Red Heat: Unschuld hinter Gittern

Women-in-prison flick involving an innocent American tourist in West Germany who is mistaken for a spy, grilled until exhaustion sets in, and sent to jail without a word to her soldier-fiancé. After publicly nixing her hit "Chained Heat" on just about every talk show of the 1980s, it's amazing that star Linda Blair would even think of doing another jailhouse underachiever. This one, filmed in chilly blues and grays, is just as seedy and depressing. The roster comes complete with a decadently lascivious guard (gaunt, kinky Sylvia Kristel), a terrified blonde, a friendly butch, and lots of malicious broads. Blair manages (somehow) to keep her dignity and has a few strong scenes, including being interrogated and collapsing under pressure or standing up to the review board with a firm "F*** you!" The direction is fairly tight, and the movie is engrossing almost in spite of itself. *1/2 from ****

Not to be confused with the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle with the same name, although released just a few years earlier and clearly featuring a couple of common themes, this "Red Heat" is actually a 'Women in Prison' exploitation movie starring Linda Blair (the amount of trashy B-movies she starred in during the eighties is nearly endless) and Sylvia Kristel; the one and only original starlet to depict the legendary soft-core film character Emmanuelle. The main reason why "Red Heat" isn't very popular or even commonly known among exploitation fanatics is probably because the script aspires to be overly ambitious and politically engaging. There's too much driveling about the Cold War and political conspiracies, instead of just focusing a little more on the obligatory "WiP" ingredients such as cat-fights, lesbian perversity and dark affairs ran from inside the prison walls. Don't get me wrong, "Red Heat" does feature all these elements, only in too small portions. That's why I think the comparisons between this one and "Chained Heat" (also starring Linda Blair) are completely unjust. I just watched "Chained Heat" as well and this movie is at least ten times more boring and less sleazy.

Blair stars as an America student who comes to pay her soldier boyfriend a visit in his stationary base in West-Germany, only to hear that he wishes to delay their marriage in favor of signing up for some extra years of service. Angry, confused and out for a nightly walk, Christine witness a political kidnapping and gets apprehended herself. Forced into confessing spying crimes she didn't obviously didn't commit, Christine is taken to an old-fashioned and secluded prison institution where contact with the civilized Western world is simply a distant dream. Sylvia Kristel – wearing a hideous red wig - stars as the bitchy inmate who's actually more in control of the prison than the head warden. Meanwhile, Christine's fiancée slowly attempts to set up a rescue mission with the help of his army buddies and some political volunteers. In all fairness, the film contains a handful of powerful sequences (like, for example, Christine's exhausting interrogation) as well as neatly atmospheric set pieces and steady direction by Robert Collector. Heck, come to think of it, "Red Heat" isn't even such a bad film. It's just too slow, talkative and wannabe informative and that simply isn't what the target audiences anticipate to see. Have no fear, though, as said there's plenty of other 80's trash featuring Linda Blair out there.

Not quite, but close! Linda Blair has proved again and again that she shares a rare quality with Mark Hamill, the ability to attach herself to one cinematic landmark and follow it with an entire career of complete trash. I saw RED HEAT on TV when I was about 11. Perhaps I was too young to understand this film's more basic appeal at that time, what I did get from it was that women in prison do crazy things to each other. Was there a plot beyond that? I'm not sure. There's something about an escape attempt but it isn't very clear. RED HEAT can really be best described as crap. It doesn't even succeed at that fun/pathetic B-movie level. The picture is alternately boring and confusing. The ending is about as clear as a muddy ditch and a lot less satisfying. I'd comment on Blair's performance if she'd actually given one. RED HEAT is a forgettable, exploitive little thing that should have been made by someone who understood the genre. I give it no stars.

Linda Blair gets mistaken for someone else and she and another woman are thrown into a brutal german prison where she has no rights now. Sylvia Kristel plays the leader of the in for life inmates and she torments others until Blair cannot stand it and fights her. Blair doesn't know that her fiancee and his friends are planning to break her out but they better do it quick before angry Kristel gets to her first. Pretty good with a good score by Tangerine Dream.

Decent entry into the Women In Prison genre finds Linda Blair, two years after "Chained Heat", back in the slammer in this politically loaded yarn. She plays Christine Carlson, an innocent college student visiting her fiancée, Mike (William Ostrander), an Army lieutenant stationed in Germany. After a fight with Mike, Christine finds herself in one of those "wrong place at the wrong time" scenarios by witnessing the abduction of Hedda (Sue Kiel), a spy who was trying to defect. The evil authorities force Christine to confess to espionage activities, and both she and Hedda are thrown in an East German prison. This particular place is ruled by alluring Sylvia "Emmanuelle" Kristel as Sofia, a top con who relishes her position in the pecking order - and relishes enforcing it. "Red Heat" is all just somber enough, trashy enough, and entertaining enough to make it an acceptable diversion. The requirements of the genre are satisfactorily met, with the standard display of delectable female nudity, lesbian couplings, harsh violence, and mean, sadistic villains that fans come to expect. Linda is appealing as always, and compelling to watch as we see her prison stay start changing her - not exactly for the better, of course. One can hardly blame her whenever she does snap. The sub plot of Mike doing everything he possibly can do - his career be damned - helps keep the movie moving along nicely, and the story leads right up to a respectably rousing climactic prison break. Beefy actor Ostrander, whom you may recognize as having played bully Buddy Repperton in the film version of "Christine", is good, as is Kiel, although Kristel remains the most fun to watch as she clearly enjoys playing the part of the bad girl. With the action enhanced by typically fine and atmospheric music by Tangerine Dream, and capable direction by Robert Collector, this movie is definitely good of its kind, with a palpably serious mood and a lack of camp. Overall, solidly done and worth a look. Seven out of 10.