Theories about unexplained discrepancies in this movie

Nearly every description I've ever read of this film refers to the beleaguered heroine Barbara Bonney, as fleeing from the girl gang The Black Widows, after having stabbed one of their members, Nan Baker, in a fight over a boy they both liked, Eddie Rand, of the Vandals gang.

Screenwriter Charles Griffith stated that he had to rewrite the entire script in a weekend, after the censors had rejected almost every scene he'd originally described. Apparently, the original screenplay had the Black Widows hunting for Barbara Bonney in order to kill her. In the revised version filmed, they are planning to capture her and then terrorize her into turning herself in to the police.
The original idea was just too much for the movie code people to allow at the time, though it would have been realistic. Likewise, Nan's death is described as an accident, that she fell off the roof of the building where she and Barbara were struggling. Barbara is implicated in Nan's death, but it was self defense.

The other thing I suspect is a scene that doesn't really make sense, unless you consider it to be a leftover from the original rejected screenplay. Hel, the tough leader of the Black Widows, appears at the door of Barbara Bonney's house, and speaks politely to Barbara's clueless father, claiming to be a friend of Barbara' from school. The mom is a lot more aware of what's going on,and picks up on Barbara's silent signal not to let Hel know she's at home. As Hel and Barbara's father are talking, Hel says that she has something that Barbara left with a friend of hers, and has come to return it.

We do not get a good look at the object Hel is referring to, but it is a small, dark item three or four inches long, that she hands to Barbara's father, who looks disapproving and says, " This couldn't belong to Barbara; this is not the sort of thing I would permit her to own." The inescapable conclusion is that the object under discussion is a switchblade knife, the weapon most associated with street gangs of the Fifties. If I'm right, this would seem to tie in with the original script, where Barbara had actually stabbed the other girl to death, and Hel's remark about wanting to give it back has a really sinister connotation.

I probably have too much time on my hands, but I can't help but wonder.

And when he crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him