Werewolf In a Girls' Dormitory, Nubile Babes in Much Peril

No one plays a damsel in distress better than Barbara Lass. When she made 1961's "Werewolf In a Girls' Dormitory," she was married to Roman Polanski...perhaps a wife in peril, as well. In this Italian horror yarn, her and a dorm full of nubile babes will be put in great danger. Oh yes, these are "at-risk" gals...meaning they are criminals, sent to this school to be rehabilitated. In much peril...from a werewolf, yes, but also from a caretaker who pimps them out for deviant sex with old geysers, and an amorous new professor...you gotta love Italian horror.

Okay, Julian Olcott (Carl Schell) has just arrived to this school as a science professor. In reality, he was a doctor at an insane asylum who fell in love with a beauty who turned into a werewolf, and then he killed her when his antidote for her didn't work. Let us not be judgmental, after all, don't we all have similar stories in our past. Back to the plot, the promiscuous Mary (Mary McNeeran) who Walter the caretaker (Luciano Pigozzi) has pimped out to old geyser Sir Alfred (Maurice Marsac), is picked apart and maybe raped by a werewolf. Julian just so happens to be an expert on werewolves, he was attacked by one, after all, so he immediately starts investigating. Also investigating is the sultry Priscilla (Lass). She knows Mary had been blackmailing Sir Alfred.

Now Priscilla finds herself in danger as a number of assorted folks want to murder her. Sir Alfred needs her dead, so does his wife, and so does the werewolf...whoever that is. Julian falls in love with Priscilla, which was the source of his downfall at his old job, and either wants to save her...or rip her to pieces...or both at the same time. Priscilla realizes she can't trust anyone and when her best friend Sandy (Michela Roc) is murdered by Walter the pimp/caretaker, she is put in even more danger. As the werewolf continues mangling and clawing, Walter and Alfred realize Priscilla has the letters that Alfred wrote to Mary. Now Priscilla agrees to be pimped to Alfred as she attempts to find clues that will implicate him...bad move.

Gratuitous and horrific, there is much to this plot. Barbara Lass is alluring and perky and we can see what Roman Polanski saw in her. Just who is the werewolf, and what does it have planned for Priscilla? Is turning into a werewolf a mere metaphor for a man's increased libido when a girl's dormitory is introduced into a plot? Are we way off base looking for a guy to be the werewolf, as most of the cast are nubile dames? Directed by Paolo Heusch, "Werewolf In a Girls' Dormitory" is a wonderful mystery/horror film with a bevy of beauties filling out the cast.