Lust for Freedom

"Lust for Freedom" is a pretty typical entry in the familiar "Women In Prison" genre from Troma films, and considering the often outrageous and overtly campy nature of many Troma productions, this is actually played rather straight most of the time. That's not to say that it's not without its cheesy charms, of course. Most of the villains *are* overplayed. However, co- writer / director Eric Louzil ("Class of Nuke 'Em High" Parts 2 and 3), making his directing debut, handles things in a surprisingly tame fashion at first: it's a half hour into the story before we get our first shower scene, and he actually makes the viewer until the thing is half over before he starts treating us to more truly exploitative moments, with many appreciable leering shots of the female anatomy. There's also a sufficient amount of gore in the more violent moments.

Gorgeous and sexy Melanie Coll, who somewhat resembles Virginia Madsen, stars as Gillian Kaites, an undercover detective who loses her partner / fiancée in a sting gone bad. Needing a breather, she heads for the hills, only to fall prey to a very crooked ring of corrections officers who abduct mostly innocent young women and keep them prisoner. Gillian doesn't care much about anything since the loss of her beloved, but after witnessing enough depravity towards her fellow inmates, she's motivated to start kicking ass.

In general, "Lust for Freedom" just might not be sleazy or grimy enough to suit the tastes of some trash fans watching. Its script is largely of the routine variety, and Louzils' pacing is a little sluggish, but there's adequate entertainment in eyeing the assorted attractive female cast members. As was said, some of the performances are pretty unsubtle: Judi Trevor as hostile matron Ms. Pusker, Howard Knight as cheerful warden / judge Maxwell. Elizabeth Carlisle is a hoot as tough gal inmate Vicky, as is the towering Dee Booher as thuggish con Big Eddie. John Tallman is likewise fun as the creepy Jud, Elizabeth Carroll is appealing as the innocent Sharon, and William J. Kulzer is very effective in a low key turn as the morally compromised but not completely villainous sheriff; Kulzer also worked behind the scenes, functioning as stunt co-ordinator, associate producer, and special effects creator. Coll is decent in the lead.

If you're an addict of this sort of entertainment, you may be reasonably amused by this one.

Seven out of 10.

Well, let me say that this Troma feature is unlike everything I have seen, an a-typical Troma. This is actually meant to be a lot more serious that the average Troma, and it works fine as a decent semi-exploitation film. I am a fan of Troma films but not really an exploitation enthousiast. The acting is pretty decent. Humorous moments are not a lot, actually they are quite a few. There is some nudity (after all you 're watching a woman-in-prison film...) and a generous amount of violence and sadism. I don't really recommend you to watch it expecting much fun, and if you are looking for casual Troma weirdness & fun, you won't find too much.

Exploitation / woman-in-prison flick enthousiasts , this is a must to discover!!!! You are sure to enjoy it much more than I did.

My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Lust for Freedom" is a sexploitation mishmash, the result of Troma acquiring an unreleased feature entitled "Georgia County Lock-Up" and fiddling with it, somewhat in the manner (though less extreme) of Woody Allen's Japanese dub job "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". Result is difficult to endure, though probably better than a straight version would have been.

Reason for this is that producer-director Eric Louzil delivered utterly listless footage, a mechanical and boring run-through of women's prison film cliches. At least the Troma dubbed-in asides, grunts, wisecracks and dumb narration fill in a few of the dead spots.

Melanie Coll portrays an undercover agent for the government who is aimlessly driving through Georgia County (supposedly located near the California border with Mexico and filmed in Ely, Nevada), when he is detained by the sheriff (William J. Kulzer), who escorts her to the women's correctional facility. It turns out this lawless county, under the auspices of dirty old man Warren Maxwell (Howard Knight), grabs women passing through, incarcerates them and sells them as part of a white slavery scam.

Premise is simply an excuse for softcore sex scenes, ranging from 1960s soft porn-style whipping scenes and rape to a sensual lesbo coupling featuring familiar sex stars Crystal Breeze and Michelle Bauer. Deana Booher, known for her tv appearances on Roller Derby and the female wrestling show "GLOW", plays a huge thug who wrestles uppity prisoners to their death.

Drab, ugly visuals make the picture appear to be 20 years older than it is, as does the content. Acting is so bad it's funny at times without the soundtrack prompting.

There may be messages here about the importance of freedom, but they were lost amid guffaws prompted by the abysmal quality of this movie. The screenplay was awful, the acting for the most part dreadful, the editing appalling.

Melanie Coll is marginally better than most in the film, but hers is hardly a sparkling performance. Many of the rest of the cast appear to be enthusiastic amateurs.

It appears that the censors have forced cuts to the version put on to DVD in the UK in 2004, probably because of excessive violence. But the cuts were made with sheep shears rather than anything sharper, so the viewer is left wondering how the action has moved on so quickly and inexplicably.

Don't waste 90 minutes of your life on this garbage.

I also caught this on USA "Up All Night" a few years ago. My friend and I stayed awake until 3 AM just to finish it. It was too ridiculous to ignore! I also couldn't believe people actually spent money to make this film.

"Lust For Freedom" is the type of movie you watch with your buddies when you're all looking for a few thrills and a bunch of laughs. There is gratuitous violence. There are performances worse than what you see in a soap opera. There are scantily-clad women running around, fussin' and fightin' as they try to escape some slavery ring. If you're on the hunt for MINDLESS ENTERTAINMENT, "Lust For Freedom" is just what the doctor ordered. If you're looking for something even marginally intelligent, don't bother.