Le pénitencier des chattes chaudes

A friend gave me a copy of this movie (titled FUGITIVE GIRLS) for free, thinking it was some worthless piece of garbage. I watched it, and slowly began to realize it was an unknown classic. Written by the infamous Ed Wood and directed by A.C. Stephens of ORGY OF THE DEAD fame, this tale of wrongful inprisonment and jailbreak is great viewing for exploitation fans. It's filled with cheesy dialogue, cartoonish performances (including an Ed Wood cameo as a cop), and sex. The characters are a treat as well: the "five loose women" the title refers to are an unforgettable bunch of hell-raising ladies. The butch, the nice girl, the redneck, the token black girl, and the meanie. In my favorite scene, the group happens upon a caravan of hippies in the middle of the desert. Let's just say that our favorite leading ladies find a convenient way to ditch their prison uniforms.

Fugitive Girls (1974)

** (out of 4)

Director Stephen and screenwriter Edward D. Wood, Jr. teamed up several times throughout their careers with their best known film being Orgy of the Dead, which gets my vote for the worst film ever made but this film here isn't too bad. A sweet, innocent girl is sent to prison for a crime she didn't do but once in she's soon being forced to break out with her four cellmates. Soon the five women are on the run trying to avoid the police while searching for some money one of the women hid. This is pretty much your typical drive-in, sexploitation junk but it helps wonders due to the off the wall screenplay by Wood. The dialogue here is incredibly silly and offers some great laughs including some funny sequences where the racist woman gets into it with the black one. All five characters are the same we've seen in countless films like this as we have the sweet girl, the racist one, the tough black chic, the butch and the slut. While the characters are all unoriginal I must give Wood credit for really mixing up the screenplay and throwing all sorts of craziness into the mix. We get several fights, a scene where two of the women rape a man, hippies, bikers and a weird gas station owner played by Wood. All of the acting is rather poor but it does provide more laughs. There's also plenty of nudity on display but the DVD version is the theatrical cut, which is missing some nudity and extended sex scenes. Apparently a XXX version was also released in some theaters. This is certainly a poorly made film but if you're a fan of the WIP genre then you should get a few laughs out of this.

No one will mistake "Fugitive Girls" (the most common title for this film) for great cinema. The ultra-low budget, editing errors and continuity blunders alone guarantee that. But taken for what it is - a 1974 exploitation quickie, a drive-in nudie flick about female criminals - this movie really works. With the legendary Edward D. Wood Jr. contributing one of his finest screenplays and also acting in two different roles, the film won't disappear. "Fugitive Girls" is good entertainment!

The acting ranges from passable to good, the dialogue ranges from classic Woodian nonsense to decent, the music often works very well, and technically...well, this aspect doesn't usually manage to impress. Director Stephen Apostolof deserves credit, certainly, for the superb pacing and for bringing out the best in actresses Tallie Cochrane, the '70's adult superstar Rene Bond (now supposedly deceased) and the strangely overlooked but genuinely charismatic Margie Lanier.

Rarely do these no-budget grindhouse flicks deliver like this one does, and not because of overt sex or violence; "Fugitive Girls" succeeds on it's own quirky charm and likability. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a *good* movie, but a great one for it's genre. Despite all of this, "Fugitive Girls" rarely receives extended mention in Ed Wood discussions, probably because it's such an oddity. It isn't family friendly like, say, "Plan 9 From Outer Space", doesn't feature any of his most famous players from his earlier period (like Criswell in "Orgy Of The Dead"), and this film barely qualifies as softcore, much less hardcore (such as "Necromania"). You get the idea.

"Fugitive Girls" is top-shelf exploitation and recommended viewing for Wood cultists, Rene Bond fans, B-cinema specialists and grindhouse followers alike.

(10 stars for genre excellence, not general brilliance)

A group of five extremely annoying female inmates plot their big prison break. This consists of them walking out of what looks like a rental cabin while someone off camera waves a spotlight around.

Next, they're "on the run", accompanied by "on the run" music. About now, we realize we're deep into Writer Ed Wood Jr. Territory. Thankfully, there's nothing whatsoever to be taken seriously.

The dialogue clunks along like a tin-can robot in anvil shoes. Of course, there's the obligatory nudity and hideous 1970's sensuality!

The best part is when the convicts stumble upon a commune of naked, performance artist-type hippies. Don't let their organic diets fool you! These hippies are into violence, man! Soon, the groovy tables are turned and the desperate women have some new, freaky threads!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The pursuing trio of plum idjit hillbillies! #2- The women's sexual assault on a male motorist! #3- The beatdown administered to the world's smallest biker gang! #4- The abuse-of-the-disabled home invasion sequence!

Yes, Rene Bond is in this film. All of her. If the likes of Roger Corman had directed it, it could have been a schlock masterwork...

Having worked up a thirst in bed, Paula (Jabie Abercrombe) and her new lover take a trip to the local liquor store for a little post-coital refreshment. While in the store, Paula's man reveals his true colours by drawing a pistol, shooting the cashier, knocking Paula to the ground (when she understandably refuses to act as getaway driver), and then hightailing it, leaving the poor young woman to take the rap.

Unjustly sentenced to a stint in a minimum security correctional facility for women, Paula attracts the attention of lesbian inmate Kat, who forcibly instructs her in the art of 'girl on girl' before insisting that she become the fifth member of her gang, who are planning to break out of prison to go in search of a hidden stash of stolen loot.

If, like me, your knowledge of the work of Ed Wood only extends as far as infamous sci-fi /horror klunker Plan 9 From Outer Space, then Fugitive Girls—which the legendary film-maker co-wrote and starred in—might prove something of an eye opener: it's as trashy and as inept as one would expect, but it's a whole lot raunchier, with frequent sex scenes that look as though there wasn't much in the way of acting required from the performers.

While the raunchy scenes and regular doses of gratuitous nudity are undoubtedly the film's major selling points, the film also benefits from lousy dialogue, un-PC racial slurring, very unconvincing acting (the guy trying to resist being raped by one of the buxom beauties is hilarious), and clichéd characters (including boisterous bikers and sex-mad hippies), all of which adds up to a whole heap of trashy fun for avid fans of drive-in, sexploitation fodder.