This movie is entertaining exploitation, but not very realistic. It's filled with every prison movie cliché you can think of & then some. What's unrealistic is the way these men act when they've only got six month sentences. You would think they were in for life considering the sexual role playing going on here. Queenie (the late Michael Greer) would be slapped down & pounced into the ground the first five minutes into his flaming, limp-wristed carrying on in a real correctional institution. No one would tolerate such behavior. Yet, he calls himself a "politician" solely on the fact that he's a flamboyant, loud, obnoxious homosexual. I don't think so. His Christmas drag show is ridiculous. It's as though he's planning a performance for the local gay bar, not prison, prancing around the hoosegow looking for high heels & bleach for his curly locks. C'mon!!! It's outrageous. His eventual song & dance routine is insufferable. I could have also done without seeing full frontal nudity from this man! Pug nosed Wendell Burton is perfectly cast as first time offender Smitty. This character is also a major cliché. He "hardens" up as the movie progresses as though years, not months are passing. Rocky is far from intimidating. I feel that's because slight, pretty boy Zooey Hall was a poor casting choice. He comes off as effeminate at times & Smitty could have successfully defended himself against him right from the get-go. The actor who plays Jann (Mona Lisa) is dreadful, & is incarcerated because a crime was committed against HIM (it makes no sense). Watch this if you enjoy prison films, but don't take one minute seriously.
Review of Fortune and Men's Eyes
Fortune and Men's Eyes
(1971)
"If I do fix him up, it'll be with a star!!!" - Queenie
23 October 2004