Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) User Reviews

More Franco filth.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 12 June 2009]

Whenever I play DVD Russian roulette by plucking a film randomly from my collection and forcing myself to watch it, I prepare myself for the worst: with so many of prolific director Jess Franco's films clogging up my shelves, it's extremely likely that I'll end up popping one of his 'masterpieces' into the player.

Last night, the metaphorical 'bullet in the chamber' was Barbed Wire Dolls, a sleazy women-in-prison flick starring Franco's fave piece of crumpet Lina Romay and a gaggle of wanton women all willing to flash some flesh on film for the pervy Spaniard.

Romay plays female prisoner Maria da Guerra, imprisoned for the murder of her incestuous father (played by Franco himself in a faux slow-motion flashback scene that defies description). Persecuted by the monocle wearing lesbian in leather hot-pants who runs the prison (Monica Swinn), and mercilessly tortured by sadistic guard Nestor (Eric Falk), Maria eventually plans an escape from the hellhole, with a little help from pretty blonde cell-mate Bertha (Martine Stedil).

This 'plot' serves as an excuse for Franco to depict countless scenes of laughable violence and sordid sex, including lesbian trysts, rape, and female masturbation, with the director's wild zoom lens performing close-up gynaecological examinations whenever possible.

Whilst all this inept in-your-face sleaze is admittedly fun for a while, eventually, like so many of Franco's efforts, monotony sets in; towards the end of the film, even Franco himself seems to tire of the tasteless torture and endless crotch shots, and in order to end the tedium, he shoehorns a surprise (and rather daft) revelation into proceedings (Maria never killed her father; it was the directoress who was responsible) and wraps things up with an extremely abrupt ending.

Like this.

I am no longer a Franco virgin. Not sure if that's good or bad . . .

[fredcdobbs5 · 5/10 · 20 November 2015]

Well, I'm finally forced to admit it--up to now I've never seen a Jess Franco film (well, not knowingly, anyway; the guy has used 189,000 different names, so I might have seen one among his incredibly prodigious output made under one of those names though I didn't know it at the time). Naturally I knew about him, and his reputation, but I finally got around to seeing my first of one of his films today. And it was this one. And I'm still recovering.

All things considered, though, I've seen worse--not much worse, but worse. Then again, you can't judge a Jess Franco film by such arbitrary standards as "good" or "bad"; they just don't apply. Was it well made? No. Was it well acted? No. Was it well written? God, no. Was it enjoyable? Hell, yes. Its enjoyability factor was due in large part to the plethora of gratuitous nudity and just-this-side-of-porn sexual activities--sexual abuse, molestation, rape, incest, lesbianisn, voyeurism, and everything else that makes life worthwhile (at least in a Jess Franco film). It wasn't just the nudity and the sex that make this film so much fun, though. It was the joyously demented attitude of the thing. You got the feeling that Franco said to himself, "Well, I've managed to scrape together a couple of bucks; let's make a sleazoid women in prison picture and get Lina Romay naked as often as humanly possible"; for that philosophy alone he should have gotten a special Oscar.

As for the "plot"--as if you care about such trivial matters--a lezbo warden and an effeminate phony doctor run a combination womens prison/torture chamber/home for retired and/or escaped and/or wannabe Nazi concentration camp guards in an unnamed South American country (although it was shot in the Central American country of Honduras, something I'm sure the Honduran government wasn't particularly jazzed about when it finally found out what Jess was up to while shooting in one of their prisons)

As a movie, it's not really very good (actually, it stinks). As an example of the "Jess Franco experience", it's somewhat better. As a showpiece for Lina Romay's incredible sex appeal and terrific body, it's a masterpiece. If you go into it with the right attitude, it can be a lot of fun.

Come to think of it, even if you DON'T go into it with the right attitude it can be a lot of fun. Enjoy.

It made me want to watch Ilsa instead

[a_dancersdream · 4/10 · 6 May 2009]

Now some people are complaining about the lack of plot, however there is a plot; a weak one, but yes it is there. Most characters are pulled from Ilsa - The Wicked Warden (another Franco movie) and yet all I wanted was for Dyanne Thorne to play a cameo. As a fan of exploitation movies such as Ilsa, I was hoping this was going to be something familiar. And by 'something familiar' I don't mean the same characters and same set. I'm looking for new torture, new sleaze and the like. Other then super fake electrical shocks there is none of that. Just badly dubbed naked girls who pretend to masturbate. If that's what I was looking for then I suppose I would have to have rated this movie more then a 4/10 but it was a little to soft-core for me. And for that I apologize.

Barbed Wire Dolls

[Michael_Elliott · 13 October 2008]

Barbed Wire Dolls (1975)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

A young woman (Lina Romay) is sent to prison after accidentally killing her father (Franco himself) who was trying to rape her. Inside the prison she must deal with an evil warden (Monica Swinn), a mixed up doctor (Paul Muller) and all sorts of sexually hungry lesbians. As far as WIP (Women in Prison) films go then this is without question the best one I've seen as it has no limits to the amount of trash it will go to whether it be violence, torture, nudity or sexual abuse. The film never takes itself overly serious and instead is just a good time if you can stand this type of thing. Romay has the perfect look for the good girl and really delivers on that level. Her sexuality certainly shine through as does the rest of the girls. I've said quite often that no one knows how to film women better than Franco and his camera is constantly looking over all the beautiful women and picking up everything he can. Swinn is also in good form as the lesbian warden who love to torture and rape. Franco keeps the action moving through the rather short 80-minute running time, which is a great thing as the film never slows down or gets boring. All of the women makes for good characters to root for and all he bad guys are great villains including the Governor who gets his kick watching his assistant do the women. The highlight of the film however belongs to a flashback sequence where we see Romay kill her father being played by Franco. This scene, shot in slow motion, is just so incredibly silly that you can't help but laugh out loud.

An expertise into the sleaziest corners of Euro-Exploitation

[Coventry · 3/10 · 16 June 2004]

Well, you can't openly declare that you like (or even enjoy) watching this type of movies because then – let's face it – you automatically get a stamp on your head that says 'potential threat to society'. Barbed Wire Dolls is a non-stop series of sex and violence that explicitly focuses on female nudity and sexual torture. The more reasonable reason to be interested in this film is the man who made it. Jesus Franco, the undeniable Godfather of sleaze takes on the ultra-controversial subject of 'Babes behind Bars' here. Franco is a remarkable director to say the least, with over 180 films on his repertoire as a director. Although this 'Barbed Wire Dolls' doesn't come close to his best achievements, it sure is memorable. But not exactly for the right reasons… The plot is thin to non-existent, it lacks range and feeling and there's no tension to detect. Even the typical exploitation-music (a must for films like this) is absent. Compared to what you might think, it isn't even THAT gross or nauseating. The film doesn't feature sequences of extreme bloodshed or severe mutilation. Instead, Barbed Wire Dolls only serves a lot of naked female beauty and absurd characters. We have the lesbian guard with obvious Nazi-tics, insane prisoners and fraudulent authority-figures. Oh, and let's not forget the falsely accused heroine and the remorseful male guard. Actually, Barbed Wire Dolls looked ideal to supply with a neutral rating. Like 4 or 5 out of 10…but then it got entirely spoiled by the abrupt and idiotic ending. Really, it looks like Franco all of a sudden got tired of it and just said: 'That's a wrap'. Maybe he had to hurry to another set…your agenda is pretty much filled with 180 movies to direct.

Forgettable but yet unforgettable effort

[itsdanu1 · 1/10 · 1 July 2008]

i am not sure with what intention the movie is made.. It resembles to cannibal apocalypse (another ridiculous movie)in the sense of its treatment and cheap thrills. On the other hand it shows up naked women without any reason in it's frames.

the acting, plot, cinematography, screenplay is obviously, missing and you hope that the pathetic background score should have been missing instead. It is that bad. On the acting front, their are just a couple of seconds when you would see some acting on the screen and that is by the warden. when the leading lady prisoner undresses and approaches her, its the look in her eyes which makes you think that a good actress have been wasted.

The effort is so bad that that it get stck up in ur brain as if a chewing gum stuck in hair!!! quite frankly, if u want to show women's bodies and make money, then do just that n do it in a way which makes the experience worth enjoying.. or if u want to show the prison life, show it with some empathy and sincerity.

Anything worse?

[mr_dark_eyed · 2/10 · 20 November 2007]

Can a movie get worse? ever? I bought this movie, not hoping to find great directing or acting. Just nudes and erotica, yet, the BAD acting, BAD directing and lack of anything that shows someone put some effort into making this piece of.. film, was Very annoying. The only, ONLY, good thing about this film is Martine Stedil. Sorry, but Lina Romay just doesn't do it for me. Martine is a Beauty. And you get to see close ups of her 'private' parts! Other than that, the film is Awful. The lack of respect to the viewer shows in every scene. It was like watching a film made for the mentally retarded. Films for children would still be more clever. I'm saying this, and I didn't expect to watch something intellectual or artsy.. just beautiful nude girls being canned, raped, abused, etc. Yet I just couldn't swallow the amount of sh** in this 'film'. 2/10 for the presence of Martine Stedil.

Awfully Great

[frankenbenz · 5/10 · 7 March 2013]

www.eattheblinds.com

There's a scene in Barbed Wire Dolls that is so perfectly horrible it should be cinematic legend. It's a young girl's flashback of her father (played by Franco himself) attempting to rape her. The entire scene is shot with Franco's patented wandering zoom, a lens slathered with vaseline and a slow motion effect you have to see to believe.

Doing double-duty as "Cinematographer," Franco apparently didn't realize you could change the frame rate on the camera and decided slow motion is best acquired through slow motion acting. Yup, actors pretending to go through the motions in real time slow motion. Hilarious.

For someone who hates his own movies and wishes he'd directed Citizen Kane, Franco's taste is not nearly as bad as the choices he consistently makes behind the camera. Within the realm of bad movies, if Ed Wood Jr. is Orson Welles, then Jess Franco is quite possibly John Ford. High praise, indeed. Barbed Wire Dolls is a B- movie with so many juicy tidbits of ineptness, tasteless raunch, camp and cliché you can't help but love this senseless mess. See the slow motion genius for yourself:

Truly abysmal...

[paul_haakonsen · 1/10 · 8 March 2024]

Needless to say that I had never heard about this 1976 movie titled "Frauengefängnis" (aka "Barbed Wire Dolls") prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2024. And with it being a movie that I had never seen, nor actually heard about, of course I opted to take the time and sit down to give the movie a go.

I assumed that I would be in for a sleazy exploitation movie, given the movie's cover. So I have to admit that my expectations to director Jesús Franco's 1976 movie were almost non-existing. But still, I opted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt; maybe I had been missing out on something grand here.

The storyline in "Frauengefängnis" was you're generic and overly used women in prison thing. Boring, to say the least.

Of course I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list here. The acting performances, despite the laughable dubbing, was actually fair enough for a movie in the exploitation genre. Of course you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian theater here, when you sit down to watch an exploitation movie.

And to make matters worse, then I was unfortunate enough to stumble upon an English dubbed version of the movie. That was just atrocious. The dubbing work was dubious and laughable, and that just made it even more difficult to sit through this heap of rubbish that is "Frauengefängnis".

"Frauengefängnis" was an abysmal movie, and suffice it to say that I didn't stick around even halfway through this dumpster fire. I just found nothing interesting or entertaining in the movie or about the pointless storyline.

My rating of "Frauengefängnis" lands on a one out of ten stars.

More sleaze from the master!

[The_Void · 6/10 · 20 September 2006]

Well, I didn't go into this film expecting anything over and above the usual sleaze from prolific director Jess Franco, and while I've certainly seen worse films from the director; this isn't exactly a highlight for him either. Barbed Wire Dolls is another one of those sleazy 'women in prison' in films, and aside from the obvious implications of this sort of film; Franco has seen fit to make things even sleazier by way of things such as a lesbian warden and a whole host of sadistic torture sequences. There's basically no plot in this film, although there is a little slither involving a young woman and her father, whom she is believed to have murdered. This plot never takes centre focus, however, and Franco seems keener to continually show filth, which is no bad thing if you ask me. However, there's only really so far a film like this can go with no plot to speak of, and the fact that Franco didn't care at all about telling a story is shown best at the end, when it just 'ends' without any resolution. Still, sleaze fans are likely to get a lot out of this film as there's naked chicks, violence, lesbians, sadism etc, and while I don't rate this too highly; I can at least say I enjoyed watching it. What?

Good Jess Franco horror...

[MovieGuy01 · 5/10 · 15 October 2009]

I thought that Barbed Wire Dolls was a good film The story is about a girl called Maria da Guerra who is sentenced to prison for life, after killing her father who had tried to rape her. On her arrival at the prison she is taken to a special section for mentally disturbed prisoners, where torture, rape and violence is a part of everyday life. One day the regional governor of the prison arrives, claiming that received a letter from one of the prisoners, describing the horrible events going on in the prison. Also Carlos Costa, who is a male nurse who is pretending to be the prison doctor. He falls in love with Maria who kills him with a pair of scissors. I thought that this was a very violent film, with some pretty strong senses of sex and nudity, that may be too much for some viewers.

A Real Sicko's Sickfest...

[PeteStud · 10/10 · 8 April 2006]

This is one for the real deranged sex maniacs out there. There's virtually no plot just one flimsy excuse or another to show helpless women being sexually tortured and degraded. There are plenty of laughs to be had if that sort of thing rocks your boat, though. One outrageous scene has Jess Franco playing in-mate Lina Romay's father who attempts to rape her in slow motion...only trouble is they actually act (very badly) in slow motion live rather than slow down the actual film!!! incredible! Franco's worst? Hardly, It's actually one of his filthy sadistic best as there is no time to get bored for a change (a rarity with his movies!). Fans of that ol' Spanish zoom lens we've come to know and love will not be disappointed. Wild and crazed as only Franco could do..he out viles the ILSA series with ease here.Perfectly putrid!(and I loved every moment!)

You might want to take a couple of showers after watching this one.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 21 August 2015]

By their very nature, Women In Prison films are often pretty damn sleazy, but this one takes the cake. Directed by the inimitable Jesus Franco, it wallows in filth and degradation and nudity for a suitably grimy 81 minutes. As it plays out, there are numerous closeups of the female anatomy. There's shock therapy, masturbation, and sexual fetishes in this salacious story. Surprisingly, it's actually kind of slick looking for this sort of thing, enabling its eager viewers to view all of the action in great detail.

Francos' longtime leading lady Lina Romay stars as Maria de Guerra, the fresh fish at a womens' prison. She was convicted of murdering her father (played by Franco himself in a flashback), who'd attempted to rape her. Forming a subplot is the fact that one of the lady convicts has authored a scathing note telling about the atrocities visited upon her and her cellmates. The people in charge decide to punish everybody when the guilty party won't step forward.

Lovers of cinematic trash are likely to be pretty satisfied with what they see. There's not a particularly strong story here, but who is going to care? Franco serves up the exploitation and the sex with fervour. Also helping matters is the relatively brief running time. The performances are fun - Romay is appealing as usual, Paul Muller is good as the guilt ridden doctor Carlos Costa, and Martine Stedil shows conviction as the passionate Bertha Contrini. But the lady who dominates the proceedings is Monica Swinn as the Wardress; she's a hoot as a monocle and short-shorts wearing sadist.

Pleasingly putrid entertainment up to and including the ending.

Seven out of 10.

Par for the course for the genre

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 14 November 2022]

More trash from Jess Franco, this time a women-in-prison film under the title of CAGED WOMEN or BARBED WIRE DOLLS, take your pick. The story involves Lina Romay playing a woman sent to prison after murdering her lecherous father (played by Franco himself, somewhat inevitably). As usual, the warden turns out to be a sadist, the guards are all lesbians, and the alcoholic doctor has some serious anguish problems. This is very much par for the course for this genre of filmmaking, with endless nudity, sexual scenes which border on the hardcore, and no discernable plot aside from a laughable climax. Don't bother yourself!

A shocking collection of shocks... not

[prohibited-name-1142 · 6/10 · 12 January 1999]

Women in prison films are always kinda... ridiculous. And this one doesn't save the genre, or the day. A gorgeous brunette, miss Romay, Jess Franco's nice wife, plays the main character : a murderous whore who killed her lover because he was cheatin. Being an average actress, our dear Lina just keeps on getting nude to shine bright... And the story is the same as in all prison movies : get nude, get raped, get tortured, scream, spread those legs, be cute, scream once more, make love to your cell mate, kill, fight... This time around Jess Franco himself saves the day by breaking in the prison and kidnapping the young and innocent prisoner, who later kills him to get away with an obscure insurance agent and the money of a robbery (?!?). This is not a particulary good Franco film, but it sure is respectable fun for the whole family and you'll laugh to death as Lina Romay gets her electric treatment right... between the legs. So franco-esque.

Sexploitation at its sleaziest!

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 9/10 · 26 September 2004]

"Barbed Wire Dolls" has to be one of the sleaziest Women in Prison epics ever created.This is Franco's first film for Swiss producer Erwin C.Dietrich and it offers tons of nudity and sleaze.A beautiful Maria(Lina Romay)is imprisoned in a penitentiary run by a cruel lesbian warden(Monica Swinn).She is accused of murdering her father(played by Jesus Franco himself)but the wardress actually did the deed.Once in prison,Maria is tortured by being tied nude to metal bed-frame which is hooked up to electrical current."Barbed Wire Dolls" is as sleazy as they get.The film features incredible amount of sleaze including whippings,masturbation with a cigarette,lesbian sex scenes,rape and a close up of one of the inmate's private parts being penetrated by a guard's fingers.The acting is actually not bad and the film is never boring.So if you're a fan of European exploitation give this dirty classic a look.9 out of 10.

Women in Prison

[parry_na · 6/10 · 1 March 2018]

Uncle Jess Franco's itchy camera zooms away from an austere, guarded prison building to the sound of a young woman, naked and chained as it turns out, screaming for mercy. This will be one of a collection of Franco/Erwin C. Dietrich collaboration then, a 'women in prison' drama.

Lucky Lina Romay (as Maria da Guerra) is a new inmate. "The crime you are guilty of could not have been committed by a normal woman," she is told, and is soon sent by duplicitous 'doctor' Carlos Costa (Paul Muller) for electro-shock therapy. The torture is suitably graphic and convincingly played, as are subsequent indignities, both sexual and 'therapeutic'. Mostly, this is conducted accompanied by the inappropriately cheery jazz score from regular composers Daniel White and Walter Baumgartner. And while I'm listing familiar elements from other 'WIP' films, yes, the locations are excellent and the director makes very good use of them.

On one hand, this is a series of scenes featuring pretty, dubbed women in various sexual situations. On the other, if you find it possible to look beyond that - and it's not always easy - you have the thin tale of Maria, a mentally delicate girl, being abused in a vile manner in a film only Franco could make. The 'doctor' played by Muller has been dubbed with a very camp voice, which makes his sexual manipulation of Maria unlikely. After sharing with us all the dubious sight of his hirsute back whilst rutting with Soledad Miranda in 1970's 'Eugenie De Sade', here similar treats are in store for Lina Romay - lucky Paul Muller! At the end of it all Maria's so forlorn, she can barely smoke a cigarette.

Maria's crime is told in flashback, and in the telling, provides one of the strangest moments in any Jess Franco film - which says a lot. A slow motion scene of incest and violence between her and daddy (Jess himself) - acted in slow-motion, but filmed at normal speed - presents the backstory to Maria's current predicament. This is followed up with some almost penetrative shots of various inmates' genitalia (one with inserted cigarette) and a close-up of a dead mouse in Maria's breakfast. Whilst the story is an overall mish-mash and is leanly spread out, there is no denying the set-pieces are guaranteed to disturb, one way or another.

Romay is excellent, as is Martine Stedil as Bertha and Beni Cardoso as deranged Rosaria. Monica Swinn plays the monocle-wearing, trouser-free chief wardress. She's very good, even given the usual wall of dubbing that compromises any performance. Why does she do what she does? Because she can. Just why she reserves special treatment for poor Maria, well ...

Captured

[tedg · 14 February 2006]

I've been involved in a dangerous business, diving into the catacombs of film, digging around in trash pits and seeing grand things.

Part of this endeavor comes from my appreciation for the vitality of film today which in large part is anchored by Spanish and Spanish-speaking filmmakers. There's an easy sliding of realities, a nonchalance about linear narrative, an arbitrariness of trust in the narrators, and a vaginal honesty about many of the urges that pull the world.

And in this story about liquid storytelling, I place Franco, similar to the way he places himself and his lovers in his stories. Some of his films seem like random events, while others seem almost too perfectly prototypes for what we'll see later with heavier ideas.

The danger is in taking him too seriously, as if his tinkering with the machinery of imagination inferred that he really had some ideas worth absorbing. He doesn't and is honest about it. He toys with magical perversions and sometimes they are simply stupid, automatic.

Nude women in prison. A Nazi lesbian warden. Noir conspiracies layered on top of one another. A tortured redhead (his wife). Thwarted escape. All these he'd exploit bitwise elsewhere and with more charm and competence. This. Well this is a waste. For some reason, he's chosen to make Romay look haggard.

You know, he has about 190 movies now. They are so choppy, but have plots that overlap and many of the same players for decades. Elsewhere, I've predicted a big business in the future for desktop filmmakers. Imagine having 600 hours of Franco. Or just the 100 movies he made with Romay! You could create your own Franco adventure, starting perhaps with "Vampyros Lesbos." (Oh shucks, I see my comment for that movie has been deleted!)

Or maybe it would be a prison. (Check out the synthesized "Justine")

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Oddly compelling

[PeterBradford · 7/10 · 13 June 2021]

The correct tile of this film should be BARBED WIRE BEAVERS, because that's all you see in this film. Gratuitous beaver shots, men playing with women's beavers, women playing with their own beavers. But, this is a Jess Franco film, so it's to be expected. And as with Franco's work, it's entertaining in its own way. It draws the viewer into the sick, perverted world of the women's prison.

To all you fellow sick minds of the world: you will like this movie.

[tonopah6 · 8/10 · 6 April 2004]

A sick mind, or a million dollars . . . Which is better? Currently I only have the sick mind: and this movie feeds that fairly well! The version I saw was 81 minutes instead of the 90 minute full length film: but still, I would have to inform you to NOT use the comment from, Quebec, Canada. Because, the lack of 9 minutes probably would not have deleted scenes of any loot from a robbery, or some insurance whatever, or information about a woman in prison for killing her lover: none of those statements was correct from what I saw. There was a prisoner who killed her father, and one who killed her brother. But . . . You'll have to watch to find out what really took place about one of those killings. And let me tell you about the female warden, Monica Swinn; she may not have been as sexy as Brigitte Nielsen's portrayal of a warden, but Monica still had appeal, and did very well with being a mean bitch. The eyepiece she wears is a good touch, too, along with the Nazi book she reads. And though her voice was dubbed, that voice was well chosen. The warden loves seeing nude prisoners get mistreated; and when you see the nudity, you're seeing a film much better then your average soft-core movie. You will also see a great looking old prison; or it's a castle by the sea? And finally, you'll see the jungle area between the prison and the sea where an escape takes place. But . . . the ending is not your typical Hollywood bullsh*t.

Barbed Wire Dolls

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 10 February 2022]

You know how you know this is a Jess Franco movie? Because he plays the father of Maria (Lina Romay), a man that has been trying to assault her, so she kills him and ends up in the prison that forms the setting for this film, a place where The Wardress (Monica Swinn, Female Vampire, Hitler's Last Train and a woman who said of Franco's movies, "I'd mull over the previous scenes and think to myself, "This can't be the same character. How many films am I really making here?") rules with a velvet glove cast in iron, a woman who reads Third Reich books for fun.

The real boss is Dr. Carlos Costa (Paul Muller) who is not really a doctor and just a man trying to make a living by creating a living hell on earth for his female inmates. He's an innovator, a man who creates metal beds that electrically shock prisoners, so I guess he'd do well in today's America where 0.7% of our population is behind the wall.

Look, this is pretty much a scumfest, so you're either going to get offended or learn how to wallow. It's also the kind of movie that has a budget so low that a slow motion scene has to be acted out at actual speed, meaning that everyone has to pretend that it's in slow motion and if you don't love that, why are you even watching movies like this?

At one point, audiences had to pay to see Mom and Dad in a tent or a four-walled theater just so they could see a woman's lady business, albeit one with a baby coming out of it. Thirty years later and there's Jess Franco repeatedly zooming his camera and jump cutting right to mossy clefts like it's nothing and I guess that's progress.

Look for Martine Stedil (who Franco put in prison once before in Women Behind Bars), Peggy Markoff (who went to the big house twice for Franco in Ilsa the Wicked Warden and Wicked Women), Beni Cardoso (whose career took her from Franco's The Girl from Rio to the krimi Der Todesrächer von Soho, the Conan ripoff The Throne of Fire, the double Bruno Mattei Western madness of White Apache and Scalps and then the Umberto Lenzi TV movie House of Lost Souls) and a few other ladies who had one Franco movie and then never did a film again.

I'll die like a queen, even though i never lived like one

[superguapo2000 · 8/10 · 19 April 2009]

Women in Prison movies come in several styles, ranging from tongue-in-cheek camp to disturbingly sadistic shockfests. Barbed Wire Dolls is a Jess Franco flick, so, as expected, it doesn't really fit into any pigeonhole. Overall, it feels like watching a repressed old man's secret fantasies, reenacted half-assedly over the course of a three-day weekend by Franco's friends in exchange for a free flight ticket. The extremely low budget is clearly visible in every aspect of the movie, including the film quality, which is barely a step above that of a Mexican soap opera or 80s late-night infomercial.

Watching Frauengefangnis is like performing an experiment on yourself. The painfully slow pace, downbeat soundtrack, eternal scenes of pointless verbal abuse, mock torture, and idiotic dialog gradually turn your brain into glue. The movie is so sleazy, depressing, and confusing, that it's almost unwatchable in one sitting.

The creepy effect of this movie doesn't come from graphic violence, as there is none. What's disturbing is how tame and lifeless everything feels, given what's supposed to be taking place. For example, it's unnerving to watch a woman laugh while she gets tortured. The laughing isn't part of the script, but on more than one occasion, actresses in this movie unintentionally crack up throughout what's supposed to be a torture or a rape scene. The effect it at once comical, disorienting and depressing. Highly recommended.

In the joint with Jess Franco

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 August 2015]

Sweet young Maria de Guerra (a personable portrayal by super cutie Lina Romay) gets sent to a harsh women's penitentiary after she's found guilty of killing her father. While serving her life sentence Maria must deal with an assortment of cruel and depraved ordeals that include everything from electro-shock torture to unhinged and/or predatory fellow inmates to, naturally, brutality and degradation as meted out on a regular basis by the corrupt prison staff.

Notorious Spanish sleazemeister Jess Franco really indulges his passion for leering close-ups of unshaved vaginas and sizzling semi-pornographic explicit female masturbation including a literally hot number with a freshly smoked cigarette (!) while also maintaining a steady pace and an appropriately grim sordid tone that comes complete with a socko surprise bummer ending. The colorful array of choice nasty villains adds tremendously to the overall deliciously trashy entertainment value: Monica Swinn attacks her juicy roll of the wicked warden who wears a monocle and hot pants with lip-smacking relish, Paul Muller snivels it up to the despicable hilt as whiny coward doctor Carlos Costa, and Eric Falk lets it all hang out as jolly sadistic guard Nestor. Buxom blonde dish Martine Stedil brings a winning naive charm to her character of wide-eyed virginal innocent Bertha Contrini. Better still, the fetching female felons are all clad solely in skimpy smocks but don't bother with wearing any underwear. Franco appears as Maria's pervy incestuous pop in a hysterical flashback sequence that's done in hilariously unconvincing faked slow motion. Franco's competent cinematography makes cool frequent use of zippy zoom-ins. The swinging jazz score by Daniel White and Walter Baumgartner hits the right-on groovy spot. A solid scuzzfest.