Overview: Poor White Trash! Stay Clear - This Town Got Ways of Teaching You a Lesson!

Schlock producer Jerry Gross made his directorial debut with Girl on a Chain Gang (1966), a stirring feature about small town hate. William Watson, Julie Ange, and Ron Charles star in this shocker about three young people who are framed, arrested, and tossed into jail by corrupt Southern police.

Gross, who produced everything from Blaxploitation films to features about teen pregnancy, exercised his social conscience in this drama about racist Southern cops.

It was made the year after three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, a subject Gross must’ve believed was worth exploiting into drive-in theater fare. True to his low budget roots, Gross filmed this one nowhere near the South, but in Long Island, New York!

Blu-ray Verdict: While on a secret trip in the Deep South to assist in voter registration, two men by the names of Ted Branch (Ron Segal) and Audie Dixon (uncredited) along with one woman, Jean Rollins (Julie Ange) are pulled over by two redneck deputies for speeding.

Not content to simply give them a ticket and allow them to drive off, the two deputies then proceed to take them to the city jail. It’s there that the three travelers meet the local sheriff, Sonny Lew Wymer (William Watson) who happens to be both corrupt and extremely vicious as well!

Anyway, after shaking them down for $150 he eventually allows them to leave. Unfortunately, rather than leaving town they decide to stop off at a local tavern and have a drink first. Big mistake!

Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it yet (although this Film Detective restoration is most definitely the most perfect time to now do that), I will just say that I found this film to still be somewhat entertaining in spite of its obvious flaws.

Admittedly the plot was heavy handed and the characters were a bit over-the-top and additionally I thought the ending was too abrupt and left much to be desired also, but all that said, many of us who lived in the United States during this particular time can probably admit that, as a nation, this wasn’t one of our finest hours.

And thus it is the still-lingering memory of this that gave this film such a haunting charm. At least it did for me. Likewise, having two attractive actresses like Arlene Farber (as Nellie) and the aforementioned Julie Ange certainly didn’t hurt either, of course. This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.37:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Full length audio commentary with author, Jennifer Churchill
New, original essay by Lisa Petrucci, in a full color booklet
IT’S ALL IN THE TITLE: EXPLOITING JERRY GROSS - A short history of the semi-legendary producer with author/film historian Chris Poggiali, from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures