Gefangene Frauen

Much like Tinto Brass ("Caligula"), the people who made this movie can't tell the difference between explicitness and eroticism. No build-up at all, just throw naked women on the screen; no, it doesn't work that way. If close-ups of female genitalia aren't your thing, prepare to be looking away from the screen at many points (I often did). The "all women are whores at heart" mentality of the movie is offensive, and the "story" is by turns absurd and boring (the escape is the most boring part!). But halfway through there is a random scene that pops out of nowhere and involves one of the (female) prisoners and one of the (male) guards in a nude wrestling match, which she wins with a couple of judo moves. Although the choreography of the fight is bad, the whole scene is undeniably memorable. In fact, that scene and the nice cinematography are the only two reasons I give this film * out of 4, instead of 0.

Clearly in the top 3 of all WIP flicks, my main addiction to this 80 minutes of celluoid is born of seeing Brigitte Lahaie and a bevy of other beauties parading around naked in bright daylight. "Gefangene Frauen" (Caged Women) is one of Dietrich's finest softcore achievements. He has taken the WIP genre and added a twist of his own.

The girls are kidnapped from a brothel and taken to an island prison. There they undertake a modest degree of insubordinate behaviour which triggers obligatory punishment. This consists of having to strip and walk around naked in the prison for the rest of the film. And what can you say against that? What with nude wrestling, nude whipping and a nude escape project, it's all a go-go.

Sure the acting is weak and the plot rattles, but that is not what we are here for. It delivers what it says on the tin. Big time.

This review is of the German DVD from ABC, from their "Erotic Classics" series. (and coming from someone who has a strong dislike for porn films!) I began watching "Gefangene Frauen" (Caged Women) with absolutely no expectations. I was surprised to find that, for what it is, it delivers what it promises, and what one would expect from this genre of film. The simplistic story deals with a group of girls being kidnapped by soldiers, from a whorehouse, of all places. The girls are taken to a mysterious prison located on a beautiful island. Of course this is all an excuse to show a lot of sex and nudity. but the production values, cinematography, and style make this one stand out among so many films of this kind. First of all, it features a collection of truly gorgeous women, with the most perfect bodies you could ever hope to find in adult film. Brigitte Lahaie, here in her prime, has the most perfect, gorgeous body and face I have ever seen! And she is almost upstaged (but not quite) by the other ravishing prisoners of "Red Island." The sets are also impressive; the prison, a white, sun-drenched structure surrounded by blue waters, supposedly shark-infested, to keep the girls from escaping, is quite aesthetically appealing. Another set worth mentioning, is a bath, located in the "President's" suite; A large oyster shell, ornate gold and red, that has to be seen to be appreciated. This attention to detail I believe is important, as they lend the film a sense of legitimacy, and dare I say...class.. The uniform of the head female prison "kommandant", black leather Gestapo-style, with matching leather cap, should be appealing to S&M fetishists. Even the men are handsome, with healthy, athletic bodies. This is somewhat rare in sex films; usually great care is put into finding attractive actresses, but the men are usually just thrown in, and they mostly are very ordinary, or just plain unattractive. I guess it is the male fantasy thing, where ugly men can possess the most beautiful women. But not here, on the island where most everyone is pleasing to look at. And it is all easy to take as well, as the women are never abused, or truly hurt. They actually seem to be enjoying the whole experience! Aside from a scene early on in the picture, where a young girl is raped by a soldier, there are no other scenes of forced sex. the idea here is that women can enjoy sex as much as men. the girls look forward to the nightly visits from the prison guards, and they give themselves freely. In their situation, they don't have to act like they hate sex. There is even the perverted "doctor" who spends much of his time clipping the heads of of nude girls in magazines, when he is not "examining" the prisoners. But I didn't find it sexist, for some reason. It was all too silly to be sexist, or offensive. And the men are also on display here. The film plays a bit like a low-rent "Story of O", without the strong violence, but with more graphic sex. For the German DVD, I was surprised at the great care taken to restore this strange 1980 erotic film. The anamorphic picture was absolutely beautiful, top quality, as was the audio. There is a choice between the original German audio, which seems to be dubbed as well, or a hilarious English dubbed track. I think that many of these films were originally shot without any sound, with voices added later. At least that is how it appears. Included as well are some good trailers for other erotic films form this time. This also claims to be an uncut print, with a running time of 89 minutes PAL, or about 94 minutes NTSC! Very rare indeed. It is hard to classify the film as hardcore, or soft core; There are many closeup shots of the female genitalia, with a lot of graphic masturbation included, that would be considered way too explicit for late-night cable. However there are no scenes of male to female sexual intercourse. It is all obviously simulated, as the men lie with the women, but never have erections. ( I wonder how they manage...) I'm actually glad of this as I wouldn't want to see the gorgeous Brigitte Lahaie debased in such a way. Being a nude model is a far cry from having actual sex on camera, and that would have brought this movie to a lower level that I wouldn't really want to watch, much less review. I think that kind of porn is ugly, however there is enough pretty images in "Gefangene Frauen" to recommend to fans of this genre. Directed incidentally by the notorious Erwin Dietrich. If interested, try to locate the German DVD from ABC, as the UK release seems to have 9 minutes of footage cut from it. I must say that after seeing this film I am an immediate fan of Brigitte Lahaie, and would love to see more of her work. "Gefangene Frauen" is a fun, and very sexy viewing experience, without being too sleazy or offensive!

Caged Women (1980)

*** (out of 4)

A group of women are having fun and working at their local whorehouse when the police storm the building and arrest them all. They are sent to a prison located on an island cut off from the rest of the world and it doesn't take long for them to fall victim to the evil warden (Karine Gambier) and her rapist guards.

Also known under its original title, GEFANGENE FRAUEN and ISLAND WOMEN, this film came pretty late in the whole WIP (women-in-prison) movement. I've often said that if you've seen on WIP movie then you've seen them all. The only difference in them is the level of cruelty that they will go for. To me Jess Franco's BARBED WIRE DOLLS is the best of the lot but CAGED WOMEN deserves a lot of credit as well.

The film was written and directed by Erwin C. Dietrich, the long time producer for several Franco classics including BARBED WIRE DOLLS. He certainly knew what he wanted to deliver and this here is pretty much a remake of that film. With that being said, this movie is without question one of the most gratuitous movies in the genre. I say that because the sleaze factor is pretty much off the charts and especially when it comes to the sexuality and nudity.

The opening twelve-minutes or so is pretty much just a showcase for the various women. We see all of the ladies strip down, masturbate and do various other sexual things that certainly cross the line of what you'd see on Cinemax. It's like the director is teasing us with all of the beautiful women he has lined up and it just grows even sleazier once we hit the prison. I also give the director credit because there's not a single ugly woman to be found here as they're all extremely attractive and constantly naked.

Gambier, another Franco vet, is good in her role as the warden and you've also got Eric Falk playing a sadistic guard. The always stunning Brigitte Lahaie plays one of the prisoners and as I said there are countless other beautiful women in the cast. Storywise there's nothing original here and there's certainly no great direction or anything else but the film was meant to be pure trash and exploitation and on that level it works really well.

I've come to realise through watching this sort of film that I don't like them very much. Caged Women is yet another 'women in prison' film, and like the most of the rest of the genre; the plot is completely forsaken in favour of simply showing nude women. Now don't get me wrong; I love nude women, but I also like there to be some sort of plot thread to go with the nudity, and since this film has only the basic 'women are in prison' theme running through it (aswell as the essential escape, of course), I got a bit bored before the end. The film is good because there's barely a moment in it where the women are wearing clothes, but that's about the only positive element. Director (and writer, ha ha) Erwin C. Dietrich delights in showing close-ups of the naked female body, but it's never very erotic. The director was the producer on a number of trash flicks, including some directed by Jess Franco. In my opinion, he should stick to producing as his writing talents are non-existent, and he doesn't seem to know how to film a sex scene. This sort of material is rather dry a lot of the time, but I reckon Franco could have made more out of it. Overall, this might suffice for people that are really into this sort of stuff; but I can't say I enjoyed it.