5 femmes à abattre

Jonathan Demme's feature length first unit directorial debut was this women in prison favourite, done for his boss in the 1970s, Roger Corman. It stars Erica Gavin as Jacqueline Wilson, a young woman nabbed by the police during a drug bust. While serving time, she meets a variety of convicts, among them the ultra tough Maggie (Juanita Brown), the equally feisty Belle (Roberta Collins), and the more low key Lavelle (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith). When two of the ladies perform a risqué routine in order to entertain the others, the superintendent (Barbara Steele) decides to come down hard on her charges.

Once one stops to think about it, they do realize that there is more going on than in the standard issue type of W.I.P. feature. It *is* exploitative, of course; Demme does realize what's required of him. Still, he waits until about 24 minutes into the movie before he even begins showing off the birthday suits on the babes. There are shower scenes, and cat fights, and generally agreeable mayhem. There's also a decent subtext about the degrees to which males exploit females, and take advantage of them, and what can happen when enough females band together to take preventative steps. One can hardly fail to notice the depravity of a central male character, the nefarious prison doctor Randolph (Warren Miller), who has a taste for electro shock therapy and for taking nude photos of his patients at their most vulnerable.

The script by Demme is also laced with humour at appropriate moments. The characters maintain a good amount of rooting interest, with exploitation veterans like Brown and Collins offering standout performances. However, the most intriguing person here is Superintendent McQueen, played as being very repressed by Ms. Steele. In the real world, McQueen is confined to a wheelchair, and has one very erotic dream sequence.

Fans of the 1970s B movie will recognize a number of the supporting and bit players: Crystin Sinclaire, Carmen Argenziano, John Aprea, Patrick Wright, Gary Littlejohn. Pay close attention to catch Demme's regular cinematographer Tak Fujimoto as a sex emporium customer.

"Caged Heat" is sexy and violent, paced reasonably well, and delivers some excitement in its climactic prison breakout sequence.

Seven out of 10.

Unbelievable that a director like Jonathan Demme, responsible for clean and sober Hollywood stuff à la "Silence of the Lambs" or "Philadelphia", started his career in the sleazy world of the B-movies..! But next to his colleagues Brian de Palma and Martin Scorcese producer legend Roger Corman gave him the right kickstart! The film itself has all ingredients a good B-movie´s got to have, because "Caged Heat" is dirty, suspense-packed and happily far beyond the political correctness of Demme´s later films! Nudity, soft sex, violence... there´s nothing left out a decent exploitation movie should contain! Two appearances are absolutely shiny: the one comes from Erica Gavin, the unforgotten boob queen in Russ Meyer´s hilarious sleaze classic "Supervixen"! However, the even greater performance is given by the grand dame of horrors, Barbara Steele! Her part as a paralysed and prudish prison director is the main attraction in this rough WIP-flick! Director Jonathan Demme should have made more films like "Caged Heat"! Unfortunately Oscars became more important to him than honest movies...

As the director of such films as The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Rachel Getting Married, director Jonathan Demme has garnered a basket-load of nominations, and a few awards including an Oscar. Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is his directorial debut.

The film features Barbara Steele, the star of the Italian horror masterpiece, Black Sunday, as the prison superintendent. The rest of the cast were either novices, or veterans of B movie films like Vixen or Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Not the most exciting dialog, but plenty of boobage, and one really crazy doctor.

When I think 'Women in Prison', my mind often goes to sleazy Italian/Spanish productions by directors such as Jess Franco and Bruno Mattei; and while these films are often very sleazy, they're also very samey and once you've seen one; you might as well have seen them all. I have to admit that these types of films generally aren't my favourites; but in fact the idea of women behind bars has been done very well on several occasions outside of Italy and Spain; and Roger Corman's New World Pictures is responsible for some of the best of them. Caged Heat is the directorial debut of Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, and it's a well done little flick with plenty of entertainment value! Naturally, the film centres on the story of a girl who is caught committing crime and sent to a women's' prison where she is introduced to a host of violent inmates. This prison is ruled over by the stuff wheelchair bound Superintendent McQueen; and she takes offence to a play put on by the girls; leading them to plot an escape.

This film is much lighter on the sleaze than I'm used to in a women in prison flick; but this is more than compensated for by some great action scenes and dialogue and that's what ensures Caged Heat entertains throughout. It does have to be said that the plot is not particularly original or ambitious and basically follows a structure similar to many other women in prison films that came before it; but that's not such a big problem. The film never gets boring and is peppered with standout scenes; including an escape attempt while out working in a field and a bank robbery. The film is helped along by assured direction from the man who would go on to helm the masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs and a great cast with plenty of standouts; including best of all the legendary Barbara Steele in the role of the head prison warden. Overall, Caged Heat may not leave the viewer with much to think about by the end; but it's a brilliantly entertaining little grindhouse flick and anyone that enjoys this type of film will surely want to track it down.

Ahhh... 'Caged Heat'! I get a big grin on my face just typing the title! Look, you either dig Women In Prison movies or you don't, and if you do 'Caged Heat' is the second best one ever made, in a tie with Jack Hill's 'The Bird Bird Cage'. (The best for me is still 'Chained Heat' starring Linda Blair and Tamara Dobson, made a few years after this genre is generally regarded as being at its peak). I think the only thing stopping it from being number one is the absence of Pam Grier. If she had played the character of Pandora instead of Ella Reid, 'Chained Heat' would be IT. Funnily enough, three of the major cast members (Juanita Brown, Roberta Collins and Rainbeaux Smith) had co-starred in various Grier vehicles ('Foxy Brown', 'The Big Doll House', and 'Drum' respectively). This is Jonathan Demme's directorial debut after serving his apprenticeship with Roger Corman as a writer and producer, and he really came up trumps. Demme manages to make a tough and tense W.I.P. movie and a playful, tongue in cheek parody of one simultaneously. He has made more accomplished and successful movies since this, but arguably none more entertaining. The cast is an impressive one, not just Brown, Collins, Smith and Reid, but Russ Meyer bitch goddess Erica Gavin ('Vixen!') and horror legend Barbara Steele ('Black Sunday', 'Pit And The Pendulum', 'Night Of The Doomed', 'Shivers',etc.). I also liked the perverted Dr. Randolph played by Warren Miller. 'Caged Heat' is first class trash, and a perfect example of 1960s/70s exploitation movies exemplified by the energetic and fun output of American International and New World Pictures. We will never see their likes again! Enjoy!