Caged Heat (1974)

not as good as all the hype

Amateur movie with Big budget

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Ahhh... 'Caged Heat'! I get a big grin on my face just typing the title! Look, you either dig Women In Prison movies or you don't, and if you do 'Caged Heat' is the second best one ever made, in a tie with Jack Hill's 'The Bird Bird Cage'. (The best for me is still 'Chained Heat' starring Linda Blair and Tamara Dobson, made a few years after this genre is generally regarded as being at its peak). I think the only thing stopping it from being number one is the absence of Pam Grier. If she had played the character of Pandora instead of Ella Reid, 'Chained Heat' would be IT. Funnily enough, three of the major cast members (Juanita Brown, Roberta Collins and Rainbeaux Smith) had co-starred in various Grier vehicles ('Foxy Brown', 'The Big Doll House', and 'Drum' respectively). This is Jonathan Demme's directorial debut after serving his apprenticeship with Roger Corman as a writer and producer, and he really came up trumps. Demme manages to make a tough and tense W.I.P. movie and a playful, tongue in cheek parody of one simultaneously. He has made more accomplished and successful movies since this, but arguably none more entertaining. The cast is an impressive one, not just Brown, Collins, Smith and Reid, but Russ Meyer bitch goddess Erica Gavin ('Vixen!') and horror legend Barbara Steele ('Black Sunday', 'Pit And The Pendulum', 'Night Of The Doomed', 'Shivers',etc.). I also liked the perverted Dr. Randolph played by Warren Miller. 'Caged Heat' is first class trash, and a perfect example of 1960s/70s exploitation movies exemplified by the energetic and fun output of American International and New World Pictures. We will never see their likes again! Enjoy!

Arguably the finest women in prison (WIP) film ever made, CAGED HEAT proves that even a trash exploitation film can aspire to decent artistic values. Jackie (Erica Gavin), an accomplice in a drug related crime, is sent to a southern penitentiary run by an oppressive, wheelchair-bound warden (Barbara Steele). Jackie's cell mate Lavelle (Cheryl Rainbeuax Smith) suffers from suicidal nightmares while another prisoner, Pandora (Ella Reid), is reprimanded for entertaining her fellow inmates with a mildly lewd vaudeville act and placed in solitary confinement. Her loyal friend Belle (Roberta Collins) begins sneaking through the ventilation ducts to bring her food from the kitchen until she's caught when she surprises an elderly staff member who abruptly dies of a heart attack. Meanwhile, the prison bully Maggie (Juanita Brown) picks a fight with Jackie and gets them both in hot water. Though the warden is a bit stern, the real threat turns out to be the demented prison doctor (Warren Miller). He subjects Jackie and Maggie to illegal electric shock therapy and prescribes a more permanent `cure' for Belle: corrective brain surgery, which he intends to perform with a Black and Decker power drill (!). Jackie and Maggie finally work out their differences and manage to escape in a highjacked prison truck. But Jackie can't bring herself to abandon Lavelle, Pandora, and especially the doomed Belle. With Maggie's help, she plans a daring prison break to rescue her friends.Jonathan Demme's script provides believable characters and several imaginative dream sequences, and his direction is filled with impressive camera angles and novel wipes and dissolves. He even commissioned an appropriately down and dirty soundtrack from blues legend John Cale. Because of these frequent artistic flourishes, CAGED HEAT is one of the few WIP movies to win the respect of critics. In spite of the abundant exploitation and nudity, the film unexpectedly also won the approval of some feminist groups who praised its positive depiction of `Woman Power.' A hugely appealing cast helps the movie immeasurably. Ms. Steele earned a reputation as the original `Scream Queen' with her edgy performances in horror classics like Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY and Roger Corman's THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (both 1961). She's cast largely against type here as the prudish warden, but a dream sequence in which she performs a raucous Vegas style dance number wearing glittering tights and sheer stockings reveals her character's repressed eroticism, a quality Steele projected in all her roles. Leading lady Ms. Gavin made her screen debut several years earlier in one of the first hardcore adult features, Russ Meyer's VIXEN! (1968), which was a gutsy career move in an era when many actors were arrested for performing sex acts on film, then still a punishable crime. The petite Ms. Smith enjoyed a busy career in exploitation films during the '70s and early '80s; she tragically died of hepatitis in 2002. But beautiful blue-eyed Ms. Collins, who had already appeared in two previous WIP movies (THE BIG DOLL HOUSE and WOMEN IN CAGES, both made in 1971), steals the show as the endearingly faithful Belle. The character takes considerable personal risk to help her friend Pandora and ultimately suffers for her effort. When we see her molested by the perverted doctor and learn that she's scheduled to become his next lobotomy victim, the news is genuinely shocking and upsetting, which nicely sets up Jackie and Maggie's race against the clock to save her. In other words, Belle ultimately becomes the emotional focus of the entire plot, and Ms. Collins handles the pivotal role with winning charisma and grace. She went on to appear in countless more cult B movies, including a fourth WIP film, VENDETTA (1986).Demme of course went on to even bigger and better things, becoming one of the most successful directors of his generation. He won a Best Director Academy Award in 1991 for THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which also won the Best Picture Oscar.

Unbelievable that a director like Jonathan Demme, responsible for clean and sober Hollywood stuff à la "Silence of the Lambs" or "Philadelphia", started his career in the sleazy world of the B-movies..! But next to his colleagues Brian de Palma and Martin Scorcese producer legend Roger Corman gave him the right kickstart! The film itself has all ingredients a good B-movie´s got to have, because "Caged Heat" is dirty, suspense-packed and happily far beyond the political correctness of Demme´s later films! Nudity, soft sex, violence... there´s nothing left out a decent exploitation movie should contain! Two appearances are absolutely shiny: the one comes from Erica Gavin, the unforgotten boob queen in Russ Meyer´s hilarious sleaze classic "Supervixen"! However, the even greater performance is given by the grand dame of horrors, Barbara Steele! Her part as a paralysed and prudish prison director is the main attraction in this rough WIP-flick! Director Jonathan Demme should have made more films like "Caged Heat"! Unfortunately Oscars became more important to him than honest movies...

I'm not quite sure what to think of Caged Heat. Don't get me wrong I think Demme is a magnificent director but this…Ugh, I'm not sure what to say. I read that Caged Heat was praised by critics, I could probably see what they saw in comparison to other girls in prison flicks. It didn't have that aspect of a campy movie. It had some style to it which is good. It shows that Demme had some sense of artistic view from the very beginning of his career. You can tell that he took time in planing out shots. The best example of this is when the camera is passing by the prison cells and you can see each inmate doing something different. Those are also signs of good directing. The characters are memorable and well developed. The movie doesn't aim for showing a lot of skin. Sure some of the girls are very attractive (especially the two blond ones), still the movie doesn't rely on sex at all.I guess you can say this is a decent first attempt. Considering the budget he had to work with, I'd say its pretty good. Its good to see directors work their way up but never forget where they came from. Demme was grateful to be working with Roger Corman and it shows. He gave him a role in Silence of the Lambs. Nevertheless Caged Heat is nice to check out. It's great entertainment that's for sure. And isn't that what films are all about?