Cauchemar au pénitencier

Usually I try and avoid watching TV-movies because I keep thinking they hold back on shocking content and grisly images, but lately I've encountered several titles that actually proved my way of thinking is entirely incorrect and even quite shallow. "Nightmare in Badham County" is one of them examples, because the themes featuring in this movie are definitely not what you would call "soft". Perhaps the depicted violence isn't as graphical and the sleaze isn't as explicit, but the suggestive material and insinuations here are far more shocking than the gratuitous footage in most other contemporary flicks. This undeservedly and sadly obscure made-for-TV 70's thriller successfully combines elements and ambiances from two of the most commonly used and popular horror sub genres of the mid 70's, namely the so-called "Women in Prison" films and "Hicksploitation" movies. The former is pretty self-explaining and handles about defenseless girls being locked away in corrupt and filthy jails where they are confronted with perverted guards and aggressive prisoner gangs. The latter is probably my personal favorite sub genre of horror and like no other one it truly reflects the essence of 70's horror film-making. "Hicksploitation" routinely revolves on civilized people getting stuck, for whatever reason, in isolated backwoods villages inhabited by primitive and exaggeratedly hostile people with horrible dental hygiene. Combinations of the two genres aren't manifold, but "Nightmare in Badham County" illustrates that it's perfectly possible and even almost logical to amalgamate the characteristics of both.

But this is also more than just a shocking exploitation hybrid. "Nightmare in Badham County" is a genuinely moving drama with identifiable lead characters, a disturbing portrait about the abuse of authority and generally speaking also a professionally directed and astoundingly shot but modest film. Whilst on a road trip through the South, interracial college girlfriends Cathy and Diane are forced to make a stop in a small community in Badham County due to car trouble. The liberated and free-spirited girls they are, they quickly offend and publicly humiliate the chauvinistic pig Sheriff Danen. So badly even that he finds a cheap excuse to place them under arrest and then, at night, sneak into Diane's cell to rape her. A trial follows, but seeing that in this Southern part of the nation everyone is related to everyone, the girls are sentenced to 30 days in Badham County's women prison – called "The Farm" – and that's where the nightmare truly begins. The girls become separated because of their skin color and are prohibited to contact the outside world. They are subjected to hard labor and the harsh and often perverted commands of the guards, while the slightest sign of disobedience results in an increase of their punishment. Several courageous attempts to escape or reach out to the outside world fail because everybody in Badham County appears to be corrupt and/or petrified of the local "legal" system. "Nightmare in Badham County" is, without exaggerating, at least a dozen times more involving and approximately 99% of the other 'Women-in-Prison" movies out there, principally because the two leading ladies are so innocent and defenseless whereas the townsfolk and prison guards are so infuriatingly nefarious! This is one of the rare movies where you literally want to dive into the screen and reach out to help the protagonists because everything that happens to them is so damn unfair and saddening. When you accomplish this level of entanglements among your viewers, I think you can safely say you did a great job as a director. Speaking of which, I actually expected no less from John Llewellyn Moxey as he already demonstrated his craftsmanship numerous of times, for example with "Horror Hotel", "The Night Stalker" and "Where have all the People gone?". Moxey marvelously creates a moodily grim and unsettling rural atmosphere, through fitting music and extended shots of lonely country tableaux, but he also owes a lot to his terrific ensemble cast. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody are exceptional as the ladies in distress, but the people portraying the local yokels are near perfect as well – particularly the almost naturally sleazy looking Chuck Connors as the Sheriff. The ending will make you feel left behind as helpless and frustrated as Cathy and Diane themselves, but realism and hard truth are also two main trumps of this overall fantastic cult movie accomplishment. In case you're a truly devoted fan of good shock-cinema and you need a break from all the trashy but dumb 'Women-in-Prison' movies, I wholeheartedly recommend tracking this baby down!

Seriously good women-in-chains exploitation flick that was an ABC Movie of the Week. Deb Raffin and Lynne Moody star as coeds on summer break who pick the wrong backwoods town to have car trouble in. The town is run by a demented sheriff (Chuck Connors, much more effective as a baddie here than he was in "Tourist Trap"). When the girls spurn his advances, he jails them and rapes Moody, and then arranges to have them shipped off to the local prison farm. There, they are abused by the sadistic guards (among them Tina Louise) and brutal warden (Robert Reed). They soon discover not everyone gets out of the place alive, either. Della Reese plays one of their fellow inmates. The film is harrowing and believable, even if all the guards are shapely if not beautiful women. Guards in this type of film tend to come in all shapes and sizes, the better to intimidate and beat up on the inmates. The film is all the more frightening because this stuff happens in real life, or used to. Some decent nudity and whipping and cruelty, obviously added to the video release and for the overseas market.

Being a fan of 1970's made-for-TV movies AND women-in-prison films, I just couldn't miss this 1970's made-for-TV woman-in-prison flick. And as bonus, unlike other made made-for-TV WIP films like "Jackson County Jail", this was released overseas in a much sleazier version than the one that appeared on American network TV. Thus you have fairly respectable American TV actors (at least if you consider "Mike Brady" from "The Brady Bunch"and "Ginger" from "Gilligan's Island" to be "respectable") appearing in a typically sleazy WIP flick.

The plot is actually fairly serious--two UCLA co-eds, one white and one black, are traveling through the Deep South. They have car trouble and are arrested for vagrancy by a racist sheriff (Bo Hopkins) the black girl earlier insulted. After a brutal (off-screen) rape they are sentenced to a work farm where they are kept segregated and cut off from the outside world and brutalized by sadistic "honorees" (prisoners acting as guards), one of whom is Tina "Ginger" Louise. Robert "Mike Brady" Reed plays the warden who takes sexual advantage of the women (again, off-screen, thank god). There is brutality, suicide, homicide, multiple escape attempts, and--in the "European" version--graphic lesbianism and a nude whipping. In typical 70's fashion the end is not unambiguously happy.

The "respectable" actors stay out of the sleaze scenes (but Tina Louise does do some of her guarding in a halter top and hot pants). Former Bond girl (and the much less talented sister of Natalie) Lana Wood appears in a lesbian scene with a naked inmate. And fans of 70's sleaze cinema will be gratified to know the nude whip-ee is Denise Dillaway from "The Cheerleaders".(Regrettably, her scenes probably didn't make the broadcast TV version). Nor is this quite the collision of Sherwood Schwartz sitcom actors and softcore porn that myself and others might have fantasized about (i.e. there's no three-way lesbian shower scene with "Mary Ann", "Marcia Brady" and "Laurie Partridge"). Still, I would certainly recommend this (especially the uncut version) to fans of both 70's made-for-TV and WIP movies.

I first saw this (like most of the other reviewers) as an made-for-TV movie in 1976. It was a typical Friday night diversion...put the brain in neutral, sit down and watch. Deborah Raffin (model-turned-actress famous for her looong hair) and Lynne Moody (nice lady later on Soap and Hill Street Blues) play two college coeds driving through the South when the car breaks down. They run afoul of the local law and end up in the county work farm for 30 days. Things only get worse and worse until a mixed ending (good news and bad news...I won't spoil it...some others already did). A great supporting cast including a lot of "good guy/girl" actors/actresses in "bad guy/girl" roles (Chuck Connors as the sheriff; Ralph Bellamy as the judge; Robert Reed as the warden; Tina Louise, Fionnula Flanagan, Lana Wood and Della Reese as guards/prisoners/trusties; etc.). This movie was an emotional experience in 1976 and the impact stayed with me for quite a while (ABC ran an advisory saying it might not be for all viewers and it may give a bad image of Southern justice). Fast forward to the early 1990s...my now ex-wife was working in a video store and brought this film home as one of her "victim movies" (she liked women-in-peril movies). What a difference 14 years makes!! This movie had all the added features described elsewhere (lesbian love scenes, nudity, strong language, etc.)...it amplified the movie I saw in 1976. Another reviewer was right...this would've made a good drive-in movie. If rediscovered, it could be set next to "Caged Heat" and "Chained Heat" as a great movie of its genre. The "9" is for both versions blended together. Leonard Maltin gave this a "below average" rating...it's much better than that. It's the type of film parents could watch with their children and say (sarcastically) "look what can happen to bad girls."

Combining horror and women-in-chains elements, this little gem is quite scary indeed. The star-studded cast is in great form, with many effectively cast against type--Della Reese as a prisoner with an almost-broken spirit, Robert Reed as a perverted rapist, and especially Tina Louise as a sadistic trustee. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody--two highly underrated actresses--are very sympathetic, and the film has a cheap, seedy atmosphere reminscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left.

Nightmare in Badham County was shown theatrically, in a much more explicit version, outside of the U.S. This version is available on videotape and is the one I've seen. It's memorably depraved, with brutality and full-frontal nudity abounding. One skin-crawling scene in this version has a naked, repulsive lesbian guard (Lana Wood, I think) exchanging food for sex with a terrified inmate. Another has Louise pawing and whipping a naked girl. Still another has a large group of women wrestling in a field until a hose is turned on them; clothes are ripped, and one woman's panties fall down as she stands up. This version could've been a big drive-in hit in the States, but alas, it was shown here only as an ABC movie of the week.

Whichever version you get, this oppressively grim torture epic is worth watching if you're an exploitation fan. An obscure cult classic with a very powerful ending.