Caged Heat

Jonathan Demme's directorial debut, and visibly the work of a real filmmaker slumming productively in the Corman machine. The women-in-prison formula is all present, the sadistic warden, the solidarity, the break, but Demme brings genuine wit, a countercultural streak and a feminist undercurrent that sets it apart.

The wheelchair-using warden played by Barbara Steele is a bizarre highlight, and Demme's sympathy for his characters is real. You can see the humane, playful director of later films already forming.

The most artful of the American WIP pictures, and a curio for Demme fans.