Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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.

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.

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.

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.