Sam Fuller is deservedly a cult director and this is the cult film that best expresses his go-for-the-jugular skills. For evidence, look no further than the famous opening sequence that features a bald-headed Towers savagely beating up her pimp. From here, Towers gets a job in the local children's hospital of a small town and falls in love with a young benefactor, but her hooker past and others' prejudices simply refuse to go away.
The story-line is a kind of psychotic fairy tale in which all kinds of ideas about people being trapped within others' expectations find convincing expression. Sex as warfare, loss of innocence and an overriding fascination with the deceptive nature of appearances are all right in here, not simply ideas grafted onto the story.