Barbed Wire Dolls A.k.a Frauengefangnis, Caged Women, Femmes en cage
Directed by Jess Franco
1975, Switzerland
Sleaze exploitation guru Jess Franco engraves another notch into his film making career with this Italian women in prison romp. You get the norm in this sub-genre with Barbwire Dolls including your full female frontals and kinky sex. Along for the ride you get to see the well known Lina Romay who also happens to be Franco's wife in real life and speaking of Franco, the Jess meister even has a role in this one as a prison guard. The typical premise has young women wrongly convicted and put in a shambling isolated South American prison where they are tortured and forced to engage in sex acts with the warden, doctor, and even the governor of the island with his sadistic henchman Nester.
As to be expected the movie is poorly done especially when the nubile females are administered electro-shock therapy whereby the actresses must have been told "shake uncontrollably and scream on the bed while we keep flicking the light switch on and off!". The small amount of plot that resides in the movie involves Romay who is wrongly convicted of murder after defending herself against her father who tried to sexually assault her. The flashback scene of Romay being attacked by her father is hilarious, it seems Franco must have told them he wanted slow motion but couldn't pull it off with the camera equipment so instead he told the actors themselves to move in slow motion, the result looks quite ridiculous and absolutely hilarious.
If your accustomed to Franco's work and enjoy it you will no doubt eat this shit up. Its not well made and really that's the point isn't it? Most people watch these films because they enjoy the unpolished perfection the films deliver. Barbwire Dolls didn't do much for me and thus far my exposure to women in prison movies has been limited, if your accustomed to them and enjoy them by all means seek this movie out.
Richard J.Taylor
