Cauchemar au pénitencier

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."

The rifleman can keep his gun to himself.

This was part of the 1970s racial, prison and small town horrors exploitation movies. The difference is this was on television. I saw it as a kid I found it very disturbing. I just watched it again on YouTube and thought it was even more disturbing.

Lynne Moody deserved better than this. Even Deborah Raffin deserved better. If it is possible, this is even more tawdry than present day television. This was even more terrifying and frustrating than Deliverance.

Along for the ride ate Robert Reed, Della Reese, Ralph Bellamy and most disturbingly, Tina Louise.

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.

UCLA coeds Cathy Phillips (Deborah Raffin) and Diane Emery (Lynne Moody) are driving around the country before the start of school. They get a flat tire. A black man is willing to help them but that gets the ire of Sheriff Danen (Chuck Connors). The Sheriff arrests the girls for trespassing and rapes Diane in jail. When Diane tries to raise the issue, the Judge adds prostitution to the charges and sends the girls to the prison farm in Badham County. The Judge turns out to be the Sheriff's cousin. The prison is a corrupt racist excuse to provide slave labor for the well-connected. It's run by Dancer (Robert Reed) and his sadistic prisoners-turned-guards.

I can't believe that this was a TV movie. Obviously, the nudity would be cut but it's still a brutal viewing experience. This is a mix of 70's sexploitation and social justice. Parts of this are very hard to watch. It is grindhouse in its nature. The acting ranges from solid professional to amateurish. Sometimes, the sexploitation detracts from the seriousness of the work.

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.