Chaleur rouge

A few years before the Arnold S. / Jim Belushi team up action movie Red Heat, Linda Blair made yet another prison flick under that same title. As these exercises go it wasn't bad. The look of the picture is very Eastern Bloc - lots of dimly lit concrete corridors and depressing gray uniforms - and pretty realistic. The tone is one of grim Cold War authoritarianism. East Germany is made to look like just about the least welcoming place on earth, which it pretty much was. Plus, the script is a bit more literate, more realistic, less exploitative and more politically aware than what we usually get in one of these women-in- prison flicks. The resulting movie is a little better but a lot less fun to watch than the typical women-behind-bars (WBB) flick.

And honestly, just who exactly wants a more realistic, less exploitative WBB? Most of these movies are chock full of exploitative silliness and don't take themselves very seriously, which makes for a fun / campy viewing experience. Chained Heat, for instance, is objectively a pretty terrible movie but is a lot of fun to watch, mostly because it IS so exploitative and silly. Red Heat by comparison, is more convincingly realistic than Chained Heat, but also relentlessly grim and more than a little tedious as its unpleasant tourist-in-hell story line slowly works it way along.

Decent entry into the Women In Prison genre finds Linda Blair, two years after "Chained Heat", back in the slammer in this politically loaded yarn. She plays Christine Carlson, an innocent college student visiting her fiancée, Mike (William Ostrander), an Army lieutenant stationed in Germany. After a fight with Mike, Christine finds herself in one of those "wrong place at the wrong time" scenarios by witnessing the abduction of Hedda (Sue Kiel), a spy who was trying to defect. The evil authorities force Christine to confess to espionage activities, and both she and Hedda are thrown in an East German prison. This particular place is ruled by alluring Sylvia "Emmanuelle" Kristel as Sofia, a top con who relishes her position in the pecking order - and relishes enforcing it. "Red Heat" is all just somber enough, trashy enough, and entertaining enough to make it an acceptable diversion. The requirements of the genre are satisfactorily met, with the standard display of delectable female nudity, lesbian couplings, harsh violence, and mean, sadistic villains that fans come to expect. Linda is appealing as always, and compelling to watch as we see her prison stay start changing her - not exactly for the better, of course. One can hardly blame her whenever she does snap. The sub plot of Mike doing everything he possibly can do - his career be damned - helps keep the movie moving along nicely, and the story leads right up to a respectably rousing climactic prison break. Beefy actor Ostrander, whom you may recognize as having played bully Buddy Repperton in the film version of "Christine", is good, as is Kiel, although Kristel remains the most fun to watch as she clearly enjoys playing the part of the bad girl. With the action enhanced by typically fine and atmospheric music by Tangerine Dream, and capable direction by Robert Collector, this movie is definitely good of its kind, with a palpably serious mood and a lack of camp. Overall, solidly done and worth a look. Seven out of 10.

An average women-in-prison exploiter, but for a change it is set in East Germany during the period of the cold war. Remarkable are a couple of casting choices: Elisabeth Volkmann, best known from numerous silly sex comedies and the TV sketch series "Klimbim" plays the tough warden, and the usually so vulnerable Sylvia Kristel plays the inmates' top bitch (in a red wig), the kind of role normally played by the likes of Pam Grier or Sybil Danning. Volkmann has enough acting range to pull it off, but Kristel is completely and utterly miscast.

Otherwise, this follows the genre rules extremely faithfully. We have all the compulsary ingredients: shower scenes, mistreatments by the staff, cat fights, revolts, escapes, etc. Virtually a remake of Chained Heat.

I simply watched this because Linda Blair has a major role in this WIP flick. But was I disappointed at the end. I thought that we would have a typical women in prison (WIP)flick and seeing the name Sylvia Kristel (of Emmanuelle fame) I thought it would look like the old Italian WIP flicks, sadly it doesn't.

It was boring from the beginning and even the story was boring. It was all so predictable. There was no reed stuff to see or any punishments being given to the prisoners. It was in fact low on everything. The only thing that they added was some nudity from Linda Blair and Sylvia Kristel. But Sylvia wasn't convincing at all as the leader of the pact.

Another example how a career can be a flop. Just look at both leading roles, Linda a classic in The Exorcist (1973) but a let-down afterwards. Even Sylvia never made a classic after Emmanuelle (1974).

Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Linda Blair has stated that she was sold this film as a "female Midnight Express." Yes, it has elements of that. But it's more like an adult remake of Born Innocent. Linda's character even has the same name, Chris. Born Innocent represents Linda's best work as a juvenile. Her performance is better in Born Innocent than in The Exorcist. Red Heat may well be her best performance as an adult. Yet this is one of the most difficult Blair films to find. I don't think it ever got a proper theatrical release in the United States, although it may have played the grind house circuit. I first saw in on VHS year ago, and watched it recently again on YouTube. It's a wildly entertaining film that's face-paced and got it all - nudity, rape, cat fights, shower scenes, suicide, etc. You've seen it all before, but the setting in an East German prison before the wall came down (actually filmed in Hungary) adds a great deal to the mood and tone of the film. For Linda Blair fans, this film is essential. For fans of women in prison flicks, it's not to be missed.