A smorgasbord of exploitation and sexploitation, THE BIG DOLL HOUSE is a fun women-in-prison movie. While there is enough violence, torture, catfights, and nudity to satisfy the exploitation fan, the characters and story here is engaging as well. You get to know the six women in the cellblock and you want them to make their escape. There is some interesting social commentary on how women prison guards and wardens are just as violent as any men would be to each other. The women in this film also show themselves to be just as capable as men at firing guns among other things. They are three dimensional characters and not just exploitation fodder. While this upcoming spotlight is on Pam Grier's women-in-prison movies, she actually gets overshadowed at times in this movie. Judy Brown as Collier and Pat Woodell as Bodine turn in just as strong performances as Grier does here.
Synopsis: Beautiful female prisoners are abused in a Philippine prison until five of them plot an escape by taking the evil female warden hostage with reluctant help from two male fruit vendors.
The film starts with Collier (Judy Brown) being brought to prison for killing her husband. Pam Grier performs a song that plays over the opening and end credits. We get to know all of Collier's cellmates. Pam Grier, appropriately named "Grear," went to prison for being a prostitute and hearing too much information of a political variety that she was not supposed to hear. Harrad (Brooke Mills) a drug addict, killed her own baby. Bodine (Pat Woodell) has a boyfriend that is a revolutionary, making him wanted by the government. That being the reason why Bodine is locked up either for joining in his efforts or as a bargaining chip being held by the prison. Alcott (Roberta Collins) is another cellmate who hangs around Bodine. Ferina (Gina Stuart) is their other cellmate. Right away you understand the hierarchy. Harrad is the "bitch" of Grear's. A role that Collier inherits, making Harrad jealous later in the film. Grear for whatever reason will not mess with Modine. This is shown on the first night when the women all try to drown Collier in the squat hole and torture her thinking she is a spy. Bodine stops that from happening saying Collier is just a scared woman.
Judy Brown as Collier
The women are subject to torture from sadistic prison guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder). These methods include waterboarding, a snake being brought toward them, and being whipped. Bodine is tortured at one point as she gets a letter from her boyfriend, Rafael saying his camp has almost been found. Lucian demands to know where the camp is and Bodine doesn't tell. She is also put in a raised hotbox that is made of bamboo at one point. So the sadistic prison hardship is present in this film.
Pat Woodell as Bodine
The exploitation elements are here as well. Some of the women are naked when they are tortured. There is a shower scene, complete with all of the women being naked though there is not a plentiful amount of nudity here. Most of the women, save for a few seconds, are shown from the waist up and with their backs turned. Fred and Harry, played by Jerry Franks and Sid Haig, are two people who deliver produce to the prison. They bargain with the prisoners in various ways to give food. For instance, it is implied Grear has let Harry feel her up through the bars on many occasions. As only Sid Haig can he has some funny moments jokingly, if there is such a thing, about raping and getting with the women prisoners. Fred at one point responds to that and Harry says they will rape me actually and not the other way around. That statement rings true in a way when Fred sees Allcott in the shower. She later locks Fred in a room basically forcing him to have sex with her in a way that if the roles were reversed would be a problematic scene. It does show female sexuality in a way that a film in the 1970s would not usually show however. In that way it is progressive.
Pam Grier as Grear
I do like that the film also shows some of the ways the prisoners pass the time in their cell. They are shown racing insects at one point. When they plan their escape Bodine tries to show them how to use a gun, basically showing them all the hand movements needed to eject and load the magazine and cock the gun. While this might be a stretch, I also had to think about how in OLDBOY the main character does shadow boxing and is a great fighter just because of that. So if it were unbelievable here that would be hypocritical. Grear and Allcott at one point also get into a catfight over Collier's freedom. They end up in the mud where Allcott wins the fight by making Grear submit and calls her "boss."
Roberta Collins as Allcott
SPOILER SECTION
The prisoners eventually coordinate their escape with Fred and Harry. Grear will have them get the front desk guard drunk and let Grear and Harrad out of their cell. Lucian wants to find out more about the escape and has them tortured. Grear had to let slip that there would be an escape to get more heroin for Harrad, though because she names no specific names or a plan she doesn't get the contraband anyway. This rears its ugly head when Harrad stabs Grear to death in their cell after she voices how jealous she is about Collier taking her place. This is not before Grear lets their cat out of the window, she has gotten a long metal wire into its mouth. The other three girls lure Lucian to a cell where a hot sauna is being used for their torture. They grab her and force her to open the door and save Collier from being tortured. They set a snake on Lucian who is killed. There had been a mysterious cloaked figure in the corner of the room watching the torture. This person is revealed to be the warden, Miss Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer). In the meantime the Warden had been having dinner with the prison doctor (Jack Davis) who had believed the women about the torture going on in the prison. The remaining women eventually get their hands on weapons and with the Doctor and Warden as their hostages try to make their escape.
Sid Haig as Harry
Fred and Harry are threatened into driving them away. They gun down many guards in the process. They all show their capability at loading and shooting guns. The next morning in the woods they are surrounded by authority figures. Bodine is gunned down, after all ready receiving a bullet wound the night before. Allcott is shot but not before she burns gasoline leaking out of the truck that explodes and kills the Warden. Collier escapes and finds a ride. The person driving however says Miss Collier we've been looking for you all day and we're looking forward to taking you back to prison. That is a typical exploitation ending, though the line is dubbed so I choose to believe she continued her escape and the driver was just a random person. I would have done that ending more positively, but this is a 70s fleapit movie after all. I knew Pam Grier would be great in this but all of the cast members here were on her level. Sid Haig is hilarious and charismatic as usual.
Rating: 8/10
Trivia: Director Jack Hill named the warden Dietrich, after producer Erwin C. Dietrich. Apparently he had a bad experience with that producer who forced him to make a film in Switzerland.
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