This English dubbed Italian / Brazilian co-production opens with a title screen claiming that we're about to be told a true story.
Believing she'll receive a more lenient sentence, a young woman named Angela Duvall (Suzane Carvalho) takes the rap for her addicted brother after he murders a drug lord. We immediately realize Angela's exceptional beauty is going to cause her problems since even on the way to the slammer, a police officer in the prison transport truck lasciviously leers at her gorgeous thighs. She winds up in a Brazilian penitentiary hell hole where she's subjected to the obligatory strip search. The guards don't find any concealed weapons or narcotics on Angela's body, but they do learn from her obvious tan lines that she's apparently been spending a lot of time lately sunbathing in a very skimpy bikini. Naturally, she immediately attracts the unwanted attention of everybody from two feuding prison dykes to the lesbian head matron. During their first meeting, the prison official parts Angela's robe with her billy club to get an eyeful of her breasts, then purrs, `You're very different from the way the papers described you - much better.'
The first half of the plot follows the usual women-in-prison movie formula, with long-suffering Angela enduring an endless series of indignities while a concerned prison doctor (Henri Pagnoncelli) campaigns to prove her innocence. He's up against a tough obstacle, though: his boss, the Warden Bonifacio (Leonardo Jose), is affiliated with the same drug ring as the murder victim and he'll stop at nothing to silence Angela permanently. At one point, three gang members sneak into her cell and nearly succeed in hanging her before the good doctor comes to her rescue. With the help of a big and tough but sympathetic and maternal black inmate, Angela eventually escapes with seven other prisoners during a prison riot. The rest of the film plays out like TEN LITTLE INDIANS: the escapees are picked off one by one as they're pursued through the jungle by the vindictive warden.
Though the film doesn't offer much originality, the production values are a lot higher than you might expect from a foreign made B movie. The plot moves through a nice variety of locations from downtown city streets through tropical jungles to a seaside resort. Many scenes involve impressive numbers of extras, and during the prison break sequence, dozens of them are fully decked out in authentic looking police uniforms, helmets, and riot control shields. In the escape scene, a pair of tank-like vehicles equipped with water cannons show up, and later, the doctor searches for the escapees via helicopter.
But the real reason to watch WOMEN IN FURY is the virtually unknown but ultra-sultry Suzane Carvalho, who provides most of the film's nudity, usually in humiliating scenarios. During Angela's first night in the over-crowded prison cell, she's stripped by a dozen bunkmates and whipped with wet towels to soften her up for the butch queen bee, who then rapes her. When she later refuses to identify her attackers, she gets hosed down with high pressure water, which conveniently tears her robe open and leaves her dripping wet. The steamiest scene is an erotic lesbian encounter when the horny head matron ravishes Angela in her office. The sequence runs for several minutes in length and includes full nudity from both actresses and lots of passionate close-ups.
Fans impressed by Ms. Carvalho will also want to check out her only other known film appearance, STRANDED IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (another Italian / Brazilian co-production made the same year, 1985), which in spite of its title features no dinosaurs but more of Suzie's magnificent body.
