Women in prison films
Encyclopedia
Women in prison film is a subgenre of exploitation film
that began in the late 1960s and continues to the present day.
Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual
and physical abuse
, typically by sadistic male or female prison wardens and guards. The genre also features many films in which imprisoned women engage in lesbian
sex.
Before the late 1960s, films on women behind bars were serious, realistic dramas that depicted the miseries of prison life. They also carried an implied moralistic or cautionary message about the consequences of breaking the law.
The exploitation WiP films that followed discarded all moralistic pretensions. Instead, they are works of pure fantasy intended only to titillate the audience with a lurid mix of sex and violence. The flexible format, and the loosening of censorship laws, allowed filmmakers to choose from an extensive menu of taboos. From voyeurism
(strip searches, group shower scenes, cat-fights) to sexual fantasies (lesbianism, rape, sexual slavery), to fetishism
(bondage, whipping, degradation), and outright sadism (beatings, torture, cruelty).
Prior to these films, the only expression of such fantasy material was found in the many "true adventure" men's magazines such as Argosy in the 1950s and 1960s, although a plausible case could be made that Denis Diderot
's novel The Nun anticipated the genre. Nazis tormenting damsels in distress
were perennial favorite subjects for the lurid, sub-pornographic covers of these sensationalistic magazines which, by the end of the '60s, were in decline.
The story usually concludes with a bloody uprising or escape sequence in which the villains meet with a grisly death.
Occasionally the "new fish" inmate is an undercover reporter investigating corruption as in Bare Behind Bars
or a government agent sent to rescue a political prisoner (Caged Heat 2, Love Camp 7).
and Hold Your Man
, but generally, only a small part of the action took place inside the prison. Women-in-prison films developed in the 1930s as melodrama
s in which young heroines were shown the way to a righteous life by way of the prison. Under the influence of pulp magazines and paperbacks
, they became popular B movie
s in the 1950s. It was not until the 1950s, beginning with the release of Caged (1950), starring Eleanor Parker
and Agnes Moorehead
, So Young, So Bad
(also 1950), and Women's Prison
(1955) with Ida Lupino
and Cleo Moore
, that an entire film was set inside a women's correctional facility.
The film that kicked off the genre in a new direction was Jesus Franco
's 99 Women, which was a big box office success in the U.S. in 1969. That year Love Camp 7
was also among the first pure exploitation
films that influenced the women in prison and Nazi exploitation
genres. Since the 1970s, women-in-prison films have become a specialty product that has more to do with sexual fantasies than with real prison life.
A number of the WiP films remain banned by the BBFC in the United Kingdom. Among them are Love Camp 7
(rejected in 2002) and Women in Cellblock 9
(rejected in 2004), on the grounds that they contain substantial scenes of sexual violence
and in the case of the latter an actress who at 16 was under age at the time of production rendering it child pornography
under U.K. law.
(1982), and its sequel Chained Heat
(1983) with Linda Blair
and Sybil Danning
, Cell Block Sisters (1995), Caged Hearts (1995), Bad Girls Dormitory (1985), Under Lock & Key, and Caged Fear (1991).
American tourists are incarcerated overseas in Chained Heat 2 with Brigitte Nielsen
, Red Heat
with Linda Blair, and Prison Heat, set in Turkey. Mainstream, non-exploitation prison films dealing with this theme include Bangkok Hilton
(1989) starring Nicole Kidman
and Brokedown Palace
(1999) with Claire Danes
, both set in Thailand, and Return to Paradise, (1998), set in Malaysia.
Jonathan Demme
's Caged Heat
(1974) is one of the better known WiP films and has a cult following due to its tongue-in-cheek approach and casting of horror icon Barbara Steele
as the warden. Demme also co-wrote The Hot Box in 1972.
In recent years, films that parody or pay homage to the classic WiP films of the '70s have emerged such as Sugar Boxx (2009) from The Big Doll House
director Cody Jarrett
and Steve Balderson
's Stuck! (2010) starring Karen Black
, Mink Stole
, Jane Wiedlin
, and Pleasant Gehman
.
Examples include six by Jesus Franco
: 99 Women, Women in Cell Block 9, Ilsa, The Wicked Warden, Barbed Wire Dolls (1975), Women Behind Bars, and Sadomania (1980). Bruno Mattei
directed Women's Prison Massacre (1985), Caged Women (1984), and Jail — A Women's Hell (2006). Sergio Garrone directed Hell Behind Bars and Hell Penitentiary (both 1983). Other films include Women in Fury (1985) and Caged Women in Purgatory (1991).
The Nazi exploitation
subgenre centers on the same theme of captive women suffering abuses in war-time prison camps. Partly inspired by the U.S./Canadian Ilsa series, Franco, Mattei, Garrone and other Italian directors created scores of films such as SS Experiment Love Camp, SS Camp 5: Women’s Hell, Gestapo's Last Orgy, Helga, She Wolf of Spilberg, SS Hell Camp, Fraulein Devil, Women in Cell Block 7, and Nazi Love Camp 27
.
Comfort Women (1992) is based on real events. Chinese prostitutes are abducted by Japanese soldiers and used for brutal scientific experiments at the notorious Unit 731
medical camp.
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story
(1994) and its sequel are based on historical records of China's Qing Dynasty
.
In Japan, prison films are often made into a series based on popular characters from manga
comics such as Prisoner Maria and the Sasori (Scorpion) series which includes Female Convict 701: Scorpion
starring Meiko Kaji. Many Japanese films include themes of vengeance and retribution with a heroine who eventually becomes an avenging angel pursuing the drug or prostitution crime syndicate responsible for putting her behind bars.
nations run by corrupt dictators in either South America or Southeast Asia. The majority of these were filmed in the Philippines where production costs are low. Here, a group of nubile prisoners, wearing the regulation halter tops and cutoffs, are herded together in a stockade prison camp and used as slave labor, such as cutting sugar cane or digging in a quarry. The harsher, isolated setting allows for scenes of unrestrained brutality with whip-cracking guards, diabolical punishments, and death by gruesome accident or execution. These films usually involve a revolution subplot with political prisoners freed by their comrades in a climactic raid where the evil warden and guards are shot and the camp is burned down.
Actress Pam Grier
starred in several Fillipino jungle films such as Roger Corman
's The Big Doll House
and its sequel The Big Bird Cage
, plus Women in Cages
, and Black Mama, White Mama
(story co-written by Jonathan Demme).
Sweet Sugar, aka She Devils in Chains (1972) starred Phyllis Davis
, Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom (1994) featured Jewel Shepard
as an undercover agent.
The especially brutal Escape from Hell, aka Escape (1979) and its sequel Hotel Paradise came from Italy. In Jess Franco's bizarre Sadomania, both the guards and prisoners go topless throughout the film which also features gladiator fights to the death and prisoners hunted like animals in an alligator-infested swamp.
(nun exploitation) subgenre emerged at the same time as the WiP film and is composed of the same basic elements. The stories are set in isolated convents that resemble prisons where sexually-repressed nuns are driven to rampant lesbianism and perversity.
The Mother Superior is usually a cruel and corrupt warden-like martinet who rules with an iron hand. The nuns are treated little better than convicts, with rule-breakers subjected to sadistic whippings or Inquisition-style tortures. Plus, the added element of religious guilt makes way for lurid depictions of painful masochism and self-flagellation.
A notable European horror-hybrid is the 1969 Spanish film, The House That Screamed. A psycho-killer lurks in a house for wayward girls run by a harsh disciplinarian (Lili Palmer). This groundbreaking film has influenced many others, particularly the Dario Argento
thriller Suspiria
.
Human Experiments (1979), and Hellhole (1985) are two examples of a spate of horror films where prisoners are experimented on by mad scientists.
Werewolf in a Women's Prison (2006) draws from the monster-movie genre.
Caged Heat 3000 (1995) stars Lisa Boyle
(aka Cassandra Leigh) as an inmate on an asteroid prison. Includes futuristic touches such as electric bra torment and cattle prod-like sticks.
Star Slammer, aka Prison Ship (1987) is one of several low-budget space sagas set in the future.
Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain (1998) and Chained Rage: Slave to Love (2002) are both set in a barbaric post-nuclear world where slaves are forced to toil in the mines.
Terminal Island (1973) with Phyllis Davis, Tom Selleck
, and Marta Kristen
and Caged in Paradise (1989) starring Irene Cara
are both set on isolated island penal colonies with no prisons or guards. Inmates are simply stranded there and must fend for themselves. The 1985 Japanese film Banished Behind Bars has a similar theme.
the nudity in many of the scenes in these films draws on fetishes as a dramatic element.
Bars and Stripes is a video producer that maintains a website entirely devoted to its line of prison-based BDSM fetish films. A stable of recurring "inmates" are listed with mug shots and information. Most of the films are part of a continuing story. Other companies that exclusively produce prison fetish films include: Chain Gang Girls, CagedTushy.com, and SpankCamp.com.
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
that began in the late 1960s and continues to the present day.
Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
and physical abuse
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
, typically by sadistic male or female prison wardens and guards. The genre also features many films in which imprisoned women engage in lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
sex.
Before the late 1960s, films on women behind bars were serious, realistic dramas that depicted the miseries of prison life. They also carried an implied moralistic or cautionary message about the consequences of breaking the law.
The exploitation WiP films that followed discarded all moralistic pretensions. Instead, they are works of pure fantasy intended only to titillate the audience with a lurid mix of sex and violence. The flexible format, and the loosening of censorship laws, allowed filmmakers to choose from an extensive menu of taboos. From voyeurism
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
(strip searches, group shower scenes, cat-fights) to sexual fantasies (lesbianism, rape, sexual slavery), to fetishism
Fetishism
A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others...
(bondage, whipping, degradation), and outright sadism (beatings, torture, cruelty).
Prior to these films, the only expression of such fantasy material was found in the many "true adventure" men's magazines such as Argosy in the 1950s and 1960s, although a plausible case could be made that Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
's novel The Nun anticipated the genre. Nazis tormenting damsels in distress
Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...
were perennial favorite subjects for the lurid, sub-pornographic covers of these sensationalistic magazines which, by the end of the '60s, were in decline.
Recurring plot elements
Most women-in-prison films employ the same stock characters and formulaic situations which have since become cinematic cliches. Such scenes usually include:- an innocent girl (or group) being wrongfully sent to a corrupt penitentiary or reform school run by a brutal and lecherous male or lesbian warden (who might also be running an inmate prostitution ring on the side)
- an extremely humiliating group strip search
- lesbian sex scenes between prisoners and the guards, or the female prisoners being raped (or forced into prostitution) by male guards
- female prisoners being sentenced to extremely humiliating hard labor (such as scrubbing floors or digging dirt holes completely naked)
- fights between the prisoners (sometimes completely naked in the shower)
- cruel beatings and punishment by sadistic guards
- female prisoners being sprayed by a firehose
The story usually concludes with a bloody uprising or escape sequence in which the villains meet with a grisly death.
Occasionally the "new fish" inmate is an undercover reporter investigating corruption as in Bare Behind Bars
Bare Behind Bars
Bare Behind Bars is a 1980 sexploitation film directed and written by Oswaldo de Oliveira and starring Maria Stella Splendore, Marta Anderson and Danielle Ferrite...
or a government agent sent to rescue a political prisoner (Caged Heat 2, Love Camp 7).
History of the genre
Hollywood made movies set in women's prisons as early as the 1930s, such as Ladies They Talk AboutLadies They Talk About
Ladies They Talk About is a 1933 Pre-Code women in prison film about a woman sent to San Quentin. Based on the play Women in Prison by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles, the film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, and Lillian Roth.-Plot:...
and Hold Your Man
Hold Your Man
Hold Your Man is a 1933 American romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Sam Wood and starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, the third of their six films together...
, but generally, only a small part of the action took place inside the prison. Women-in-prison films developed in the 1930s as melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s in which young heroines were shown the way to a righteous life by way of the prison. Under the influence of pulp magazines and paperbacks
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
, they became popular B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s in the 1950s. It was not until the 1950s, beginning with the release of Caged (1950), starring Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Jean Parker is an American screen actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.- Early life :...
and Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
, So Young, So Bad
So Young, So Bad
So Young, So Bad is a black-and-white 1950 American film. Bernard Vorhaus directed the film.The film is about a psychiatrist's efforts to help girls at a reform school.-Cast:*Paul Henreid as Dr. John H. Jason*Catherine McLeod as Ruth Levering...
(also 1950), and Women's Prison
Women's Prison (1955 film)
Women's Prison is a 1955 film prison noir directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling and Cleo Moore. The movie was released through Columbia Pictures.-Cast:*Ida Lupino as Amelia van Zandt*Jan Sterling as Brenda Martin...
(1955) with Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
and Cleo Moore
Cleo Moore
Cleouna "Cleo" Moore was an American actress, usually seen in the role of a blonde bombshell, in 1950s Hollywood films. She was known as Columbia Pictures's clone of 20th Century Fox's, Marilyn Monroe...
, that an entire film was set inside a women's correctional facility.
The film that kicked off the genre in a new direction was Jesus Franco
Jesús Franco
Jesús "Jess" Franco is a Spanish film director, writer, cinematographer and actor. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England...
's 99 Women, which was a big box office success in the U.S. in 1969. That year Love Camp 7
Love Camp 7
Love Camp 7 is a 1969 U.S. women-in-prison B-movie directed by Lee Frost and written by Wes Bishop and Bob Cresse, the latter of whom also acts as a sadistic camp commandant.-Plot:...
was also among the first pure exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
films that influenced the women in prison and Nazi exploitation
Nazi exploitation
Nazi exploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves villainous Nazis committing criminal acts of a sexual nature often as camp or prison overseers in World War II settings...
genres. Since the 1970s, women-in-prison films have become a specialty product that has more to do with sexual fantasies than with real prison life.
A number of the WiP films remain banned by the BBFC in the United Kingdom. Among them are Love Camp 7
Love Camp 7
Love Camp 7 is a 1969 U.S. women-in-prison B-movie directed by Lee Frost and written by Wes Bishop and Bob Cresse, the latter of whom also acts as a sadistic camp commandant.-Plot:...
(rejected in 2002) and Women in Cellblock 9
Women in Cellblock 9
Women in Cellblock 9 is a 1977 Swiss film directed by Spanish director Jesus Franco, starring Howard Vernon and Karine Gambier...
(rejected in 2004), on the grounds that they contain substantial scenes of sexual violence
Sexual violence
Sexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...
and in the case of the latter an actress who at 16 was under age at the time of production rendering it child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
under U.K. law.
American films
Typical examples of traditional prison films set in the U.S. include: The Concrete JungleThe Concrete Jungle (film)
The Concrete Jungle is a 1982 American women in prison film directed by Tom DeSimone and featuring Jill St. John and Tracey E. Bregman.-Plot:...
(1982), and its sequel Chained Heat
Chained Heat
Chained Heat is a 1983 exploitation film in the women-in-prison genre. It was co-written and directed by Paul Nicholas for Jensen Farley Pictures.-Plot:...
(1983) with Linda Blair
Linda Blair
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...
and Sybil Danning
Sybil Danning
Sybil Danning is an Austrian actress known for her many roles in B movies, science fiction films, and action films.-Early life:Danning was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria as Sybille Johanna Danninger...
, Cell Block Sisters (1995), Caged Hearts (1995), Bad Girls Dormitory (1985), Under Lock & Key, and Caged Fear (1991).
American tourists are incarcerated overseas in Chained Heat 2 with Brigitte Nielsen
Brigitte Nielsen
Brigitte Nielsen is a Danish model, actress, musician and reality television personality who began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton and several years later made appearances in the 1985 films Red Sonja and Rocky IV and is also known for her marriage to Sylvester Stallone...
, Red Heat
Red Heat (1985 film)
-Cast:Linda Blair—Christine CarlsonSylvia Kristel—Sofia Sue Kiel—Hedda William Ostrander—Mike Elisabeth Volkmann—Einbeck Albert Fortell—Ernst Herb Andress—Werner Barbara Spitz—Meg Kati Marothy—Barbara Dagmar Schwarz—Lillian Sissy Weiner—Uta...
with Linda Blair, and Prison Heat, set in Turkey. Mainstream, non-exploitation prison films dealing with this theme include Bangkok Hilton
Bangkok Hilton
Bangkok Hilton is a three-part Australian mini-series, made in 1989 by Kennedy Miller Productions and directed by Ken Cameron. The title of the mini-series is, in the story, the nickname of a fictional Bangkok prison in which the protagonist is imprisoned.-Plot:Bangkok Hilton begins as Hal Stanton...
(1989) starring Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
and Brokedown Palace
Brokedown Palace
Brokedown Palace is an American film directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and starring Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale. It deals with two American friends imprisoned in Thailand for drug smuggling. Because it presents a critical view of the Thai legal system, most scenes were filmed in the Philippines;...
(1999) with Claire Danes
Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
, both set in Thailand, and Return to Paradise, (1998), set in Malaysia.
Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
's Caged Heat
Caged Heat
Caged Heat is an exploitation film from 1974 of the "women-in-prison" film genre. Caged Heat was written and directed by Jonathan Demme for the New World Pictures company, headed by Roger Corman...
(1974) is one of the better known WiP films and has a cult following due to its tongue-in-cheek approach and casting of horror icon Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele is an English film actress. She is best known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. Her breakthrough role came in Italian director Mario Bava's Black Sunday , now hailed as a classic.Steele starred in a string of horror films, including The Horrible Dr...
as the warden. Demme also co-wrote The Hot Box in 1972.
In recent years, films that parody or pay homage to the classic WiP films of the '70s have emerged such as Sugar Boxx (2009) from The Big Doll House
The Big Doll House
The Big Doll House is a 1971 women in prison film starring Pam Grier, Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Brooke Mills, and Pat Woodell. The film follows six female inmates throughout daily life in a gritty, unidentified supra-tropical prison...
director Cody Jarrett
Cody Jarrett
Cody Jarrett is the American filmmaker of Frog-g-g!. Lived in Tampa Bay, Florida. Relocated to Los Angeles, California to do Andrew Dice Clay's 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, released by 20th Century Fox. Cody is also a singer songwriter and has played in many rock bands such as Teen...
and Steve Balderson
Steve Balderson
Stephen Clark Balderson is an American film director.-Early life:Balderson was born in Manhattan, Kansas and raised in nearby Wamego, Kansas until the age of twelve, when his family moved to Manhattan. Balderson attended Manhattan High School. Though his class attendance was poor, Balderson...
's Stuck! (2010) starring Karen Black
Karen Black
Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...
, Mink Stole
Mink Stole
Nancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...
, Jane Wiedlin
Jane Wiedlin
Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and actress. She is best known as the rhythm guitarist of the all-female New Wave band The Go-Go's.-Early life:...
, and Pleasant Gehman
Pleasant Gehman
Pleasant Gehman is a magazine writer, poet, actor, dancer and musician from Los Angeles.In the 1980s, she was the singer for the punk rock band Screamin' Sirens, and later, The RIngling Sisters and Honk If Yer Horny. All three bands have released numerous titles on vinyl, as well as cd...
.
Italian films
Italian exploitation directors have produced scores of WiP films with far more graphic sex and violence than those produced in the U.S.Examples include six by Jesus Franco
Jesús Franco
Jesús "Jess" Franco is a Spanish film director, writer, cinematographer and actor. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England...
: 99 Women, Women in Cell Block 9, Ilsa, The Wicked Warden, Barbed Wire Dolls (1975), Women Behind Bars, and Sadomania (1980). Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei was an Italian film director, screenwriter and editor who gained a cult following for a wide variety of exploitation films that covered many genres, ranging from women in prison to zombie films...
directed Women's Prison Massacre (1985), Caged Women (1984), and Jail — A Women's Hell (2006). Sergio Garrone directed Hell Behind Bars and Hell Penitentiary (both 1983). Other films include Women in Fury (1985) and Caged Women in Purgatory (1991).
The Nazi exploitation
Nazi exploitation
Nazi exploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves villainous Nazis committing criminal acts of a sexual nature often as camp or prison overseers in World War II settings...
subgenre centers on the same theme of captive women suffering abuses in war-time prison camps. Partly inspired by the U.S./Canadian Ilsa series, Franco, Mattei, Garrone and other Italian directors created scores of films such as SS Experiment Love Camp, SS Camp 5: Women’s Hell, Gestapo's Last Orgy, Helga, She Wolf of Spilberg, SS Hell Camp, Fraulein Devil, Women in Cell Block 7, and Nazi Love Camp 27
Nazi Love Camp 27
Nazi Love Camp 27 is a 1977 Italian Nazi exploitation film by western director Mario Caino starring Sirpa Lane. The film is notable for its truly grim scenes, dramatic plot and hardcore sex scenes.- Plot :...
.
Asian films
The abuse of Chinese women in Japanese detention or prisoner-of-war camps during World War II is depicted in a series of Hong Kong films. Prime examples include Bamboo House of Dolls (1972), Great Escape from a Women's Prison, and Men Behind the Sun (1988).Comfort Women (1992) is based on real events. Chinese prostitutes are abducted by Japanese soldiers and used for brutal scientific experiments at the notorious Unit 731
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...
medical camp.
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story is a 1994 Hong Kong erotic comedy film produced by Wong Jing and directed by Bosco Lam. The literal translation of the Chinese title means Ten Tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.-Plot:...
(1994) and its sequel are based on historical records of China's Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
.
In Japan, prison films are often made into a series based on popular characters from manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
comics such as Prisoner Maria and the Sasori (Scorpion) series which includes Female Convict 701: Scorpion
Female Convict 701: Scorpion
is a film based on a manga by Tōru Shinohara in the "Women in Prison" sub-genre of Pinky violence Pink films made by Toei Company in 1972. The first in a series, the film starred Meiko Kaji and was Shunya Itō's directorial debut.-Plot:...
starring Meiko Kaji. Many Japanese films include themes of vengeance and retribution with a heroine who eventually becomes an avenging angel pursuing the drug or prostitution crime syndicate responsible for putting her behind bars.
Jungle prison films
The steamy, "tropical hell-hole" variant has spawned many films set in fictional Banana republicBanana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
nations run by corrupt dictators in either South America or Southeast Asia. The majority of these were filmed in the Philippines where production costs are low. Here, a group of nubile prisoners, wearing the regulation halter tops and cutoffs, are herded together in a stockade prison camp and used as slave labor, such as cutting sugar cane or digging in a quarry. The harsher, isolated setting allows for scenes of unrestrained brutality with whip-cracking guards, diabolical punishments, and death by gruesome accident or execution. These films usually involve a revolution subplot with political prisoners freed by their comrades in a climactic raid where the evil warden and guards are shot and the camp is burned down.
Actress Pam Grier
Pam Grier
Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
starred in several Fillipino jungle films such as Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's The Big Doll House
The Big Doll House
The Big Doll House is a 1971 women in prison film starring Pam Grier, Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Brooke Mills, and Pat Woodell. The film follows six female inmates throughout daily life in a gritty, unidentified supra-tropical prison...
and its sequel The Big Bird Cage
The Big Bird Cage
The Big Bird Cage is a 1972 exploitation film of the "women in prison" subgenre. It serves as a non-sequel follow-up to the 1971 film The Big Doll House...
, plus Women in Cages
Women in Cages
Women in Cages is a 1971 film in the women in prison sexploitation sub-genre, co-produced by Roger Corman and directed by Gerardo de León. It was prominently featured in the Planet Terror portion of the 2007 film Grindhouse....
, and Black Mama, White Mama
Black Mama, White Mama
Black Mama, White Mama is a 1973 women in prison film with elements of blaxploitation, starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, and directed by Eddie Romero.-Plot:...
(story co-written by Jonathan Demme).
Sweet Sugar, aka She Devils in Chains (1972) starred Phyllis Davis
Phyllis Davis
Phyllis Davis is an American actress who appeared primarily on television. She was most notably a part of the cast of Aaron Spelling's dramatic series Vega$, playing the character Beatrice Travis....
, Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom (1994) featured Jewel Shepard
Jewel Shepard
Jewel Shepard is an American writer, photographer and actress, best known for her roles in movies such as Party Camp and Return of the Living Dead ....
as an undercover agent.
The especially brutal Escape from Hell, aka Escape (1979) and its sequel Hotel Paradise came from Italy. In Jess Franco's bizarre Sadomania, both the guards and prisoners go topless throughout the film which also features gladiator fights to the death and prisoners hunted like animals in an alligator-infested swamp.
Nunsploitation
The NunsploitationNunsploitation
Nunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film which had its peak in Europe in the 1970s. These films typically involve Christian nuns living in convents during the Middle Ages. The main conflict of the story is usually of a religious or sexual nature, such as religious oppression or sexual...
(nun exploitation) subgenre emerged at the same time as the WiP film and is composed of the same basic elements. The stories are set in isolated convents that resemble prisons where sexually-repressed nuns are driven to rampant lesbianism and perversity.
The Mother Superior is usually a cruel and corrupt warden-like martinet who rules with an iron hand. The nuns are treated little better than convicts, with rule-breakers subjected to sadistic whippings or Inquisition-style tortures. Plus, the added element of religious guilt makes way for lurid depictions of painful masochism and self-flagellation.
Mixed-genre prison films
The WiP film has also expanded into other areas and film genres such as horror and science fiction.A notable European horror-hybrid is the 1969 Spanish film, The House That Screamed. A psycho-killer lurks in a house for wayward girls run by a harsh disciplinarian (Lili Palmer). This groundbreaking film has influenced many others, particularly the Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
thriller Suspiria
Suspiria
Suspiria is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi. The film follows an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany, only to discover that it is controlled by a coven of witches. The film's score was...
.
Human Experiments (1979), and Hellhole (1985) are two examples of a spate of horror films where prisoners are experimented on by mad scientists.
Werewolf in a Women's Prison (2006) draws from the monster-movie genre.
Caged Heat 3000 (1995) stars Lisa Boyle
Lisa Boyle
Lisa Denise Boyle is an American model known for her appearances in Playboy magazine and its various Special Editions, often teamed with Patricia Ford. She is a professional photographer, shooting content for her own website, as well as freelance work for various publications.-Early life:Boyle was...
(aka Cassandra Leigh) as an inmate on an asteroid prison. Includes futuristic touches such as electric bra torment and cattle prod-like sticks.
Star Slammer, aka Prison Ship (1987) is one of several low-budget space sagas set in the future.
Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain (1998) and Chained Rage: Slave to Love (2002) are both set in a barbaric post-nuclear world where slaves are forced to toil in the mines.
Terminal Island (1973) with Phyllis Davis, Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
, and Marta Kristen
Marta Kristen
Marta Kristen is an American actress.The naturally blonde-haired Kristen is best-known for her role as Guy Williams's and June Lockhart's beautiful daughter, Judy Robinson, in the television series Lost in Space...
and Caged in Paradise (1989) starring Irene Cara
Irene Cara
Irene Cara is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling." She is also known for her recording of the song "Fame", and she also starred in the 1980 film Fame.She married Hollywood stuntman...
are both set on isolated island penal colonies with no prisons or guards. Inmates are simply stranded there and must fend for themselves. The 1985 Japanese film Banished Behind Bars has a similar theme.
Prison film producers
In recent years, North American Pictures, the Canadian makers of Chained Heat 2 set up a separate production company in the Czech Republic called Bound Heat Films for creating R-rated, erotic WiP, Nazisploitation, and female slavery films. Many of these star Rena Riffel (from Showgirls). Titles include: School of Surrender, Dark Confessions, Stories from Slave Life, No Escape, Caligula's Spawn, Slave Huntress, and Bound Cargo. While not technically considered pornographyPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
the nudity in many of the scenes in these films draws on fetishes as a dramatic element.
Bars and Stripes is a video producer that maintains a website entirely devoted to its line of prison-based BDSM fetish films. A stable of recurring "inmates" are listed with mug shots and information. Most of the films are part of a continuing story. Other companies that exclusively produce prison fetish films include: Chain Gang Girls, CagedTushy.com, and SpankCamp.com.
In popular culture
- Charlie's AngelsCharlie's AngelsCharlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
"Angels in Chains" episode (1976) is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the genre; the angels (Kate JacksonKate JacksonKate Jackson is an American actress, director, and producer, perhaps best known for her role as Sabrina Duncan in the popular 1970s television series Charlie's Angels...
, Farrah FawcettFarrah FawcettFarrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, Jaclyn SmithJaclyn SmithJacquelyn Ellen "Jaclyn" Smith is an American actress and businesswoman. She is best-known for the role of Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels, and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run...
) go undercover as convicts. (Future angel Tanya RobertsTanya RobertsTanya Roberts is an American actress best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels, The Beastmaster, A View to a Kill, Sheena and That '70s Show. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.- Early life :Blum was born in The Bronx, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent...
also made the 1989 prison film Purgatory.) - The Kentucky Fried MovieThe Kentucky Fried MovieThe Kentucky Fried Movie is an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. This same team would go on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its...
(1977) features a mock trailer for the film Catholic High School Girls in Trouble. - In 1980 Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
performed "Debs Behind Bars", a satire of PrisonerPrisoner (TV series)Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...
, an AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n prison soap operaSoap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
series. Guest host Teri GarrTeri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
and other cast members played spoiled debutantes behind bars. - The 1984 video (directed by Bob Giraldi http://www.mvdbase.com/tech.php?last=Giraldi&first=Bob) for Jermaine Jackson's song "Dynamite" reverses the gender of the prisoners and staff, with Jackson attempting to lead an escape from a prison dominated by ruthless female guards.
- Jailbird Rock (1985) is a campy musical set in a prison.
- Slammer Girls (1986) spoofs prison film cliches and stereotypes.
- Reform School GirlsReform School GirlsReform School Girls is a 1986 American film directed by Tom DeSimone, starring Wendy O. Williams, Pat Ast, and Sybil Danning. It depicts a reform school for girls that is operated by a sadistic and evil warden, Sutter, and her henchwoman Edna.-Plot:...
(1986) with Sybil DanningSybil DanningSybil Danning is an Austrian actress known for her many roles in B movies, science fiction films, and action films.-Early life:Danning was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria as Sybille Johanna Danninger...
and Wendy O. WilliamsWendy O. WilliamsWendy Orlean Williams , better known as Wendy O. Williams, was the lead singer for the American punk band the Plasmatics, as well as a solo artist...
, former singer for the punk band PlasmaticsPlasmaticsThe Plasmatics were an American heavy metal and punk band formed by Yale University art school graduate Rod Swenson with Wendy O. Williams. The band was a controversial group known for wild live shows that broke countless taboos...
, is partly a homage, partly a parody of the genre. - In a 1994 appearance by Judith LightJudith LightJudith Ellen Light is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.-Early life:Light...
on The Tonight Show with Jay LenoThe Tonight Show with Jay LenoThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...
to promote her TV movie Against Their Will: Women in Prison, LenoJay LenoJames Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
poked fun that it must be sweeps and noted that most women in prison are, in fact, there against their will. - In a 1996 episode of Night Stand with Dick DietrickNight Stand with Dick DietrickNight Stand with Dick Dietrick was an American television comedy show that satirizes American tabloid talk shows such as The Jerry Springer Show and The Jenny Jones Show. The series was originally broadcast in first-run syndication from 1995 to 1997, as well as on the E! Entertainment Television...
Dick's guest is a woman who was falsely imprisoned in an abusive jail. Dick takes up her cause by making an exploitive WiP film (starring himself as the sadistic warden.) - The short-lived American television series Women in PrisonWomen in Prison (TV series)Women in Prison is an American television sitcom, which aired on Fox from October 11, 1987 to April 2, 1988.-Synopsis:Set in cell-block J of the Bass Women's prison in Wisconsin, the show focuses on the interactions among the prison inmates...
was a sitcom variation on the genre. - Prison-A-Go-Go!Prison-A-Go-Go!Prison-A-Go-Go! is an American movie first released in October 2003 by WorldWide International Picture Studios, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts. The film premiered at the Deep Ellum Film Festival in 2003 and went on to win several awards. The film was directed by Barak...
(2003) with Mary WoronovMary WoronovMary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
and Rhonda ShearRhonda ShearRhonda Shear is an American television personality, comedienne, and actress.-Early life:Shear was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a Jewish American family. She attended Loyola University, earning a B.A. in Communications...
is a broad spoof of prison films. There is even a countdown clock indicating when the next shower scene occurs. - The Halfway House (2004) with Mary WoronovMary WoronovMary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
is a combined satire of women in prison films, nunsploitationNunsploitationNunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film which had its peak in Europe in the 1970s. These films typically involve Christian nuns living in convents during the Middle Ages. The main conflict of the story is usually of a religious or sexual nature, such as religious oppression or sexual...
, and z-grade occult horror flicks. - Janet PerlmanJanet PerlmanJanet Laurie Perlman is a Canadian animator and children's book author and illustrator whose work includes the short film The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 54th Academy Awards and received a Parents' Choice Award....
's satirical graphic novel Penguins Behind Bars is a parody of the women in prison genre. It was later adapted by Perlman as an animated short which aired in the U.S. on Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
. - Lady GagaLady GaGaStefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
pays homage to the genre in her 2010 music video for "TelephoneTelephone (song)"Telephone" is a song written and performed by Lady Gaga. It was released from her third extended play and second major release The Fame Monster . The song, featuring American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles, was written by Gaga and Rodney Jerkins...
".
External links
- WIP Cinema Guide
- Women in Prison section of Prison Flicks
- Stuck! official website
- Theprisonfilmproject.com: Overview of developments in the U.S. and the U.K. 1922 - 2003
- Lesbians in Women-in-Prison Movies
- Stock characters in women in prison films
- Blog about WIP films
- Prison Film Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)