Frauengefängnis
US theatrical release poster
Directed byJesús Franco
Written by
  • Jesús Franco
  • Connie Grau
  • Christine Lembach
Produced byErwin C. Dietrich
Starring
CinematographyJesús Franco
Edited by
  • Peter Baumgartner
  • Marie-Luise Buschke
Music by
Distributed byAquarius Releasing
Release date
  • 23 April 1976 (1976-04-23) (West Germany)
Running time
81 minutes
Countries
LanguageFrench

Frauengefängnis (lit. Women's prison; released in the US as Barbed Wire Dolls and in the UK as Caged Women) is a 1975 Swiss-West German horror film directed by Jesús Franco. It is part of the women in prison cycle of violent sexploitation films that flourished in the 1970s and early 1980s.[1] A women's prison tale, it stars Lina Romay as Maria, who has been jailed after killing her father, played by director Jesús Franco himself.[2]

When originally submitted for release in 1976, the British Board of Film Classification rejected it.[3] It was only passed the following year after extensive cuts as was the case in Australia.[4]

Plot

Maria da Guerra kills her father, who was trying to rape her. She is imprisoned in a jail where lesbian wardens torture the inmates.

The women's prison, set on an isolated island, is run by a man who impersonates a doctor, Carlos Costa. In fact, he is a killer who murdered the actual doctor of that name, whose name he then assumed. Assisting him is a monocled lesbian woman known only as The Wardress who regulates the prison with an iron fist. The Wardress reads Nazi volumes such as Albert Speer's history of the Third Reich as leisure reading. She wears jackboots and tight shorts under a white shirt in some scenes. In other scenes she wears a see-through black sheer fabric top.

Due to the practice of placing prisoners in isolation and torturing them (for example, via chaining them naked to a wall just out of reach of food, or placing them naked on a wire-frame bed where they receive electric shocks), several prisoners in the past have died. The current authorities in charge of the prison have concealed this by claiming these prisoners died of heart failure; but they are reaching the point where any more reported 'heart failures' will appear suspicious to the authorities on the mainland.

Cast

  • Lina Romay – Maria da Guerra
  • Monica Swinn – The Wardress (credited as Monika Swinn)
  • Paul Muller – Carlos Costa (credited as Paul Müller)
  • Ramon Ardid (Raymond Hardy) – José (credited as Ray Hardy)
  • Roger Darton – Milton Warren
  • Ronald Weiss – The Warden
  • Martine Stedil – Bertha Contrini
  • Eric Falk – Nestor
  • Peggy Markoff – Pompadour (as credited as Peggy Markhoff)
  • Nathalie Mann
  • Denis Torre
  • Jesús Franco – Maria's Father (uncredited)[2]
  • Beni Cardoso – Rosaria Cortina

Release

  • Italian title: Penitenziario femminile per reati sessuali

Reception

The film has been described as follows: "Typically sleazy women-in-prison nonsense from Franco with the expected nudity, humiliation and torture. Worth watching for the hilarious scene in which Franco attempts to assault the lovely Lina Romay in slow motion."[5]

Legacy

The film was followed by various sequels, including Frauengefängnis 2[6] and Frauengefängnis 3,[7] directed by Franco, and the 2007 German film Frauengefängnis 4, the last three starring Franco and Romay playing different roles.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Judith Mayne (2000). Framed: lesbians, feminists, and media culture. University of Minnesota Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-8166-3456-9.
  2. 1 2 Tatjana Pavlović (2003). Despotic bodies and transgressive bodies: Spanish culture from Francisco Franco to Jesús Franco. SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture. SUNY Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7914-5569-2.
  3. ↑ Petley, Julian (2011-05-17). Film and Video Censorship in Modern Britain. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-8835-7.
  4. ↑ "Censored Films of Jess Franco - Refused-Classification.com". Refused Classification. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  5. ↑ Davies, Clive (2015-03-06). Spinegrinder: The Movies Most Critics Won't Write About. SCB Distributors. ISBN 978-1-909394-06-3.
  6. ↑ Women behind Bars - Frauengefängnis 2 (1979) | MUBI (in German), retrieved 2023-10-31
  7. ↑ "Frauengefängnis 3". BADMOVIES (in German). Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  8. ↑ Online, TV Spielfilm. "Jess Franco - Star - TV SPIELFILM". TV Spielfilm Online (in German). Retrieved 2023-10-31.
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