Nas Teias da Traição

Don't let the appellation MADE FOR TV throw you off the scent. This movie was made for cable TV, and like any good 'girls in prison' movie, it has 2 really good shower scenes!

Also, as it is set in the 1950's, Anne Heche gets to wear some clothes that would look right at home on Grace Kelly.

There are two shower scenes where we are treated to incredible views of my favorite psychologist (Anne Heche from Prozac Nation) and the lovely Ione Skye. This was definitely not a CBS Schoolbreak Special with Missy Crider and TV regular Bahni Turpin.

Outside of these shower scenes was the cheesiest dialog that I have ever heard. I cannot believe this movie even had a script. I am sure the actresses were told just told use whatever cheesy prison dialog you can think of. It was painful to listen to. They threw in dialog about the Korean War and McCathyism to set the times, but it was just terrible.

It would have been a much better production if they had 80 minutes of shower scenes and 3 minutes of dialog, instead of the other way around.

A drama with a touch of crime thriller and satire. Several girls end up in prison for various reasons. Among them is a young singer who is drawn into a complicated story where a confluence of random circumstances leads to a severe sentence. The harsh internal life of the prison with its peculiar rules quickly sets accents and suggests the idea - you need to escape, which the main character, along with a couple of partners who turn up, will mainly do throughout the not very long running time.

The prison style is taken from the 1950s, and the manner of presentation from the 1990s. The characters, as in a number of other works included in the almanac "Rebel Highway", are exaggerated, and the surroundings are more like a theatrical scenery. In the background, characteristic details of the past flicker, referring to once pressing political views, smoldering conflicts and street movements - hence a peculiar parallel suggests itself, that everyone fights for his / her dignity or goals and values, what he / she considers to be truly true, as best he / she can.

Obviously, you shouldn't expect something on the level of "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994). It's a typical genre B-movie with no hint of depth, but within its niche it looks quite solid.

The original film was shot in 1956, "Girls in Prison", the story revolved around the property of a bank.

Sweet young songtress Aggie (Missy Crider) gets sent to a harsh women's prison after being found guilty of a murder she didn't commit……

Most of the laughs in the film are unintentional rather than written. Parts of this movie (especially the truly unbelievable climax) defy belief.

Some parts simply make no sense at all. It looks like this movie had no script, the actresses were told just to use whatever dialog they could think of.

The only scenes with quality in dialog, comes from Anne Heche. It looks like they were more her idea rather than scripted or directed. Heche is great as the bad girl and is the only one, who knows what she's doing. The lack of acting from the rest of the cast are sometimes good for a big laugh.

The movie has two graphic shower scenes. Although poorly filmed, the girls are nice to look at (Heche bares her gorgeous breasts).

Outside Heche the movie is really bad... and not to recommend....

A film doesn't have to be good to be entertaining and GIRLS IN PRISON is a case in point . The intelligence of the script starts and ends with a discussion of The Korean War

" It's supposed to be a police action "

" Yeah ? Then why the hell didn't they send cops "

Which is dialogue that will be forever synonymous with Samuel Fuller who used the line in another film set around The Korean War . But after this exchange strange things start happening where we're shown live footage for the battlefront , something that didn't happen till 'Nam . The McCarthy witch hunts are alluded to but somehow feel overblown and false while someone refers to an ashtray that was given to him by " The King " . What in 1952 ? Maybe he meant the King of England ?

I won't go into too much detail but in a contrived series of events a teenage girl called Aggie O'Hanlon finds herself serving a life sentence for a crime she didn't commit , and it's essential for anyone wanting to enjoy this TVM that they turn off their brain because there's plenty of things that don't make sense . For example a couple of inmates called Melba and Carol promise to protect Aggie . It's never revealed why they do this . Obviously being lesbian lovers it's very easy to jump to the conclusion that they want to involve the sweet and innocent Aggie in female love games but this isn't their motive at all because there is never any explanation for their motive , the audience just have to accept this without question .

The audience have to accept a lot of things that defy credibility as the plot twists and turns but I have to confess I felt very involved in all this , yeah I know melodramatic and far fetched doesn't even begin to describe this movie but it is enjoyable thanks to the good looking cast ( Yes there is some T&A ) and some impressive pastal coloured cinematography from Jean De Segonzac