Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.5

Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2022

Jennifer Churchill, who provides a commentary on this and some other Blu-ray releases from The Film Detective, was unknown to me before I encountered her on such outings as Dancing Pirate, and her own self described career emphasis on kid friendly movies would seem to make her a very odd fit for such duties on Girl on a Chain Gang, but at least Churchill seems to have a sense of humor about it, and jokes early on how this film is most definitely not recommended for tots. As an essay in the insert booklet included with this release gets into, as hilarious as it may sound, Girl on a Chain Gang actually had the supposed imprimatur of having been "ripped from the headlines", at least kinda sorta in a good, old fashioned and unabashedly smarmy exploitation manner, since its plot conceit of three Civil Rights workers arrested and tortured in the South might remind some of a notorious 1964 case in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which the insert booklet essay overtly states at least helped to lead to the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act of 1965.

In this case exploitation auteur Jerry Gross perhaps wisely (?) decided to make one of the captives a female. That hapless woman, Jean (Julie Ange), soon finds herself alone in a very despicable backwater. Girl on a Chain Gang takes an inordinately long amount of time to detail a number of nefarious goings on in Carson's Point, which also in the kind of hilarious category is supposed to be in the Deep South, whereas Gross actually shot the picture on Long Island. The whole chain gang element is almost a throwaway here, taking up a scant few seconds of screen time, and then things go off on a wild tangent that would seem to be both a mixed race and mixed gender version of The Defiant Ones. It's all beset by low level production qualities and some ham handed "acting".

Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Girl on a Chain Gang is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Film Detective with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. For aspect ratio purists, the IMDb actually lists 1.37:1 as the original aspect ratio, though whether it was actually exhibited theatrically in that ratio is an open question. The element utilized here is in pretty bad shape, with recurrent (almost nonstop) scratches and other damage, some of which can probably be easily spotted in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. Detail levels are often rather good, all things considered, and contrast is generally consistent. It doesn't look like any aggressive digital manipulation of any kind (for good or ill) has been undertaken. My score is 3.25.

Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kind of interestingly (and perhaps mistakenly), Girl on a Chain Gang features DTS 2.0 Mono audio (as opposed to lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono). There's prevalent hiss at various points in the presentation, especially early on, and the entire track has a kind of boxy, hollow quality. Nonetheless, dialogue (such as it is) is presented cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Jennifer Churchill


• It's All in the Title: Exploiting Jerry Gross (HD; 13:16) is an interesting overview of Gross' career, with narration by Chris Poggiali.

Additionally the insert booklet contains an essay by Lisa Petrucci from Something Weird Video and there's a kind of cheeky "Certificate of Jury Service" insert.

Girl on a Chain Gang Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Essayist Lisa Petrucci makes a valiant case the Girl on a Chain Gang is "hard hitting" and a penetrating exposé of racism in the South, but my hunch is many viewers are going to see more of a simple case of low grade exploitation fare here that kind of humorously never really even exploits all that much. There's certainly a sleazy quality to the proceedings which may at least subliminally caution people about prejudice, but even that may be a stretch. Technical merits encounter some obstacles, but the Jerry Gross featurette in particular is kind of interesting, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.