Pénitencier de femmes

The reporter Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) is on an undercover mission in a prison. If you ever watched any of the women-in-prison movies of the 1980s, you know: prisoners are not treated kindly there. However, "Violenza..." is a little bit superior to most of this genre insofar as it is not only into shower scenes. It's a tough, dark, fast moving flick with an amazing Laura Gemser and her husband Gabriele Tinti as a doctor who helps her to escape. The slowly evolving love interest between the doctor and Emanuelle is well scripted. Not for the fainthearted, however, is a scene where Emanuelle is locked up in a dark cell with a bunch of rats attacking her. Two years later, director Bruno Mattei went on to shoot "Rats - Notte di Terrore" with many more rats - a kind of unhealthy fascination, if you ask me. Laura Gemser and Gabriele Tinti continued with another prison movie "I Violenti" which is a sequel (not as good as the first film) to "Violenza..." although Tinti plays a different character.

WIP title conceals an entry in the "Black Emanuelle" series. Journalist Em (Laura Gemser, of course) goes undercover at a women's prison to get copy for an exposé. Naturally the place is a hellhole. Gemser bares her skinny body a few times, has sex scene with Gabriele Tinti (what a surprise), dumps a bucket of feces on a guard and spends time in the hole for it, where she is rather unconvincingly chewed on by hungry rats.

Standout inmates here are a haystack hair blonde of about 30, a little overweight but it sure looks good on her, who does a lesbian exhibition to entertain a femme guard, and a tall skinny teenish brunette who is stripped and manhandled by a couple of male guards while Lorraine de Selle, in hooker undies, voyeurs from her boudoir and gets groped by her own b.f. I don't ID either of these inmates but would not mind seeing more of their work. Dubbing is so-so and tech credits about average for an Italian Poverty Row production. This seems to have an authentic US R-rating so is probably a somewhat abridged version of the original. I saw this on big screen in the early 80s and later added a copy to my own video library but it's still just a modest entry in the WIP sweepstakes.

Violence in a Women's Prison (1982)

** (out of 4)

Infamous Italian director Bruno Mattai takes a stab at the WIP (Women in Prison) genre as well as makes another entry in the famous Black Emmanuelle series. Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) goes undercover in a prison to see if it's true about the sadistic warden who likes to beat, torture and rape the women prisoners. If you've seen one WIP film then you've pretty much seen this one since the director doesn't try to do anything new or original here. You've got the countless lesbian scenes and constant nudity but this here grows old after a while. There's really not any shock value and the violence is rather low and contained to one scene where rats attack Gemser. Okay film but there are better WIP movies out there.

I enjoyed this way too much considering who was responsible for it (the lamentable team of Fragrasso and Mattei). It's certainly a superior WIP flick- plenty of funny stuff, camp dialogue, ludicrous stereotypes and sleazy exploitation. The production is surprisingly polished though, and actually manages to maintain a plausible narrative throughout, which is quite an achievement in the circumstances!

Although Gemser appears as "Emanuelle", the character is considerably toned-down from her previous outings. In fact, she only has consensual sex once in the whole film! The "Emanuelle" thing seems to be more a commercial, tacked-on after-thought than an indication of what this film is actually going to be like.

Anyway, it's fun, check it out.

Violenza in un carcere femminile (Caged Women) is your typical women in prison flick. Laura Gemster, the star of the popular "Emanuelle" series, poses as an undercover journalist trying to find out how hideous the conditions are inside. This film is a bit sleazy and dark at times. Laura Gemster is well known for the sleazy roles she playes in the (Italian) "Emanuelle" films. There are a couple of lesbian scenes but, nothing to shout about. These scenes do not include Laura Gemster. All being said, this film is just average in my opinion.