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.
