La cage aux vices

A young woman (Shari Shattuck) is falsely convicted of a bank robbery and sent to a maximum-security prison run by a corrupt warden, where she is forced to suffer various indignities.

When you sit down to watch a women in prison movie, you already expect it to be exploitation all the way, with gratuitous nudity and very likely a girl-on-girl sex scene or two. While this film certainly does that, it is a little less blatant and for that it maybe deserves a little credit.

Not that this is good. The basic plot point is that a woman kidnapped at a bank gets sent to prison for the robbery she had no part of. This really makes no sense, but because it jumps from the cops showing up directly to the prison, we never see how such bungling could occur.

While the women in prison movie genre was on its last legs by the mid 1980s, that fact did not stop schlock movie producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus from grinding out their own contribution. Typical for one of their productions, it was made on a low budget, which does show here and there (mainly with some cheap sets.) However, director Paul Nicolas does manage to inject some stylish touches here and there. And while the movie could have used a bit more sleaze, there is a decent amount of nudity and other exploitation touches here and there. However, the story is kind of a mess. There are some murky details, as if important information got edited out or was never filmed in the first place. And some scenes seem to play out of order. Central story details also unfold slowly, but Nicolas does go from scene to scene at a brisk pace so there are no boring or tedious moments. And there is some welcome camp, mainly with some really broad performances by the cast. While I am (oddly) not a big fan of the women in prison genre despite the treats many of these films offer, I will say this: If you like this particular genre, you will likely find this effort to be decently done.

I was really surprised. What could you expect of a movie named "the Naked Cage", produced by Cannon Group and Golan-Globus Company? I myself was expecting crap, but it was fine. This film depicts prison for women and terrible things happening there. Michelle is falsely accused in a bank robbery, and goes to prison where she faces a lot of cruelty and horrible things. Worth watching this movie.

Standard fare about female criminals and a female penitentiary certainly doesn't have the best acting in the world and relies heavily on predictable material. Why bother?

"The Naked Cage" is a textbook anthology of "Women-In-Prison Drama" cliches (innocent heroine, sadistic warden, lesbianism, catfights, stabbings, riots, etc.). Watching it, you feel as if you're wallowing in a cesspool, and the fact that leading actress Shari Shattuck is not believable for a minute certainly doesn't help matters. At least Christina Whitaker is spirited and fun as the "wild" Rita. (*1/2)