film when she commits suicide in a bathroom after making a bitter speech using the word “man-whore”. Another housewife is played by Jennifer Bishop who was later in several Al Adamson films (HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS, THE FEMALE BUNCH).

THE MAD ROOM is a remake of the 1941 film LADIES IN RETIREMENT, an adaptation of a hit Broadway play. Director Bernard Girard also made the seldom seen THE HAPPINESS CAGE.

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