A Prisão

My oh my, Oswaldo de Oliveira must have had the time of his life whilst filming this ultimately depraved and sleaze-laden Women In Prison classic. There are almost no men involved in this production and all the female stars – with the notable exception of the nasty lunch-lady – are stunningly ravishing wenches. Easily one of the most shameless and politically incorrect exploitation flicks ever made, "Bare Behind Bars" has absolutely no substantial content (or at least very few), but proudly offers wall-to-wall lesbian action, nudity and even some X-rated hardcore action. Welcome to the Brazilian all-girls exclusive "Prisão", where the inmates seemingly enjoy hiding sharp & pointy objects in their most intimate body parts, the wardens' uniforms only have buttons below the bosom-section, the dumb Marilyn Monroe resembling nurse has a very peculiar interpretation of the term health inspection and fake penis toys are referred to as the Seventh Wonder of the World. Life honestly isn't that bad in this film, as the girls are allowed to play sex games with each other as well as with the wardens and, occasionally, the prettiest ones are sold to rich lesbians for big money. Of course, eventually, a couple of courageous prisoners plan an escape, resulting in violence, torture and death. "Bare Behind Bars" is really the sleaziest and most rancid WIP-movie imaginable. I estimate that maximally five seconds is thee longest period without nudity in this film. There are many extended (and ridiculously overlong) shower sequences and pointless girl-on-girl fondling moments, but it's all shockingly boring & terribly UN-sexy. The last half hour is much more exciting and violent, but it's far too late to save the film unfortunately. As said, the women in this film (inmates as well as wardens, nurses and rich lesbian buyers) are quite beautiful, albeit speaking in terms of 70's exploitation. This means they're definitely not anorexic and their pubic regions are about half the size of the Amazon jungle. "B.B.B." is probably a must-see for all fans of the WIP sub genre, but it could and should have been much better. I very much prefer the Italian outings ("Women's Prison Massacre", "Women in Fury") that are perhaps slightly less sleazy, but feature more action, suspense and better actresses.

In a Brazilian prison for women, where the inmates are subjected to physical and sexual abuse on a daily basis, four girls make a bid for freedom. Aided by the prison's ether-sniffing nurse, the group successfully escape and go on a killing spree.

From the word go, Oswaldo de Oliveira's sleazy WIP movie delivers wall-to-wall scenes of nudity and lesbianism: nearly every female in his film's joint-including the guards, prisoners and even the sexy warden, are lesbians. The ones that aren't are bisexual! This means that viewers can expect a whole shedload of nekkid babes in ill-fitting outfits indulging in all sorts of sexy shenanigans, including oral-sex, mutual masturbation, and strap-on action.

What starts off as a softcore film with simulated sex gradually becomes stronger and stronger in content, until the director gives up all pretences and goes the whole hog, with a couple of (rather crap) hardcore couplings. As well as upping the strength of the sex, de Oliveira also makes the film a whole lot more violent and sleazy in the final half an hour, with the escaped prisoners indulging in a little killing before going their separate ways. In one scene, an entire family is savagely attacked by the girls; the mother and father are shot, the father has his severed penis fed to a barking dog, and then the wanton women proceed to 'rape' the under-aged son!

Now I realise that this sounds like the mother of all exploitation films and an unmissable treat for those who dig more 'unusual' cinematic fare, but, to be honest, it's all rather boring. After a couple of lesbian scenes, the film becomes a blur of boobs, bums and beaver and one soon longs for something remotely resembling a decent plot.

The occasional prison torture scene and a second brutal emasculation help to break up the tedium of endless frottage, but are not enough to make me recommend this ultimately disappointing film.

Bare Behind Bars (1980)

** (out of 4)

Extremely graphic WIP (women in prison) flick from Brazil has an evil, lesbian warden torturing, sexually assaulting, whipping, biting, attacking and doing just about anything imaginable to her female prisoners. Eventually the prisoners get tired of it and try to escape. This infamous WIP flick certainly has everything you could possibly imagine from non-stop lesbian sex to prison fights to several graphic violent scenes. This is one of the most outrageous WIP films I've seen but the direction is flat throughout and after the first hour things really start to get tiresome so the final thirty minutes really drag.

Do you enjoy violent, sleazy, sexy "Women In Prison" films? If so, then this one shouldn't disappoint, but it's not something just anybody can sit through. There's a lot of t&a and all sorts of depravity on display here, straight out of Brazil. Lesbian prison guards make out with the lady prisoners, perform cavity searches in their most private of areas, etc...

It's not very well directed (though fans may ask "so what?") and it doesn't always make a hell of a lot of sense. But there are a couple of disturbing sequences to be on the lookout for in scenes where a few female inmates escape and run wild in the streets - one of these involves castrating a man, and even a sicker display has the girls raping a pre-teenaged boy in his home as he moans "why? why?" (he may well find out in a few more years). ** out of ****

If you are a fan of endless lesbian orgies this film may be exactly the right stuff for you: see naked chicks having sex in their prison cells, under the shower, with the female attendants... here and there even some short hardcore sequences are brought on. There are some quite tame torture scenes and a subplot about the trade with female slaves, which is not further developed..!

"Bare behind bars" is probably the best WIP (stands for "Women-In-Prison")-flick ever made, because it doesn´t take itself too serious and it´s often full of unconscious humor! The best scenes has this weird Marilyn Monroe-like nurse, who uses an ananas as her dildo and exploits the female prisoners as their sex-bunnies.

If you want to know why this film is banned in countries like the U.K. or Germany check out the last third, which is the grossest part of this movie! Three outlaws are able to escape and on their run they murder a family, just for drinks and food. The climax of this crime is when one of the girls castrates the dead husband and feeds the cut off dick to his pesky barking dog..! Another castration-scene is featured some minutes later... However, there´s no happy ending for the girls: two of them return to prison, the third one becomes a prostitute and gets shot by her pimp..!

"Bare behind bars" belongs to those movies you may need a shower after watching it. Nevertheless it can be pretty entertaining if you have a sense for such films. If you like WIP-flicks try to find Jess Franco´s "Sadomania", too!!