99 mujeres

Jesus Franco is one of the few directors in the world who could take a much-maligned genre like the women-in-prison film and make it even sleazier. "Barb-Wire Dolls" would have been unwatchably repugnant were it not so inept, and "Ilsa, the Wicked Warden" WAS unwatchably repugnant despite being equally inept. For that reason, I approached this movie with great trepidation, but was surprised to find it relatively well-made and surprisingly tasteful. The plot is pretty standard. Girls are imprisoned on island--they give them a number and take away their names. Since this was made in the more censorial 60's there is no graphic torture and no showers and the prisoners actually get to wear underwear beneath their prison smocks. Mercedes McCambridge is the harsh warden. Herbert Lom is the corrupt commander of the island who takes sexual liberties with the prisoners. Maria Schell is the well-intentioned but ineffective reformer,. Luciana Paluzzi is the top-billed convict, but she exits quickly and the real stars are Maria Rohm and Rosalba Neri who together lead the big bust out at the end.

Relatively speaking this movie had a decent budget and a talented cast, and perhaps because of this (and the aforementioned threat of censorship)Franco had to reign himself in from his usual indulges. (I can just imagine the conversations he would have had with these relatively classy actresses: "No Jesus, I'm NOT going to perform analingus on her masticated rectum, I was a Bond girl for christsakes!"). Not that there isn't any sex or nudity. There is a great catfight/lesbian sex scene between Neri and Rohm as the lascivious Lom looks on, but the action is shot almost entirely in a montage of extreme close-ups (the only time after this that Franco was this circumspect in a sex scene was in "Erotismo" and that was no doubt because he was trying to avoid child porn charges after stupidly casting an underage actress). My favorite scene though is a flashback sequence where Neri does a sexy strip to a flickering candelabra, and in a touch that is both perverse and surreal her audience is a bunch of cigarette-smoking schoolgirls! Of course, there are those Franco aficionados out there who would prefer endless static shots of Lina Romay or somebody rolling around naked on a bed while Franco conducts a gynecological exam with his zoom lens to these much more sedate sex scenes, but there can be little doubt which is more classy and tasteful.

The best part though might be the catchy theme song ("Born to Be Bad") that leaves you with a warm feeling of nostalgia for that era (whether you experienced it or not). I don't know if I'd want to watch this movie again, but at least I didn't feel like running for the shower when it was over. If you want to see a Franco a WIP flick this is a good place to start (and also to stop).

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.

From Eurotrash Emperor Jess Franco's comparatively respectable period comes this timid precursor to the WIP wave that was to engulf exploitation cinema of the upcoming decade, including of course many of Franco's own far more graphic ruminations on the subject. British-born producer Harry Alan Towers was still testing the waters as to how much sex and violence he could get away with at this pivotal moment in time for pictorial permissiveness, which accounts for the restraint in the representation of both. His past successes with a string of profitable Fu Manchu flicks based on the Sax Rohmer potboilers gave him the commercial clout to attract a "name" cast of mostly has-beens in desperate need of a paycheck, supplemented with a slew of sexy starlets prepared to pull down their panties. First among equals in the latter department was Towers' lovely young bride Maria Rohm a/k/a former Austrian stage actress Helga Grohmann who would shine most brightly in VENUS IN FURS and EUGENIE, both made by Franco for her husband. Playing Marie, the obligatory framed innocent, she's predictably overshadowed by the unrepentant bad girls headed by the ravishing Rosalba Neri's cynical Zoe.

Taken to a South American prison island (actually Alicante) where she's to be incarcerated in a magnificent fortress named El Castillo Della Muerte (the Castle of Death) for stabbing one of her rapists, shown in superbly stylized flashback, Marie (or number 99 as she will now be referred to) soon learns the ropes foolishly going up against head warden Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge hamming her way out of a mid-career slump) when another new arrival (ex-Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi) goes into cold turkey jitters. Like any other act of rebellion, this immediately lands her in solitary. An impromptu cat fight with dyed in the wool dyke Neri on account of her harassing Marie's friend Helga (Elisa Montés from Mel Welles' ISLAND OF THE DOOMED) risks making her a permanent resident there were it not for the unexpected appearance of social worker Leonie Carroll (revered German actress Maria Schell) come to inspect the prison's conditions following a number of recent deaths. This doesn't sit well with Thelma who not altogether wrongly suspects the intruder has come to take her place so she calls on the help of corrupt Governor Santos (a stoic Herbert Lom) whom she regularly supplies with inmates for intimacy.

Ticking off all the boxes (nudity, check ! whippings, check ! lesbian comforting, check !), the plot moves along as cheerfully as the grim proceedings will allow with hilariously hard-boiled dialog to keep fans grinning. McCambridge spits 'n growls her way through another turn for Towers and Franco that makes the one she gave in their JUSTINE look positively demure by comparison. Her once flourishing career might have gone down the drain but she was sure to kick up a stink. Half the fun's in watching her co-stars' perplexed looks on their faces as they attempt to keep from being blown off the screen by this one woman whirlwind.

By contrast, Schell seems all too aware she's slumming it, content to simper sympathetically and deliver the flattest line readings imaginable. Apart from Rohm and Neri, whose exploitation career would kick off in earnest with Ferdinando Di Leo's 1971 SLAUGHTER HOTEL, none of the top-popping floozies register very strongly, certainly not Paluzzi who - regardless of prominent billing - expires ten minutes into the movie and doesn't bare squat. A few years later, she would go proudly topless in Nello Rossati's entertaining THE SENSUOUS NURSE. Short-bobbed Brazilian bombshell Valentina Godoy (from Franco's THE GIRL FROM RIO) makes the most of the unfortunate Rosalie, cruelly ambushed during the botched prison break.

In light of the excesses this exploitation sub-genre was about to engender, 99 WOMEN appears almost innocent in its beat around the bush coyness. This approach forces Franco into ingenuity when it comes to boobs 'n beatings, displaying both with far more style than was his habit. Case in point being Rohm and Neri's then daring same-sex dalliance, spectacularly shot in a series of dissolves and close-ups of "non-vital" body parts by Franco regular Manuel Merino (who also photographed his COUNT Dracula) who achieves the scene's erotic effect through sheer suggestion. Bruno Nicolai's haunting theme song, The Day I Was Born (warbled by the incomparable Barbara McNair which suggests this was a recorded but unused track from VENUS IN FURS), appears in a number of starkly varying arrangements going from a jubilatory gospel rendition to a softly murmured version with minimal orchestration.

This is one of Franco titles that receives little comment.

So I will.

First of all it proves Franco could have of gone mainstream if he chose to. This a competent drama. Maybe he would have if "99 Women" could have received more acclaim.

99 Women is a *tasteful, well-done yet erotic WIP film; I know of no other WIP film that is. If you do please share.

In this lovely but sad movie, in "99 Women" Franco quickly strikes this tone and stays there. It's an erotic drama set on a tropical island, and yet has no lines like "take her to the Playpen!" -like the Corman stuff much later. It plays it straight. It is Erotic but has class. Know Rosalba Neri has a lot of screen time. This film is a must for fans

But maybe I'm glad he didn't go mainstream- I do love some of his later stuff which is hardly that )

*I love trashy WIP films also, but they all don't have to be

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")