Lust for Freedom

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.

I saw this film on USA's Up All Night and it was like finding a priceless gem. It is a great film that everyone should see because it tells about the importance of freedom and how quickly it can be taken away from us. In the wake of 9/11 I think that is the most important message of all. A fine young actress named Melanie Coll stars as a policewoman who is framed and thrown into a hellhole prison and must fight to survive. She gives a really gutsy performance as the courageous young officer.

A film that sums up the eighties more than this, it would be hard to find. Pulsing synthesiser soundtrack, non-stop, screaming rock and roll, no-plot, aimless violence, total lack of any decent characters, and yes…very few real actors. It's a cheap, low-budget, sensationalistic thrill-ride, set in a woman's correctional facility. It's a Troma movie, the hallmark of absolute garbage, and yes, it's a well-earned reputation. This is a terrible, tacky work of zero-budget sexploitation, only with very little in the way of interest.

The story drags its' heels over just under ninety minutes, with Melanie Coll as a policewoman who gets captured by a crooked cop of an even more crooked city of flesh-peddlers, and generally unpleasant characters. However, things are surprisingly dull; it's not exactly the "Hell on Earth" that it could have been. Coll just sits about in prison for most of the entire film, looking at other people having a hard time. Her dull, gaping performance is nothing special, yet the voice-over she provides manages to make a really bad film seem even worse, along the lines of Harrison Ford's drudge-like tones pasted on top of Scott's "Blade Runner". To be fair, unlike budget-eating Ridley Scott, most of this is because the entire movie has been shot silently to save money, with most of the dialogue added in in post-production, often in totally no relation to their lip-movements.

The other stylistically rather irritating thing about this film is, it has been hacked-about considerably – this 82-minute version has endless jumps in in it, which, when you're watching a piece of very unsubtle exploitation, is frustrating, because you end up with all the dull bits, without any of the cheap thrills. However, there's still a couple of rather memorable moments, mainly a very lovingly filmed lesbian sex scene between "Crystal Breeze" and Michelle Bauer, and a disconcertingly well-choreographed wrestling scene between Dee "Queen Kong" Booher, and Elizabeth Carlisle. Worth a mention, definitely, is Elizabeth Carlisle's performance as the feisty bad-girl, Vicky, who gives a decent account of herself, in a rather over-the-top fashion, which is nonetheless entertaining.

Equally over the top, is Judi Trevor's "Miss Pusker", a fierce faced prison warden, who is referred to at one point as being "Like something from a bad movie?" Do I hear anyone disagree with this? Nah. Her interrogation scenes with Amy Lyndon, are something of a highlight, and some of the few scenes which don't appear to be too heavily cut about.

Main baddie Jud, a big Native American, is physically impressive as a creepy nutcase, but to be honest, in a Troma movie, it isn't hard to act like this. In fact, there's a car chase scene in this which seems to have come straight from Tarrantino's "Death Proof". In fact, I'm sure Mr. Q T would love this kind of movie, the sort of thing which "Death Proof" is a tribute to in the first place.

The ending is a ridiculous confusion of shouting, and people being shot, but to be fair, we've all kind of given up by this point, crushed under the weight of that god-awful theme song, as well as the "Rock You to Death", theme song. God, turn off the rock! Not only that, it's about twice the volume of the dialogue, which means you'll have to do a lot of fiddling about with the volume. Or, just mute it every time the music kicks in. Makes me wish they'd just stuck to the synthesisers in the start of the movie.

Overall, then, this is a movie which you are never supposed to judge as an art piece. It's just a piece of cheap exploitation, albeit a very heavily edited one with just a couple of decent scenes in it. Even as a "woman in prison" movie, a notorious sub-genre, it kind of fails, because there's so many scenes of literally nothing at all happening, with slow dialogue scenes in offices, no matter how sleazy and sensationalistic the DVD cover art tries to make it look. It's just a prime slice of the eighties, where everything was just so very loud, cheap and silly. Thre's a few really creepy, sordid moments, which hinge on the deeply disturbing side, but there is no denying that it does have a handful of relatively enjoyably exploitation moments, especially the longing close-ups in the Breeze/Bauer sex scene, which kind of makes you wish there's deen a lot more of this, than Coll just moping about doing nothing whatsoever. It's not a total waste of 82 minutes of your life, just maybe a very poor use of about seventy of them. Worth a watch, but be prepared to have to sift through a lot of crap, in order to get to the better bits.

But, in the wake of recent mainstream cinematic events, it is worth pointing out that this movie actually does pass the much-demonised "Bechdel" test: there are about a dozen women characters, at least half of whom have names, most have dialogue. They all talk to each other, and definitely about something other than men. So, does that mean this is a feminist approved movie? I'd love to show the cover of this movie to a feminist, and say to them, "This passes the Bechdel test."(Personally don't really care that much about the ruling, because what difference does that make? Movies with no women in them are generally rather dull. But I'm sure you know that already. Or else, why would you be reading this?)

"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.

This Troma Women In Prison film ticks all of the genre boxes and then some. It takes a while to get going, kicking into gear at about the half-hour mark with the obligatory shower scene, after which it's non-stop trash and sleaze all the way, making it hugely entertaining for fans of exploitation cinema.

Melanie Coll stars as Gillian Kaites, a former undercover cop who is framed by a corrupt sheriff, finding herself thrown behind bars at a women's correctional facility where the warden and staff use the inmates for their own perverted pleasures and to line their pockets.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the delights on offer…

Catfights, including a no-holds-barred wrestling match to the death.

Full frontal nudity, most notably from '80s scream queen Michelle Bauer.

A flogging/lesbian sex/rape montage, set to a heavy rock song.

Seedy warden Maxwell (Howard Knight) making snuff movies.

Scar-faced psycho Indian Jud (John Tallman) forcing himself upon innocent inmate Sharon (Elizabeth Carroll).

Elderly white slaver Doc Bass (George Engelson) leering over 17-year-old hottie Holly (Terri Beck).

Jud killing a couple on the highway, setting fire to the man and forcing the woman to crash her car (which explodes).

A violent breakout in which Gillian blasts the deserving guards and warden with a machine gun (resulting in lots of blood!).

High art it most certainly isn't, but for those with a taste for the outrageous, Lust For Freedom is well worth tracking down. I rate it 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.