An attractive young woman is remanded to a harsh and ugly reformatory for wayward girls whose staff is filled with enough hatred and punitive zeal to rival the worst penitentiary for hardened criminals. In flashbacks we learn how she fled a guilty sexual affair with her stepfather, confessing all to her fiancé only to have him start treating her as a whore. Learning how to use her body to manipulate men, she embarks on a brief and successful career as a high class prostitute, only to be nabbed by the police because of her minor status. Zoe Laskari gives a fascinating performance of a hardened young woman who is still young enough to be vulnerable and intelligent enough to calculate how best to leave her hated environment... The film is beautifully shot in black and white, and punctuated with dramatic lighting and a stirring music score. The acting is excellent, even in the minor roles, with frequent scenes of hysteria, violence and hateful emotions convincingly real. Laskari and Focas were teamed in two other films, but this is by far the best. It is a dark, moody and grim study of a young woman's degradation and her stony, difficult path towards redemption which cannot fail to move viewers.
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gridoon20247 April 2022An early WIP exploitation film from Greece, a few years before the genre was popularized in America and other parts of Europe. Probably sensational in its day, quite tame now. Unconvincing (Zoi Laskari looks and acts about 10 years older than the "18" she is supposed to be; the "reformatory" looks more like a slightly stricter girl scouts' camp facility) but still watchable, and you can tell why Laskari was considered a rebellious sex symbol in her day. A "what-the-heck?" shock ending seems tacked-on at the last minute. **1/2 out of 4.