RIFF RAFF GIRLS -- trailer review by Squashpants

Okay, let's get back to the subject of films that oughta be public domain, but apparently are not, or I should be seeing them on my Roku PD channels.

Tonight I am thinking of a pic that I have seen the trailer for and have been intrigued by. It is a French film made in 1959, titled "Du Rififi chez les femmes", but released here as RIFF RAFF GIRLS. The interest in this is on several levels.

First of all it is a European film with Nadja Tiller, a real babe at the time. Secondly, it is a crime film and people in it evidently get really nasty with each other. But, finally the most recommending aspect of the film, at the time I would have seen it in early teenhood, was its sexiness.

No, you are not going to see any real nudity in a pic made in 1959 (even in Europe), but you are likely to have seen some nice cleavage, and sexily clad Euro-actresses, and this would have made my night if seen at midnight in my hormone-maddened condition. The trailer makes the revealing wardrobe very much apparent, and for its time, this would have definitely have lifted the males in an audience off their seats.

I also happen to like the atmospherics of these old Euro-crime movies, and the ones that were made when Black and White was still the standard are usually the best ones. Made with finesse and menace, and the restraint of a more chivalrous time, but not above making the molls as cat-scratchingly hostile as possible, and sexier than living hell.

I don't know. Maybe there isn't even a print left of it. IMDb seems to imply there is. I would watch it in the original French without subtitles, just to see it.

Buy the poster at Amazon.com