The Big Doll House
The Big Doll House is a 1971 film from the USA, directed by Jack Hill, running 95 minutes. reelscum files it under women in prison.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Director
- Jack Hill
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (47/100)
- Also known as
- Bamboo Dolls House
Defined in the glossary: Women in prison
Jack Hill and Pam Grier invent the modern formula in the Philippines.
Jack Hill and Roger Corman more or less invent the modern women-in-prison film in the Philippines, cheap and fast, with Pam Grier in an early role and a formula that four hundred films would copy: the newcomer, the sadistic warden, the shower, the riot, the break.
It is exploitation with no pretensions and a surprising amount of energy, and Hill directs it with more competence than the budget deserved. Grier also sings the theme, badly and enjoyably.
The template, if not the best example of it.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Written about
- Blaxploitation, 1971 to 1975
Melvin Van Peebles caught gonorrhea on his own set, filed a workers' comp claim, and bought more film stock with the settlement. Four years later the studios had mined the audience out and moved on.
On these lists
- Women in prison: the essentials
Roger Corman worked out you could film the whole genre in the Philippines for nothing, and everyone spent the next decade reshooting his shower scene.
Filed alongside
Chained Heat
Linda Blair goes to prison. A sleazy 80s update of the formula, with a corrupt warden and a hot tub.
Barbed Wire Dolls
Jess Franco's contribution to the cycle. Cheap, delirious and utterly shameless, even for him.
Reform School Girls
The women-in-prison film as its own punchline, fronted by the lead singer of the Plasmatics.
Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion
Sold as a women-in-prison quickie. Shot like an art film. Meiko Kaji barely blinks.
The Big Bird Cage
Funnier and better than the first. Sid Haig is having an excellent time.
Love Camp 7
The film that invented nazisploitation six years before Ilsa made it a genre.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
Ito's last. Kaji drags a severed arm through Tokyo in the opening minutes.
Women's Prison Massacre
Late Italian entry. Laura Gemser, and a body count instead of a plot.
Black Mama White Mama
The Defiant Ones with Pam Grier, shot in the Philippines by a Filipino who actually knew the terrain.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
Ito's second, and the most formally daring film in the whole category.
Women in Cages
Pam Grier as the sadist for once. Bleaker than its stablemates.
99 Women
Franco doing the formula early, with Mercedes McCambridge as the warden.