THEY WERE SO YOUNG

Johanna Matz and Scott Brady

THEY WERE SO YOUNG (aka Mannequins fur rio/1954). Written and directed by Kurt Neumann. 

In a prologue, a young woman's body is found washed up on the beach. Then we meet Eve Ullmann (Johanna Matz), who has emigrated from Germany to South America, and winds up working for a fashion house in Rio. It isn't long, however, before she realizes that she and the other women will have to do "favors" for male clients, and that they won't be able to leave their employ no matter what. After an initial disagreement with mining engineer Richard Lanning (Scott Brady), Eve comes to him in desperation for help. Richard takes Eve to the estate of Jaime Coltos (Raymond Burr of Bride of the Gorilla), for whom he works, for safekeeping, but later Lanning discovers that he may have tossed Eve out of the frying pan and into the fire ... 

Raymond Burr and Scott Brady

They Were So Young downplays the prostitution angle but makes it pretty clear that the bad guys in this are running a white slavery racket. The lead actress Johanna Matz, was Viennese and made virtually all of her movies in Germany, including Otto Preminger's German-language version of The Moon is Blue, in which she played Maggie McNamara's role. Matz is cute and charming in this, and plays well with Scott Brady, who offers one of his most winning and charismatic performances. Unfortunately, although the film has a modicum of suspense, the promised climax never quite materializes, and the story is wrapped up quickly and without much excitement. Burr was saved from movies like this by being signed to star in Perry Mason, but he plays Coltos with just the right amount of restrained menace. The premiere of this film did not lead to Matz having any kind of American career, but as the film was released by bargain basement Lippert Pictures, it probably was never intended to. Gert Frobe plays a henchman in this but I didn't spot him, probably because his signature title role in Goldfinger was ten years later. 

Verdict: Low-budget film noir of sorts has an interesting cast but never really catches fire. **1/4.