REFORM SCHOOL GUY

“When I was growing up, I didn’t go to bed dreaming about Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds. I dreamed about Jennifer Jones and Rita Hayworth. There was just something about those ‘bad girls.’ ”

Obviously, Tom DeSimone still has a thing for bad girls. Why else would he have written/directed “Reform School Girls” for New World? It’s the one out now with Wendy O. Williams, Pat Ast (of the play “Women Behind Bars”), Sybil Danning and lots and lots of Sweet Young Things who spend a good deal of their time lolling about in their undies in the school dorm.

“Oh, wasn’t that something? When I first wrote those scenes, I imagined the girls in T-shirts and boxer-type shorts. More uniform-like,” said DeSimone with a laugh. “But all the girls brought this exotic, Frederick’s of Hollywood-type stuff. I walked on the set one day and they were all prancing around and I thought, ‘My God, this looks like a bordello!’ ”

This isn’t his first outing with imprisoned women. Some years back, he did the X-rated, soft-core “Prison Girls” in eye-popping 3-D. Then there was “Concrete Jungle.”

Asked about the allure of this persistent genre, DeSimone said, “Well, for men, it may be linked to that old parochial school thing. You know, your mom tells you, ‘Stay away from girls like that’--which makes bad girls look even more fascinating.

“I think women who like the film are reacting to that old image that says women should be sweet and feminine. So they look at the tough girls and think, ‘I could be that if I wanted to.’

“All prison pictures--male as well as female--have a certain fascination. Because prison is something everyone thinks will never happen to them. Kind of like life on another planet.”