So Young So Bad is a juvenile version of Caged with the female prisoners being of the teenage variety. In fact the it's obvious to me that this film was absolutely an attempt to cash in on the popularity and notoriety of MGM's female classic.<br /><br />It's not an all female cast though. Paul Henreid plays a new prison psychologist who with Catherine McLeod is shocked at the sadistic treatment meted out by the head of the institution, Cecil Clovelly and the head guard Grace Coppin who is a slimmed down and toned down version of Hope Emerson.<br /><br />The most fascinating aspect of this film is the fact that of the four girls who are the focus of the plot, three of them went on to have some pretty substantial careers. The four are Anne Francis, Rita Moreno, Anne Jackson, and Enid Pulver. <br /><br />Anne Francis made her film debut in this and she's the sexpot of the group. She's an unwed mother who has her cap now set for Paul Henreid and I'm not quite sure how he was able to resist the temptation. You could tell this woman had a future in Hollywood.<br /><br />But the best performance in this film is that of Rita Moreno. She plays a mentally disturbed teen who is the special object of cruelty by Coppin with tragic results.<br /><br />Though So Young So Bad is a trashy film, it's interesting to see how many stars came out of it. Or in spite of it.