Good Girls Don’t went straight to video in 1993, and has yet to make it to DVD or Blu-ray. I caught it streaming on our Lord and Savior, Tubi. I’m certain I also saw it back in the ‘90s on USA Up All Night. It sure as heck feels like the sort of movie Rhonda Shear would’ve hosted on Up All Night—which I consider high praise for any movie. A quick check online reveals that it did indeed air on Up All Night, so my memory is accurate, for once. Here’s the helpful IMDb summary to give you an idea what it’s all about:
Brash and gutsy stripper Bettina and mousy secretary Jeannie are framed for a murder they didn’t commit. The radically contrasting distaff duo go on the lam in a red convertible with a half million dollars in cash in a briefcase. Various folks on both sides of the law give hot pursuit.
High art, this is not! But as a fun and flirty B-movie, it’s a darn good time! I enjoyed Good Girls Don’t, chuckling at it throughout—it’s funny!—and the eye candy supplied by costars Renee Estevez (of the Estevez acting dynasty) and Julia Parton (a porn star who purports to be a distant cousin of Dolly Parton) doesn’t hurt. Estevez is the prim and proper “good girl” secretary Jeannie, but it’s obvious she just needs a little push to throw caution to the wind and be free and sexy as she wants to be, and that’s where stripper Bettina (Parton) comes in handy. She’s a no-nonsense, straight shooter with a mind for business (seriously, she’s a stock wiz) and a bod for sin.
Estevez and Parton share an easy, lived-in chemistry. It’s actually a pleasure to watch Estevez’s good girl Jeannie become friends with Parton’s bad girl Bettina, and together they’re extremely easy on the eyes. Whether Parton’s sultry exotic dancing or Estevez’s ability to rock a halter top that’s basically a bra and tiny bike shorts, the two consistently make things interesting, from a visual standpoint. The supporting cast seems to be having a good time with the silly material, including cult movie queen Mary Woronov* and the Brady Bunch’s Christopher Knight. B-movie babe Elizabeth Kaitan (Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Vice Academy 3) has a hilarious cameo in a scene with Knight.
The goofy escapades our “radically contrasting distaff duo” get into are very similar to the hijinks in a Vice Academy movie, which is fitting because writer-director Rick Sloan wrote and directed those Up All Night staples too. Like those films, Good Girls Don’t is a mildly entertaining romp, the sort of movie you can chuckle at while not taking any of it too seriously. While neither Parton nor Estevez were winning any acting awards here, they’re funny, likable, and sexy together. I thoroughly enjoyed spending ninety minutes joyriding around with them as they outwit Knight’s narcissistic police detective and a host of other dimwits. Nothing too taxing, just a goofy good time.
*One of these days I’ll spotlight Ms. Woronov here, as she’s starred in so many of my favorite cult movies, including but not limited to Eating Raul, Night of the Comet, The House of the Devil, TerrorVision, Death Race 2000, and the iconic “Angels in Chains” episode of Charlie’s Angels!
Good Girls Don’t is currently streaming on Tubi.
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