Jackson County Jail

Fundamentally "Jackson County Jail" has all the makings of a crass exploitation picture but is, in fact, a hard-hitting pro-feminist expose of American mores. It also gives that fine and underrated actress Yvette Mimieux one of her best roles as a young businesswoman whose drive across America turns into a nightmare that begins when her car is hi-jacked and goes all the way downhill from there to rape and murder. Of course, whether the audiences of the day caught the film's underlying message or just enjoyed the blatant sex and violence is a different matter but it has certainly built up something of a cult reputation and is well worth seeing.

"Dinah Hunter" (Yvette Mimieux) works for an advertising agency and after an extremely bad day comes home only to find her husband with another woman. Determined to make a new start in life she decides to leave Los Angeles and drive to New York. But on the way she makes the mistake of picking up two hitchhikers who end up stealing her car and leaving her unconscious along the side of the road. To make matters even worse, after managing to stumble into a nearby restaurant she finds that her problems are only just beginning. Now, rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I found at least one particular scene involving Yvette Mimieux to be quite graphic and brutal. In any case, I thought she did exceptionally well as did Tommy Lee Jones (as "Colin Blake") who also put in a fine performance. On the flip side, I didn't care too much for the ending and would have preferred a bit more finalization. All things considered I rate this movie as slightly above average.

Jackson County Jail (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Dinah (Yvette Mimieux) gets into a fight with her boss and when she returns home she catches her husband cheating on her once again. She's finally had enough and takes a job in New York and decides to drive cross country but after picking up a pair of hitchhikers everything goes to Hell. She's robbed by the hitchhikers and this leads to a run of bad luck, which has her thrown in jail with bad boy Coley Blake (Tommy Lee Jones).

JACKSON COUNTY JAIL walks a fine line between a serious drama and the type of exploitation flick that were very popular at the drive-in during this era. I must admit that I'm really shocked at how well-made the film was and at how little exploitation there actually is. I say that because Roger Corman was the producer and we know what type of movies he was pumping out during the 1970's. Fans of good dramas should enjoy this picture.

The greatest thing for the film are certainly the two lead performers as both of them deliver excellent performances. You just can't help but feel bad for Mimieux and she perfectly captures this character, her heartache and eventually her willingness to fight to try and live. Jones is also excellent in this early performance as the tough guy who was "born dead." The two actors share some great chemistry and really make for an entertaining team. We even have Robert Carradine in a small supporting role.

The film features a pretty non-graphic but disturbing rape sequence, which is extremely well directed by Michael Miller. The sequence is quite tense without crossing the lines of bad taste. The film runs a very quick 83-minutes and there's really not a slow spot anywhere to be found. JACKSON COUNTY JAIL has a big cult following and it's easy to see why.

I thought the film was good with fine acting coming from the stars : Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones. Jones is in his first major movie of his career and performed well. The jail house rape of Yvette is very graphic and I doubt if any other movie will show such a powerful scene unless you see "Two Women" again where the Italian Star is similarly abused.Perhaps the scenes showing Jones in a gun battle with the local police was not too realistic as it might have been but overall I believe the story rang fairly true to life and regret that it had to be placed in the area that presented the law as having such men who would take advantage of a good looking blond woman in distress. The truth is that such things do happen and if nothing else the movie reminds us all that while it is good to try to help strangers in need,it is not wise to pick up hitchhikers.

Fast, tough, and unsentimental. Sure, a potboiler like this is not going to win any awards, but it's got more sheer pluck and energy than twenty A-productions of the time. Pity poor Dinah Hunter (Mimieux). One minute she's a bigshot ad executive in Hollywood; the next, she's ducking cop bullets somewhere in fly-over country. It's a yuppie nightmare all the way for poor Dinah, a steady downhill once she tries a cross-country car ride. On the way she meets homicidal kids, a chiseling waitress, a righteous cop, and a prison guard from heck. No wonder she's on the run with cool dude Coley (Jones). How else can you deal with a cross section of Roger Corman's rural America. Next time she better take the plane like other bi-coastal types.

Corman really hit pay dirt with hillbilly epics like Boxcar Bertha (1972), Big Bad Mama (1974), Crazy Mama (1975), and this one. One look at these and you'd think rural America is just as bloody and hormonally driven as big city America. But these epics are also in the great tradition of the American B-movie, those cheap productions that show guts, energy, and style. Sure, a flick like JCJ is also what some might call vulgar and exploitative, which it is. Still, there can be a lot of truth even in exaggerated crowd pleasers. Besides, these drive-in specials are generally entertaining as heck, just like this one.