Femmes en cages

In the dark underworld of Filipino crime, women are mere playthings, discarded when broken. They wind up in prison, and not just any prison. They find themselves in HER prison. Holy mother of all things exploitation, Pam Grier is Alabama, and you'd better not tick her off!

Mind your manners, or you could find yourself in Alabama's "play pen" and be strapped into "the boots"! She might even give you a spin on her "wheel of death"!

She's vicious! She's sadistic! She's single!

Enter Carol "Jeff" Jeffries (Jennifer Gan), who was framed by her drug lord boyfriend. Now, she's just another inmate in Alabama's chamber of horrors!

As in most of the Women In Prison epics, it's good to see that haircare is a top priority in the slammer. Even during torture the women's hair remains soft and manageable!

WOMEN IN CAGES is one of the best WIP movies ever made. Ms. Grier takes it over the moon! Her performance is unforgettable! Watch and be converted!...

There have been a lot of movies with the theme of beautiful women being locked in prison and abused by the warden. This film is a classic example of that theme.

Pam Grier, the black movie queen of 1970's "B" movies, is the sadistic warden of a women's prison in a foreign country. Two of the prisoners attract her attention - a hot-blooded redhead, and the prison-informant blonde. The redhead is in prison on charges of murdering her husband. I can't remember why the blonde is in prison, but then that doesn't really matter in the film anyway. Let's just say that the redhead and the blonde don't get along, and the warden utilizes her own distinct form of justice when they get into a fight.

The redhead is taken into the warden's "play room", stripped naked (we only see the upper half), has her arms pulled up over her head and is then locked into some boots, which are then slowly cranked apart to spread her legs wide. A brazier's flame covers her modesty for most of this scene, as the warden taunts her a bit and then pushes the brazier forward - "This is our version of the hotfoot!". Cut to a scene of the women working in the field as the redhead's screams echo through the prison walls.

Later on there's a prison riot and the blonde irks the warden. To punish her, the warden strips the blonde (this time a restraint strap covers the actress' modesty) and binds the prisoner to a wheel and spins her around. After a few rotations, the warden tries to taunt the blonde into submission, but instead of surrendering, the blonde spits into the warden's face. In retaliation, the warden pulls out a trident and stabs the blonde as she's spun on the wheel some more.

Eventually the blonde and redhead team up and escape from the prison, and are pursued by the warden and her guards. The prisoners kill off the guards, capture the warden, and leave her tied to a tree as they flee to freedom.

The movie is worth seeing if you like women-in-prison films. Not much gore, and the only nude scenes are the ones described above, but what's there is worth a late-night or afternoon screening. People probably won't think of you as a cinematic genius, but what do you expect for a 1970's prison film?

Afraid of being caught with a stash of heroin by the Filipino law enforcement, a drug dealer named "Rudy" (Charlie Davao) slips the package inside a purse belonging to his girlfriend, "Carol Jeffers" (Jennifer Gan). When she is apprehended, she remains silent in the naive belief that Rudy will pull some strings and get her released. Instead, she is sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in a remote prison deep inside the Philippine jungle. Even then she remains convinced that Rudy will make every effort to get her out. Instead, he tries to ensure her silence by having one of her cell mates named "Stoke" (Roberta Collins) kill her. If that wasn't bad enough, the main patron named "Alabama" (Pam Grier) takes sadistic pleasure in torturing the inmates and Carol is in her sights. At any rate, rather than spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this is essentially a B-grade exploitation film. The acting is second rate, and the fight scenes leave much to be desired. Likewise, as in most films of this type, one should be aware that there is some nudity and a couple of graphic scenes here and there. Even so, the story flows smoothly and there are some attractive women, most notably Judith Brown (as "Sandy") along with the aforementioned Roberta Collins and Pam Grier to keep things interesting. And while it's certainly not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, it's not necessarily a bad film considering the genre.

"Women in Cages" reunites the three main cast members of "The Big Doll House" (Pam Grier, Roberta Collins, Judy Brown), but the results suffer from a massive downgrade in quality. Roberta once again steals the show, as she is three times the looker AND the actress that anyone else in the film is. Sometimes I had to pause the tape just to look at her amazing face. She has one great catfight here, but (sadly) she does no arm-twisting this time. Pam Grier is too young for her role and comes across as wooden, and the main lead is forgettable. The film has its moments, but it's mostly dreary and unpleasant. If it weren't for Roberta, I'd say just forget about it. (**)

Pam Grier is in this - and you may or may not be aware of her, but after watching this, you will have her on your radar. Really mesmerizing performance. And while the movie itself was not exactly good, the other actors give it their best shot too. Women in cages - it's almost taking the (sub)genre and put it into your title. It literally is if you think about it.

As with every good (and bad) of these female prison exploitation movies (I have not seen many, but they sort of write themselves to a degree), you have a lot of violence but also a lot of nudity. It just is inevitable. Sleaze and down and dirty as it goes. This is I would imagine not the worst of them, though if you are into that sort of thing, you'll find something to "enjoy" anyway