99 Mujeres

New inmate Marie (Maria Rohm) arrives at an island prison in the women's sector and receives the number 99. The inmates are controlled by the sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz and Governor Santos (Herbert Lom) and submitted to torture, rape and lesbianism.

Apparently, this film "kicked off the genre in a new direction" and "was a big box office success in the U.S. in 1969." I find this somewhat hard to believe... because as much as I love exploitation and Jess Franco, this just is not all that great. Even with veteran actor Herbert Lom, it more or less has just a group of women wandering around doing a whole lot of nothing.

Not surprisingly, Franco continued to make more films in this genre, probably turning a quick profit: Women in Cell Block 9 (1978), Ilsa, The Wicked Warden (1977), Barbed Wire Dolls (1975), Women Behind Bars (1975), and Sadomania (1980).

Ah, women-in-prison and Jesus Franco. What can we expect.

It really depends on the version you watch, as there are versions from 70 minutes (UK) to 99 minutes (Argentina). The US and Sweden have 86 minute versions, although Sweden banned even that. This is a 90 minute unrated version.

One does not expect to find a double Golden Globe and Oscar winner in a Jesus Franco film, but here she is - Mercedes McCambridge (All the King's Men - 1949) as the prison superintendent.

Also Maria Schell, who has 2 BAFTA Film Award nominations and another 14 awards, as an inspector from the Ministry. She did get prisoner 99 (Maria Rohm) out of solitary on her first day.

More expected is Herbert Lom as the Governor, the only surviving member of The Ladykillers (1955), and a Razzie nominee for King Solomon's Mines.

It appears Franco was going for quality as it is more than a half hour in before we see a breast, and some girl-on-girl action. Even that was shot with a lot of Vaseline on the camera. Don't the women in this prison take showers? Marie (99), Zoe (Rosalba Neri), and Rosalie (Valentina Godoy) attempt to cross 30 miles of snake-infested jungle and swamp at night to escape. yeah, right. They find a lily-covered pond that looks the same as the one in Virgin among the Living Dead.

Of course, it isn't the snakes on the ground they have to worry about, but the snakes attached to the dozen male prisoners that saw them and are running after them. One doesn't make it.

A good drama with some famous actors, but disappointing as a WIP exploitations.

Given Jess Franco's penchant for uber-strange, dream-like, over-sexed affairs, this comes off as one of his tamest and most main stream movies...as main stream as WIP flicks can be that is.

The film follows follows a familiar pattern. A group of girls are brought to an inescapable fortress/prison were they are to serve out their sentence. The lead girl (played by the lovely Maria Schell) may or may not be innocent, regardless she decides she does not wish to remain in the inhospitable place any longer than she has to and an escape attempt forms.

As would be expected, the prison is host to assorted debauchery and sadism on the part of the prison staff. Prisoners are mistreated, dehumanized, etc. Compared to most any other WIP flick out there, this one is pretty clean content wise. Some clothed cat fights, limited nudity and one harsh (though thankfully brief) rape scene are the most the film offers in terms of exploitation.

Technically speaking, I would argue that this is Franco's most accomplished film. Light, color, sound are all good; even his use of camera angles exceeds what would normally be expected of him. The acting is all around what would be expected from this sort of affair, with the notable exception of Herbert Lom, who manages to be both a creep and oddly likable. A major down point is the script, which is so cut-n-dry that it never does a whole lot of anything.

An actually good Franco movie that may be too tame for his more fetish fans, but certainly worth a look.

(Note: This review is based on the regular edition of the film and not the badly re-edited hardcore version) 7/10

The new inmate Marie (Maria Rohn) arrives in an island prison in the women's sector and receives the number 99. The inmates are controlled by the sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge) and Governor Santos (Herbert Lom) and submitted to torture, rape and lesbianism. When the Minister of Justice replaces Diaz by Leonie Caroll (Maria Schell), Marie believes that her life will improve and her case will be reopened. However, Marie is disappointed with the new warden and decides to escape with two other inmates. But their runaway scheme fails and the three women are chased not only by the guards, but also by male's prisoners that have not seen women for many years.

"Der heiße Tod", a.k.a. "99 Women" is a lame exploitation of the genre "women's prison" with a story that uses the clichés and the stereotypes of this type of story. The great cast is unusual in Jess Franco's films, but the insertion of scenes of explicit sex is ridiculous and without continuity. I believe that the version without these X-rated scenes inserted may be better. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "99 Mulheres" ("99 Women")

The newest batch of detainees arrives at a remote women's prison. The fortress-like prison is ruled with an iron hand by Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge), a woman who has no qualms against death or torture. But when a new state official takes notice of the body count coming out of the prison, Diaz must prove her ability and hide the truth. As the powers that be turn up the pressure it sets up a daring escape by several of the ladies.

"Women in prison" flicks can be a mixed bag. Many offer the usual softcore action (usually of the lesbian variety) and / or nasty torture sequences that often exploit. But "99 Women" doesn't really offer too much of either. "99" is actually more artistic than most of the "W.I.P." films that I've seen and as a result it comes off as a bit bland. The photography is fine but with most of the action taking place indoors the camera-work is not flashy. The acting is pretty decent but the script is a bit "talky" in an unnecessary way. The softcore action is not awfully titillating since many of the scenes are shot in an "artistic" fashion the X-rated version does offer some hardcore inserts but you can easily tell they were added much latter since they don't match. "99 Women" has some style but not a lot of substance. A bit disappointing.