Violence in a Women's Prison (1984)

recommended

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Violence in a Women's Prison provides a worthy entry in the women's prison genre. It offers all the T&A you would expect, though it is nowhere near as gruesome as the title would suggest. It also benefits from better than average use of lighting and camera work from Bruno Mattei.The plot is the usual. Laura Gemser, in her usual role as Emanuelle (no, not that Emmanuelle) goes undercover in a women's prison in order to reveal abuses taking place there. She encounters the usual mix of lesbianism, sadistic guards, and a corrupt yet sexy warden played by Lorraine de Selle.In spite of its title, Violence in a Women's Prison is not really all that brutal, with much more emphasis on nudity than gore. There is a rather infamous scene involving rats, although even that won't be all that shocking to the people who gravitate to this type of film. This is especially clear when compared to the film's companion piece, Women's Prison Massacre, made at the same time with the same cast and crew.This film is definitely worth a look.

Violence in a Women's Prison (AKA Emanuelle in Hell) sees Italian trashmeister Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn, just one of many silly aliases the guy operated under) tackling the WIP genre with the same lack of subtlety, skill and style that he applied to most of his work; in other words, the film is an inept but gloriously cheesy slice of exploitative garbage that offers lots of misogynistic action, cartoonish violence, and unintentional hilarity, interspersed by moments of extreme drudgery and sheer tedium.Laura Gemser, she of the dusky skin and perky breasts, once again stars as intrepid reporter Emanuelle, who this time around poses as a hooker and drug pusher to go undercover in a women's correctional facility and, with the help of Doctor Moran (Gabriele Tinti) and some friendly inmates, expose the depravity and corruption that goes on within. This flimsy plot is all the excuse Mattei needs to give fans of such dubious fare (myself included) over an hour and a half of poorly acted, badly directed sleaze, including the obligatory lesbian action from big breasted bimbos, assorted scraps, a rat attack, a touch of rape, a smidgen of buggery, a little drug abuse, some torture, and best of all, a scat-fight (that's a cat fight that takes place in human feces). It's not art, but it is fun (some of the time).I give Violence in a Women's Prison 5.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 6 for Lorraine De Selle's unmissable performance as the prison's nasty head warden, who parades around in black stockings and sussies, forces Doctor Moran to have sex with her (the poor man), and watches on with glee as a virginal female prisoner is raped by two leering inmates borrowed from the neighbouring men's prison.

After the sordid delights of 'SS Camp 5 - Womans' Hell' and the bleakly disturbing 'Womans' Camp 119', Bruno Mattei says farewell Nazis and, plumps instead, for a bunch of jailbirds for his next 'women incarcerated' chunk of sleaze.It is unfortunate I didn't have a copy of 'Blade Violent' to compare this with, this film used the same cast,same sets and virtually same plot. A plus point is that I can review this purely on single merit. On a whole this is a fairly average entry in the Women In Prison genre, featuring three scream queens Gemser, Stoppi and De Selle taking the main roles. Unfortunately these stalwarts of sin cannot save this movie from being a little mundane. The movie tells the tale of our intrepid reporter Emanuelle (Gemser)undercover in a female penitentiary as an inmate. Her task is to report on the corruptive and inhumane practices within the prison/penal system. Eventually we are thrust into the unsavoury W.I.P world where beatings are regularly brandished out by deadpan officers with bad hair, sapphic shennanigans are occurring regularly by the suitably looking 'rough' females and there is of course the obligatory humiliation, mental and physical.I am unsure whether it is because this is Matteis' first stab at the W.I.P genre (though SS films can't be all that dissimilar surely ?) but I feel the whole movie is rather a tame effort. There a few nasty surprises that borderline on the humourous such as the 'poo punch-up' and a very novel way of bell ringing. The rape sequence, although voyeuristically unsettling to begin with, you gradually find yourself amused as two inmates play pass the parcel with a scantily clad virgin most of this sequence and you wonder in disbelief whether this will end or not.The direction is well achieved as Mattei uses commendable editing, although the sets are basic, there is still an oppressive decay to the whole affair. Most of Matteis genre films 'Zombie Creeping Flesh','Rats;Night Of Terror','Womens Camp 119' seem to have this vein of industrial atrophy, clinical but chemical and it is this polluted environment that always is the backdrop to some of Matteis' movies making them seem 'nasty'. Despite sniggering at the dialogue, cringing at the effects and laughing at the dire continuity you always sense a stagnancy that sets the tone from the first frame and lingers throughout until the very last credit. I appreciate Mattei as a director for his grim 'simplicity' and his matter of fact 'I-made-the-films-because-thats-where-the-money-was' attitude. I often think Mattei could've moved onto bigger things but on occasions has been incorrectly underrated. Buy this to add to the Emanuelle collection, The Mattei collection or WIP Collection that may grace the living room shelf. VIEWED; UNCUT UNRATED R1 DISC - 99 MINUTES

I enjoyed this way too much considering who was responsible for it (the lamentable team of Fragrasso and Mattei). It's certainly a superior WIP flick- plenty of funny stuff, camp dialogue, ludicrous stereotypes and sleazy exploitation. The production is surprisingly polished though, and actually manages to maintain a plausible narrative throughout, which is quite an achievement in the circumstances!Although Gemser appears as "Emanuelle", the character is considerably toned-down from her previous outings. In fact, she only has consensual sex once in the whole film! The "Emanuelle" thing seems to be more a commercial, tacked-on after-thought than an indication of what this film is actually going to be like.Anyway, it's fun, check it out.