unwatchedBamboo House of Dolls
1973 · 110m
Shaw Brothers takes on the WIP film. As strange a combination as it sounds.
Women in prison
1971–1986 · 16 films catalogued
The most rigid formula in exploitation cinema, and the most durable.
You can set your watch by the structure: a wrongly convicted newcomer, a sadistic warden, a corrupt doctor, a shower, a solidarity plot, a riot, an escape.
The economics
Roger Corman built the modern version. The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972), both shot in the Philippines by Jack Hill with Pam Grier, set the template and its budget. Filipino production was cheap, the jungle could stand in for anywhere, and a New World picture could turn a profit before it left the drive-in circuit.
It globalised immediately: Italy produced Women's Prison Massacre, Japan produced the Scorpion films, and America produced a long direct-to-video tail through the 1980s.
What is defensible
Not much, formally. What the good ones have, The Big Bird Cage and the Ito Scorpion films, is a willingness to make the guards the villains and let the prisoners win.
Where to start
All 16 →unwatched
▶ watchcultFemale Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
1972 · Japan · 90m
Ito's second, and the most formally daring film in the whole category.
▶ watchcultWomen in Cages
1971 · USA · 81m
Pam Grier as the sadist for once. Bleaker than its stablemates.
▶ watchcultFemale Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
1973 · Japan · 87m
Ito's last. Kaji drags a severed arm through Tokyo in the opening minutes.
▶ watchcultLove Camp 7
1969 · USA · 96m
The film that invented nazisploitation six years before Ilsa made it a genre.
▶ watchcultThe Big Bird Cage
1972 · USA · 96m
Funnier and better than the first. Sid Haig is having an excellent time.
cultBarbed Wire Dolls
1976 · CH · 81m
Jess Franco's contribution to the cycle. Cheap, delirious and utterly shameless, even for him.
cultChained Heat
1983 · USA/West Germany · 99m
Linda Blair goes to prison. A sleazy 80s update of the formula, with a corrupt warden and a hot tub.
▶ watchcultReform School Girls
1986 · USA · 94m
The women-in-prison film as its own punchline, fronted by the lead singer of the Plasmatics.
▶ watchcultThe Big Doll House
1971 · USA · 95m
Jack Hill and Pam Grier invent the modern formula in the Philippines.
▶ watchcultFemale Prisoner 701: Scorpion
1972 · Japan · 87m
Sold as a women-in-prison quickie. Shot like an art film. Meiko Kaji barely blinks.
▶ watchcultBlack Mama White Mama
1972 · USA · 87m
The Defiant Ones with Pam Grier, shot in the Philippines by a Filipino who actually knew the terrain.