Women in Prison...Again: Women in Cages

Welcome back to Women in Prison...Again Week. Again I apologize to those not thrilled with how this week will unfurl and it is hard to get around such but one must make do. Innuendos too subtle? Well today I found a Corman production in the Philippines were young innocent girls are being sold on the black market sex slave trade. Tasteful, I know. Hey you didn't have to sit through it. This is Women in Cages.

CATFIGHT!!!!

Man, the title just screams sexist piggies at work, doesn't it? Our story follows Carol "Jeff" Jefferies (Jennifer Gan of In Like Flint, Love, American Style, Nichols, Ironside, Naked Angels, Hello, Dollly and The Virginian) as she takes the fall for her boyfriend's criminal schemes on board his ship consisting of prostitution, gambling and smack trade (heroine for you, suckas). With the heat on his ass, Rudy (Charlie Davao of Bingbong: The Vincent Crisologo Story, Zhi fa wei long, Lethal Panther 2, Rosalinda, Darna and May bukas pa) hides almost a kilo of snow in Jeff's purse. Yeah who doesn't walk around town with that much dope in their purse?

Tossed in this hellhole filled with hellcats, Jeff of course is introduced to Alabama (Not Hot Pocket, Shawn but Pam Grier of The Big Bird Cage, Hit Man, Black Mama White Mama, Coffy, The Arena, Scream Blacula Scream, Foxy Brown, Sheba, Baby, Jackie Brown and Fortress 2) a lesbian torturous sadist of a prison guard...lesbian sadist? Anyway, she takes no crap, keeps girls in line and rewards those that tow the line.

Mmm, Pantene did wonders for your hair.

Seeing Rudy left her holding the bag and the other prisoners hold her in ill-regard, Jeff starts formulating a plan of escape. Stokes (Roberta Collins of The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, Caged Heat, Hardbodies, Hardbodies 2, School Spirit and Death Wish II), a smack addict thinks she can plot against Jeff for more smack. Reason and logic are probably not a heroin addict's best friend. Theresa (Sofia Moran of Playpen, Women in Cages, Batman and Robin (1972), The Smugglers, Bandolera, Secret Witness and Kingpin) is in bed with Alabama, in that she's her regular Saturday Night Thang...until they have a falling out. Guess she was the bad wife.

I'm confused. Her credit is head guard of the prison and yet Pam's role is almost the warden. So the formula of course is wrongly accused girls laboring in the fields, cat fights galore, load of showering and yup TORTURE! Pam has her own dungeon a.k.a. The Playpen. Less dom and more Spanish Inquisition though. These girls aren't walking away with a light paddling. I did start laughing realizing Pam owns her white girls, whipping them and making them slave in the hot sun. I'm weird that way.

The porn parody of The Great Escape is hard to follow.

Typical Grindhouse double feature with Emanuelle Escapes Hell you would almost wager. Granted, Emanuelle Escapes Hell came out in 1982 but my point remains.

With rough terrain, dense jungle and God only knows what lurks in the waters, Theresa, Jeff, Stokes and Sandy (Judy Brown of The Big Doll House, Threesome, A Woman for all Men, Toxic Zombies and House Calls) scheme to make their escape. Theresa guiding them tells the girls they can get help on the outside and hightail it outta there.

With violence and jiggly titties galore the men folk should be sated. Ladies, I have no idea what possible interest this film is for you...at all. I feel like I need a shower just from watching this sleazy, dismal hodge podge of sex and violence. It's grim and somber, our little flick and I really have no redeeming value for it. Um...the camera work was impressive.

Why are they in The Crimson Executioner's basement?

Fusion of Film: Scream Blacula Scream

And greetings to you, gentle readers for Day 4 of Fusion of Film. Well we have had some thrills, chills and in general screwy flicks... So how about a sequel? Oh c'mon... Okay to relieve some of your anxiety it is not a latter A Nightmare on Elm Street because, well I don't want to put us all through that crap. I mean you are just reading it, I have to watch the piece of crap. No, this time I am reviewing a sequel to a blaxploitation horror film. Yeah imagine trying to say that five times real fast. American International Pictures brings us the continuation of Prince Mamuwalde, voodoo and some seventies funk. This is Scream Blacula Scream.

No hickeys!!!

The aging Voodoo priestess of L.A.? Is dying and Mama Loa picks her adopted daughter and apprentice Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier of The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena, Coffy, Foxy Brown and Jackie Brown) as the next Voodoo priestess and her son and blood relative Willie (Richard Lawson of Streets of Fire, Poltergeist, All My Children, Wag the Dog, Angry Boys, Royal Family Thanksgiving and Royal Family Christmas) who vows revenge, gives a false front of everything is cool, baby and hustles outta there. What a toolbox. Willie goes to a former Bokor (practicioner of black magic and zombification)of the group and buys the bones of Mamuwalde from the last film when he burned in the sunlight. The Bokor warns him of the power he is trying to enslave and he take heed but our boy again is a total tool so what could happen? Willie brings back Mamuwalde (William Marshall of Star Trek, Skullduggery, Zig Zag, Blacula, Abby, Rosetti and Ryan, Pee-wee's Playhouse, Maverick and Dinosaur Valley Girls), screws up his circle of protection and Mamuwalde puts the bite on him making him a servant of darkness. Back to life or undead, Mamuwalde walks the streets and ends up at a party former officer Justin Carter (Don Mitchell of I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside, Short Walk to Daylight, Ironside TV series, Wonder Woman, Perfume and The Return of Ironside) is an amateur archaeologist and collector of African antiquities when the prince finds a stirring, an attraction to Lisa... well given it is Pam Grier the prince may have seen Foxy Brown.

What do you mean tips are mandatory??!!!

A string of bizarre murders happen and Carter with an interest in the occult proceeds to have a look around with no one on the force really busting his chops that he is an ex-cop looking into existing homicides. Lisa's friend Gloria (Janee Michelle of The Love-Ins, The Mephisto Waltz, Scream Blacula Scream, The House on Skull Mountain and In the Heat of the Night) dies at the party has returned from "BEYOND THE GRAVE" and tries feeding on Lisa but is stopped by Mamuwalde in time. He begs Lisa to lift the vampire curse from him so he can be a normal man once more. Carter gets his former lieutenant on board with him and they prep stakes medium rare...um I mean they sharpen some wood to be driven into bodies.

Can Lisa end Mamuwalde's curse? Will he have to atone for his vampiric crimes? Can the undead serve a life sentence?

A few thoughts on the film.

So no mention of Tina or Dr. Gordon Thomas from the first film. Apparently they just up and left L.A.or maybe they went on a honeymoon as this is only a week after the first movie.

I did enjoy the film goof of Mamuwalde knowing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata that was composed in 1801 when Mamuwalde was imprisoned in his coffin around 1774 so pretty sure he never heard it, let alone had an instructor to teach him to play. No I am not a historian but my younger brother was a pianist so kinda became familiar with composers.

While there were none of the original cast from the first film, this movie's mood, setting and atmosphere holds it own and you still feel bad for Mamuwalde as he is truly cursed by Dracula all those centuries ago. Its tone is a bit softer and yes it is a bit on the cheesy but most exploitation films were lacking a huge budget to work with. All in all, not a bad movie nor was it a bad sequel.

A.K.A. Coffy A.K.A. Foxy Brown.

Sid Haig Week: The Big Doll House

Well hello there folks and welcome to Sid Haig Week and what say we start this off right and classy??   So of course as we should kick this week off with a women in prison flick of course.  Yes the delights of a tropical locale of unknown origin, lesbian forceful guards, corrupt warlord and the horrors of addiction and political affiliation.   This is The Big Doll House.

Girl, you know I'm foxy.

Grear: You son of a spoiler! This is for Bodine,  You're rotten, Harry.  You know why?  'Cos you're a man.  All men are filthy.




This film is typical one of the cliche filmed in the Phillippines and yet held in some republic in South America.  Collier (Judith Brown of Threesome, Women in Cages, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, Willie Dynamite, A Woman for All Men, International Assassin and House Calls) arrives to the prison with four other women as she is in for killing for her husband.  With the different personalities, cultures, and races there are constant fights during dinner which constantly tortured or disciplined lead guard Lucian (Kathyrn Loder of A Cry of Angels, The Big Doll House, Night of the Witches, Foxy Brown and Far Out Space Nuts) and Miss Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer of Stop Train 349, Ship of Fools, Boeing, Boeing, Scream, Pretty Peggy, Airport 1975, The Specialist, Half a House and The Giant Spider Invasion) the head warden couldn't be bothered to care one iota.

Damn girl, why ya gots to be cruel?

They have had enough of the abuse.  Her cellmates Alcott (Roberta Collins of Women in Cages, Sweet Kill, The Unholy Rollers, The Roommates, Wonder Women, Caged Heat, Three the Hard Way and Alias Big Cherry) and Bodine (Pat Woodell of 77 Sunset Strip, Petticoat Junction, Bunny and Claude: We Rob Carrot Patches, Class of '74, The Roommates and The Woman Hunt) agreed to help break out.  They need the aid of Grear (Pam Grier of Women in Cages, Cool Breeze, The Twillight People, Hit Man, Black Mama White Mama, Coffy, The Arena, Foxy Brown, Bucktown, Miami Vice and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) to coerce the other guards and use these two men who brought market produce and Fred (Jerry Franks of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and The Big Doll House)  and Harry (Our boy Sid Haig of Forty Days of Musa Dagh, The Fall Guy, Misfits of Science, Commando Squad and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II) end up reluctantly helping them escape with arms.

A few comments to make at this time.

Jack Hill brings $125,000 as a budget and managed to gross over ten million dollars and amusingly 3 million in VHS rentals.  This was Pam Grier's first big acting role.   Because Brooke Mills (Harrad of The Big Doll House) was a trained ballet dancer. Hill added a dance sequence just to capture her on film.

 The infamous line "Get it up or I'll cut it off" line was improvised by Jack Hill and Robert Collins making this psychotic glance in her eye wielding a knife and nailed it. The line that is.

Hey, I am talking to you!