Die wilden Zehn

In Director Ted V. Mikels' TEN VIOLENT WOMEN, the Maestro forays into the world of the Women In Prison movie. He succeeds brilliantly, since women do end up in prison.

A mining accident sends a crew of women into a life of crime. Their spree of heists includes the high-heeled spiking death of a lowlife "fence", played by Mikels himself! Drug deals, flamenco dancing, and arrests ensue.

In the slammer, we're introduced to the "head screw", Bri Terry (Georgia Morgan), and her ex-lunch lady guard squad. Terry is a meanie pants with certain "ideas" about the females in her charge. Sadism and weirdness take place. Thankfully, the big finale contains much needed belly dancing.

With this film, the Director has chosen to forgo such trifles as sound, lighting, production, acting, or any semblance of a story line. Instead, he just turns on the camera and lets it all fly! Otherwise, this could never have become the miraculous shambles that it is.

In the galaxy of sub-sludge cinema, Mikels' star burns very bright. He has a real knack for this sort of stuff. Whether that's a good thing or not is left to posterity...

In the history of cinema, you'd have a tough time thinking of a worse filmmaker than Ted Mikels. Although Ed Wood Jr. has gotten a lot of attention by creating abominable (yet sadly funny) films like "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda", Mikels' record of schlock films is far more impressive (is that the right word?)--with such notable crap films as "The Corpse Grinders", "The Worm Eaters", "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things", "The Astro-Zombies", "Girl in the Gold Boots" (currently on IMDb's Bottom 100 list) and "Apartheid Slave-Women's Justice" to his credit (or, discredit). And, this list is only a smattering of the sort of crap Mikels has created and continues to create to this day.

Oddly, however, although I admit that his films are horrible in every way, I make it a point to watch them whenever I can. This is because I am a glutton for punishment and occasionally like laughing at an inept and stupid film. Some of this is because I often watch and review art films, foreign movies and the like--and sometimes I just need a break (especially since some of these can be depressing or pretentious). And, Mikels films are sure a far cry from the norm!!! Eight lady miners (who look NOTHING like miners) decide that this sort of work isn't for them, so they decide to devote themselves to a life of crime. However, things don't go well and they are sent to prison--where there is, naturally, a sadistic girl-lovin' guard in charge (a standard cliché for bad movie makers during the 70s and early 80s). What happens next is for you to discover for yourself....if you can stomach it!

Like any of Mikels' masterpieces, this one features bad acting, an annoying and very invasive soundtrack, inept direction and nothing to recommend it. Unlike some of Mikels' earlier films, this one has a bit of nudity and rough language but unlike his most recent films, it at least appears to have been filmed with a real movie camera (he's taken to using what looks like an iPhone or super-cheap home movie camera for his more recent films). And, unless you like terrible films, there's nothing to recommend this one...nothing. A wonderful example of how bad Mikels can be but not a particularly fun movie to watch.

By the way, I actually found one Mikels film that was, inexplicably, pretty good. One of his earliest films, "Black Klansman", is actually well done and make you wonder how Mikels' films got progressively worse instead of progressively better!

There's something liberating about watching a movie with many scenes so dark you can't tell what's happening. You get to make up your own movie. And brother let me tell you no matter how terrible your idea is, it's miles better than this trash. It's not all dark though. There are dimly lit scenes where you can tell what's going on. Savor these moments. Memorize each person's clothing as that will be the only way you can tell them apart when the darkness returns. The most well-lit scenes take place outside. Perhaps the sun should receive a lighting credit. As with every Ted Mikels movie, there's a little bit of cheesecake. But unless you're really hard up its nothing to get hot & bothered over. Avoid this crapper.

My review was written in May 1984 after a screening at Selwyn theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"10 Violent Women" is a strange women's prison film which will be of interest to followers of that specialized genre. Made in 1978, pic was released regionallly in 1982 and is reviewed on its belated firs appearance in New York.

Convoluted storyline (punctuated by freeze-frames and announcement titles-ove as gags) opens with eight women getting frustrated with their work and turning to crime. They successfully pull off a jewelry store robbery, but are nabbed (roughly halfway through the film) by narcs when they try to sell them cocaine obtained from Leo the fence (Ted V. Mikels, the director, in a support role).

Action in stir is generally routine, except for a memorably overdone turn by Georgia Morgan as the extremely butch head guard, who likes to doff her mannish uniform at night, put on frilly nightgowns and force the prettier inmates to submit to everything from humiliation to whippings. After a much too easy escape from behind bars, heroines Samantha (Sherri Vernon) and Maggie (Dixie Lauren) mark time unconvincingly until a shah whose sacred scarab ing they stole (in the jewel robbery) invites them onto his yacht, drops criminal charges and whisks them off in an absurd happy ending.

"Women" is the sort of odd B-movie that proliferated a decade ago for regional and drive-in circuit use (when budgets under $50,000 per film were possible), but since then tv action shows have obviated the production of such pictures. Filmmake Mikels, for example, made an interesting actioner "The Doll Squad" in 1972 with Francine York starring as the leader (named Sabrina) of a trio of tough female undercover agents, which was the prototype of "Charlie's Angels".

Though too kinky in spots for general audiences (Mikel as Leo is killed gruesomely by a "heroine" stabbing him repeatedly with her spiked heel), "Women" is technically adequate low-budget action fare. Its title defies precise calculation, since only three or four heroines are in the spotlight at any one time.

Ten Violent Women (1982)

1/2 (out of 4)

Director Ted V. Mikels takes at least two different genres and throws them together but the end result is yet another deadly dull disaster. A group of women working in a dangerous mine grow tired of that so they decide to rob a jewelry store, which leads to an issue when a valuable jewel they stole is wanted by its crazed owner. Eventually the women get involved with a drug deal that soon leads them to prison where they're abused by the wicked female warden. TEN VIOLENT WOMEN is an utter disaster no matter how you look at it. I've said this countless times before but I really enjoy Mikels and his style and energy but sadly this very rarely transfers to the screen. If you've seen interviews with Mikels or even the documentary done on him then you know he's an interesting person and someone you'd love to hang out with. The problem is that the majority of his movies are deadly dull and that's certainly the case here. This thing mixes up several genres but sadly the result is just bad. The worse part is that this exploitation film contains very little exploitation and instead the director takes a fun genre (women in prison) and turns it into a kid's flick. I say this because of the lack of nudity and there's even a shower sequence here where the women wrestle but in their bra and panties. What the heck is that all about? There are simply way too many other women in prison films out there that offer much more than what we get here. The first portion of the film deals with the various robberies but these too are just boring and drag on forever. Obviously there's way too much filler going on here and with a running time of 96-minutes it feels longer than Roots. The performances are as bad as you'd expect but so is everything else here.