Lucy Owens (Jocelyn Britton) and her friend Claire (Bernice Swanson) burgle some jewellery from a mansion but are disturbed by the butler who recognises Lucy as a former employee. Claire knocks him out so they can make good their escape.
Knowing she will soon be arrested, Lucy gives all the jewellery to Claire for safekeeping until she eventually gets released but keeps a diamond bracelet for herself.
Later, in a local club, Lucy encounters her musician ex-boyfriend Tom (John Charlesworth) talking to a pretty and respectable young lady named Ann Turner (Jill Ireland) and becomes extremely jealous. So Lucy slips the diamond bracelet into Ann’s coat pocket and when she is arrested, she tells the police that Ann was her accomplice.
Ann denies the charges of robbery with violence but is found guilty and sent to a women’s reformatory for three years along with Lucy.
Although Ann is treated well by the Matron (Joan Haythorne), she is subjected to sadistic abuse by the brutal head warden named Miss Smith (Ellen Pollock). A fellow prisoner called Mary (Sheila Whittingham) becomes Ann’s only friend and ally but, after a run-in with Miss Smith, hangs herself.
Meanwhile, Ann’s father and Tom set about trying to clear her name.
Produced by Edward and Harry Danziger, this watchable British exploitation quickie is incongruously shot in extremely pretty Technicolor. Shameless recyclers of their own material, the Danzigers reshuffled elements of So Young, So Bad (1950), Sentenced for Life (1960) and Man Accused (1959) to create So Evil, So Young.
Ann Turner
Jill Ireland Miss Smith
Ellen Pollock Tom Hanks
John Charlesworth Lucy Owens
Jocelyn Britton Matron
Joan Haythorne Jane
Olive McFarland Mr Turner
John Longden Mary
Sheila Whittingham Inspector
Colin Tapley Sam
C. Denier Warren Claire
Bernice Swanson Dear Old Moran
Otto Diamant Butler
Alastair Hunter Edna
Gwendolyn Watts Sandra
Sandra Alfred Eve
Eve Eden Jill
Gillian Watt Carol
Carole Lorimer Irene
Irene Barrie Rose
Rosemary Rotheray
Ann Turner
