For years, I have been curious of this take on The Defiant Ones that features Pam Grier and Margaret Markov and was directed by Eddie Romero during the heyday of exploitation films being shot in the Philippines. The poster screams "chicks in chains" and shows the two women strangling a prison guard so I knew this was right up my alley as I have a thing for tough women of the 70s. For a b-movie, this ticks all of the boxes that you would expect including a prison shower scene (complete with playful water spraying), gun battles, lecherous males, and a pace that doesn't go more than a few minutes without something entertaining happening. As I have seen a lot of women-in-prison movies over the years, it is nice to have one that breaks the mold by turning into a chase movie for the latter half as opposed to the usual formula of the girls plotting towards an escape. In this one, the focus is on our two stars on the lam.

Markov stars as Karen Brent, a revolutionary who winds up at a prison in a tropical country. Arriving at the same time is Lee Daniels (Grier), a hooker with an attitude who doesn't take crap from anyone, including prison guards. After some shenanigans including a brawl in the mess hall and some topless time in "the oven" (a metal locker that stands in the blazing sun), the girls are transferred to a maximum-security facility in the city. While en route, the duo make their escape into the countryside and must elude the police, Lee's former pimp (Vic Diaz), and an American bandit (Haig) hired by the army to track them down. The girls are constantly on the move and along the way, they encounter a truck driver, a drunk fisherman, a sleazy mechanic who wants some action, and even disguise themselves as nuns to avoid detection. There are a number of big shootouts between the different groups including a finale that pits Karen and her revolutionaries against Diaz and his cronies as well as the local police with explosive results.

This is one of the few movies of this era where Grier does not dominate. In the Jack Hill women-in-prison flicks The Big Bird Cage and The Big Doll House, she announced her presence and cult movies fans took notice. It seemed like Black Mama, White Mama was intended to launch Grier in a starring role but I thought that Markov was the one in control in this flick. Grier would establish herself more definitively in Coffy and subsequent films where she didn't have to share the spotlight and had more sympathetic characters. In this flick, I was much more interested in Karen and her revolutionary ties (complete with a boyfriend who resembles Che Guevera) than Lee's self-preservation. This is done to help give Lee a bit of an arc but the selfishness weakens the character. When she proclaims to Karen that her "jive-ass revolution don't mean shit to me", there is no question as to whose ideals we are meant to follow.

Rob Zombie favorite Sid Haig was a regular in these jungle action pictures long before he was Captain Spaulding and he played colorful sleazeballs like nobody else (except for maybe Vic Diaz). As Ruben, a bandit hired by the corrupt government to track down the girls, Haig revels in his role of a guy who is more focused on getting laid and trying to be a cowboy than anything else. He listens to the same song over and over (which was probably a licensing issue but works for the character) and wears garish ourfits that could only be pulled off in the 70s. Haig seems to be having a blast and when Ruben makes two men drop their pants and threatens to shoot the one with the smaller cock, you know what kind of movie you are watching. Diaz also has a few great scenes including one where he is lying by a pool having his hairy tummy licked by one of his ladies. This is a picture that moves along quickly and at every turn either has a gun battle, boobs, the girls on the run, or a wide-eyes Sid Haig doing something ridiculous, so you are never bored. The story was co-written by Jonathan Demme who went on to win an Oscar for directing The Silence of the Lambs. Grier and Markov would reteam in The Arena in 1974 after which Markov married producer Mark Damon (and star of Roger Corman's House of Usher) and left the movie business. I wish she had made more movies.

Available from Arrow Films. (Josh Pasnak, 3/28/16)

Directed By: Eddie Romero.
Written By: H.R. Christian.

Starring: Margaret Markov, Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Lynn Borden.

aka: Women in Chains.