House of Whipcord

An old, blind judge, his crazy wife who once was a wardeness of a prison but dismissed for her complicity in a girl's death, two guards from said prison as retainers of some type, and a son with a "CLOSE" love for his mother who goes out in public as Mark E. Dessard(something like that)round out the antagonists in this interesting, exploitative, misogynistic treatment by British director Peter Walker. The protagonists are, of course, scantily clad girls being flogged, humiliated, and hanged in an old run-down prison in the English countryside. The girls are brought there by the son who finds girls of an indecent nature(flashing in public and the like)where they are then sentenced and mistreated. Boy, would there really be prison over-crowding today! The film has a very dark edge to it without any humanity. The brutality used toward the women is cold and has a decidedly anti-women flair to it. What I did like about it was its obvious atmosphere. Walker has some skill as a director to be sure. His tense scenes in the prison with the veiled lighting and austere setting propel this feature from just another female prison movie to something quite different. Whether that is good or not is for you to decide. I am really not sure how I feel. The acting also helps as everyone involved is at the very least adequate. Ms. Irving, as the French girl, is quite fetching and does a credible job in the lead. The girl playing her roommate is an even brighter highlight(very lovely!). Barbara Markham makes as cold a wardeness as I have ever seen. For me the acting highlight belongs to Shelia Keith as the primary guard. She is able somehow to add a relaxedness to her role while even a touch(admittedly a rather small touch) of sympathy(the scene where she goes to get some lotion for the wounds she inflicted).

This movie could have been typical 70's exploitation porn but director Peter Walker turns it around and makes it a grimy desadean attack on the ruling classes. The scene in which the blind judge continues making a solemn speech well after the prisoners have all left the room is worthy of Bunuel. It's all a bit heavy handed and obvious and it seems as though this movie should have been more shocking for it too really work but the bizzare grimy sepia tone of the whole thing really makes it much better than anyone could have expected.

A young French model (Penny Irving), resident in London having just completed a controversial photo shoot for a men's magazine, is approached at a party by a charismatic oddball calling himself Mark E. Desade (geddit?) whose dating techniques are strange, to say the least. He invites her to meet his parents, and she foolishly agrees - turns out the old couple (he's blind and senile, she's a sadistic retired prison warder) are running their own private prison in the middle of nowhere with the aim of punishing 'immoral' behaviour with beatings, solitary confinement, humiliations and compulsory Bible lessons. A couple of equally deranged guards are on hand to guide these wayward young things back onto the straight and narrow, along with several menacing rats. Don't ask. HOUSE OF WHIPCORD poured napalm on troubled waters with its original release in 1974, when the hang-'em-and-flog-'em brigade were at their most vocal and the likes of Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford ("Lord Porn", according to Private Eye magazine) were keeping a beady eye on the increasing amount of sex, violence and bad language on television and in the movies. Pete Walker's bleak and disturbing take on vigilante justice gets the flesh crawling and the nerves jangling like precious few British horror flicks before or since, offering little comfort to the viewer as a series of ghastly coincidences, shocking deaths and unexpected twists take us ever closer to the resolutely downbeat ending. Ironically (hopefully) dedicated to the vocal minority who find sentencing too soft and the law largely impotent, WHIPCORD isn't for everyone - the faint of heart should steer well clear - but offers an upsetting glimpse into the heart of darkness for the curious. Ann Michelle and Penny Irving are surprisingly good in their dramatic roles, but the film is stolen by Barbara Markham, Patrick Barr and Sheila Keith, chewing the scenery as the governess, the helpless judge and the most zealous warden respectively. Ray Brooks (the voice of MR BENN) has a few good scenes as Michelle's sex-mad boyfriend.

If I had to use a single word to describe this film, that word would likely be "grim". Most of these "women in prison" type movies are kind of a fun time and a guilty pleasure, if you know what I mean. This one's different and actually manages to leave a bit of a depressive feeling in me, not because of extreme physical content or anything (there isn't much of that compared with some other entries in this dubious genre), but because of its sheer, unrelenting drabness and hopelessness.

And you know, this is a very British film. It's not Jesus Franco and the point isn't to titillate with heaps of female flesh on display. This is the country that gave us Mary Whitehouse and plenty of other questionable "moral guardians", and it's that culture that's reflected here. The way it starts with a dedication to those who "eagerly await the return of corporal and capital punishment" is engenious. Remember all those old movies, the ones about drugs and delinquent youths, for instance, that really turned out to be exploitation? you could get away with a fair bit by claiming that your film was really an educational experience, and if there were some snickers in the audience, they were probably from the sort of louts the thing was intended for in the first place, and they'd learn the truth of the message, oh yes they would! Here we have a movie pushing the boundaries of good taste and revealing the corruption and evil of so-called "moral guardians", while at the same time, it might also be possible to read it as a condemnation of moral lassitude. Ok, so it's clear what side director Pete Walker falls on, I think, and this is doubly true if you've seen the somewhat-more-fun "House of Mortal Sin". But still, the question is there, and it creates an interesting dichotomy within the viewing experience.

It's also a fact that our model character, Anne-Marie, is desperately cute. Maybe she's not all too bright sometimes, and that accent the very-not-french-sounding Penny irving is putting on is hilarious, but you hate to see bad things happen to her and really want her to be ok. The thing that gets her into trouble is so small and harmless, and the punishment so absurdly severe, one can't help but rail at the total injustice. it's all terribly severe, cold, and, like I said, grim. That woman who runs the joint is utterly terrifying in her implacable, self-righteous severity and evil.

So yeah. If you want to have fun, watch "The Big Bird Cage", I guess. But if the idea of a somewhat "different" WIP film; one with something to say and a serious demeanour, give this a try.

One of Britsploitation master Pete Walker's most infamous films, House of Whipcord is a highly disturbing project that may be too unpleasant for casual viewers to enjoy. The plot finds enigmatic writer Mark E. Desade (Robert Tayman) taking a beautiful, slightly dim French model in funky platform shoes (Penny Irving) home to meet Mum. She discovers too late that Mum is the deranged, moralistic Mrs. Wakehurst (Barbara Markham), and that the family mansion is really an unauthorized private prison for girls that Mum considers wicked sluts. What follows isn't as explicit as you might expect, but the proceedings are so horrifyingly cruel and oppressively bleak that it's often hard to watch.

The acting is top-notch all around, especially Sheila Keith as a whip-wielding barbarian guard. Pete Walker slowly wrings every bit of clammy tension out of the unsavory story. For instance, despite an attractive cast, interesting fashions, and potentially gorgeous locales, everything is presented in a damp grayish tone that makes you want to put on a sweater. He keeps things very unpredictable; when you least expect it, you're hit by an oh-my-God twist that leaves the situation even more hopeless. The pace is slow, there's some unobtrusively clever editing to be found, and the color looks appropriately filthy. This babes-behind-bars horror amalgam really is powerful, but don't make Anne-Marie's mistake: Know where you're heading before you set out.