I often wonder why the women in prison (WIP) movies always bring to mind either lesbians or porn to people who have not seen any movies from this lost subgenre. Most of the entries that I have seen feature minimal lesbianism (if any) and there are rarely gratuitous sex scenes. Yes, there is an abundance of nudity and there are no bras in sight but this is hardly prison porn. Like many exploitation movies of the 70's and 80's, some of the dialogue is silly and there is at least one lecherous male character but I have always found WIP movies to feature at least one exciting escape attempt and a whole lot of pent-up anger.

Erica Gavin (Vixen!) stars as Jackie, a woman who gets busted after a shootout with the police and is sent to a women's prison. Once inside, she encounters a variety of inmates including a waifish blonde (Rainbeaux Smith), a tough-talking black woman (Ella Reid), a kleptomaniac (Roberta Collins), and the resident bully (Juanita Brown). As we get to know the characters, we quickly see the relationships that have formed and that the inmates get along better than some other WIP movies. We are also introduced to a wheelchair-bound warden (who is not as sadistic as usual) and a crazy perverted doctor who gets off on giving the girls shock therapy. Eventually, two of the girls escape and meet up with a comrade named Crazy (Lynda Gold - Hustler Squad) on the outside. The trio then hatch a plan to go back and rescue their friends.

This is the first film from director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) who had some experience with the WIP genre as he wrote Black Mama, White Mama as well as The Hot Box. Demme was also no stranger to exploitation films as he had worked with Roger Corman like many other great directors of the time and was given Caged Heat as his first opportunity to direct. Although the major elements of the genre are present in this flick (shower fight, action in the work field, naked solitary confinement), there is something about the tone that makes it a little different than the other entries in this genre. I think the only way that the cast could have been improved would have been to throw Pam Grier into the mix but Ella Reid did a fine job at taking on this role. You can tell that Demme chose to treat the characters with respect when writing the script and he moved the plot forward without going too heavy on the exploitation elements (no mud fights in this one). That being said, I believe every inmate loses their clothes at least once during the running time.

Overall, this is one of the more solid entries in the WIP subgenre. Alongside Jack Hill's The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage, these are the best examples of prison action films starring females. Roberta Collins was one of my favorite actresses of the 70's. I was always drawn to her beauty and brashness and her role in this flick shows us these qualities once again. Juanita Brown had small roles in Foxy Brown and Willie Dynamite and then went on to star in Black Gauntlet before vanishing from the business. Brown was a tough cookie and is one of the only women that can pull off saying a line like "I'm gonna knock your pretty little teeth so far down you throat, you're gonna get a picket fence around your asshole". Erica Gavin also left the business after a very brief career. Aside from Russ Meyer's Vixen!, she is probably best known for sucking Z-Man's gun in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Cheryl Smith was another exploitation regular who supposedly got the nickname "Rainbeaux" from spending so much time at the Rainbow Bar and Grille on Hollywood Boulevard. British scream queen Barbara Steele (Black Sunday) played the warden. The music was done by John Cale who was a founding member of The Velvet Underground, one of the most influential bands of all time. (Josh Pasnak, 2/6/11)

Directed By: Jonathan Demme.
Written By: Jonathan Demme.

Starring: Erica Gavin, Juanita Brown, Roberta Collins, Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith.