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What a great movie! An entertaining female "Great Escape"! Roberta Collins, Pam Grier and Sid Haig in particular are real hoots with some great moments and dialogue. Bodine (Pat Woodell) is a great character too (introduced as someone not to be messed with), especially letting loose with twin machine guns in the final gunfight. Lots of fun to be had in Jack Hill's Women In Prison exploitation classic. See Matilda The Hun and Foxy Brown themselves duke it out and mud wrestle. Ponder as to how someone so skinny (whereas the resident junkie is quite healthy) got to be head guard. The obligatory prison breakout relies on the help of one prisoner's pet cat to come through at the right time. The scenes with the junkie being completely out her tree are hilarious, although she also gets to show her creepier, more deranged side too in some scenes. The prison break attempt and the final gunfight with the authorities are fun and exciting stuff and for me Roberta Collins steals the show. Not content with the aforementioned mudwrestle with prison bully Pam Grier, she gets some male action at knifepoint and gets great revenge on the evil prison governess. Roberta has some great dialogue too in "Get it up or I'll cut it off!" and "Bye bye lardass!" The head guard has a slight Barbara Steele resemblance. The ending is a bit rushed, some character's fates are left up in the air and the dialogue that seals Judy Brown's fate was a dub forced on the film but it's still great fun and was a groundbreaking hit for AIP. Roberta, Pam and Judy had all just been in "Women In Prison" beforehand and Jack Hill later also directed Pam Grier in some of the blaxploitation flicks that made her an icon. Roberta Collins would of course go onto starring in the masterpiece "Death Race 2000" and the inferior (in my opinion) prison classic "Caged Heat". As you'd expect from this type of movie, there are chances to see attractive women getting naked or scantily clad and you get amusing foodfights and catfights. The female leads are obviously in on the joke though and have fun with it. There's some amusing moments and unlike the "Charlie's Angels" tv show, these resourceful, smart women really do get a chance to kick ass and get tough. Classic feelgood exploitation!

The genre of women-in-prison movies has never been my favourite type of exploitation movie. You know the deal: young woman goes to a prison (usually in a jungle somewhere in Asia or South America), she was probably framed and is innocent, there are tough lesbians in the prison and the warden punishes the inmates with devices and techniques inspired by sadomasochism.

Oh, and I forgot the main reason anyone watches these: shower scenes. What would a WIP movie be without one of those? That's right: basically pointless. You watch for nudity, and maybe the kinkier among you watch for the bondage situations the warden inflicts on the inmates. And it all culminates in an escape attempt.

"The Big Doll House" could be described as notable for two unimpressive reasons: it's an early example of this particular subgenre, which would go into overdrive in the '70s, and it's actually quite toned down by contrast to the rest of them.

For one thing, there's no full frontal nudity. Some of the actresses in the shower scene are clearly not even naked - you can see glimpses of underwear. The filmmakers apparently didn't have the neat idea of elevating the camera, or just angling it up, so you can't tell they're not really naked.

There's not really much to say about "The Big Doll House" other than that; the rest applies to all other WIP flicks as well. In this one, the warden is a lesbian, so we don't really get that from the other inmates, nor are they depicted as being all that vicious, apart from one scene at the very beginning where the protagonist has her hair dunked in a toilet bowl. The movie kind of forgets that right after it happens, and they all band together. It does that a few other times, though I have already forgotten the specifics: it has what feels like an episodic story-structure, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to. A lot of events seem isolated because they have no effect on the narrative; another example that just occurred to me is a mudfight between Pam Grier and some other girl.

The movie is also pretty badly acted. The actresses all seem dazed, as though they'd been hypnotised. The only stand-out is, yes, Grier, in what I think was her first speaking role. Some of her lines are delivered pretty badly too, but she just has a presence, inflected with power and intelligence. The actresses who play the other inmates are all completely forgettable.

There is, of course, also Grier's perennial counterpart Sid Haig, playing his usual sleazoid role. Those two were good together; the other performers, and the script they're performing, is just so pedestrian that it gets in the way.

Two factors make THE BIG DOLL HOUSE a must-see, Women In Prison classic: Factor #1- It's directed by none other than cult film maestro, Jack Hill! Factor #2- It stars the one and only cult goddess supreme, Pam Grier!

This is sheer, unabashed exploitation done right. All of the requisite parts are in place- blazing hot female inmates, fascistic guards, a psychopathic warden, corrupt military figures, sadistic torture, and endless nudity. If that's not enough, it also features Sid Haig as an unscrupulous fruit vendor!

Plus: mud wrestling, a massive food fight, and sudsy-sudsy shower fun!

Accept no substitutes...

The Big Doll House was followed-up by The Big Bird Cage a year later. The two films do not follow on from each other; but are very similar in style and content. While this film is not quite as great as the later one; it's still an excellent women in prison flick. The film was shot in the Philippines and set in some backwater country; but we don't get the same great outdoor shots that we got in the later film, and most of this film takes place in the classic, dingy, prison setting. That, however, is not a problem; as a constant stream of sleaze and action will keep most viewers from worrying about where it's taking place. Naturally, the film takes place in a prison where most of the prisoners have little chance of release. A new girl enters the prison and is put in with a motley crew of female prisoners. It's not long before the conditions inside the jail force the girls into planning an escape; but not before various rivalries amongst themselves are sorted out.

This film is just great fun to watch, and that's what makes it so successful. The script is rather ridiculous; but there's plenty of laughs to be had with it too so it doesn't matter. The biggest names in the cast belong to Sid Haig and Pam Grier; although neither one of them is the star. As would be the case with the later film, Sid Haig provides the most memorable role; this time as a pervy bloke that goes round delivers various goodies to the female prisoners. Most of the rest of the cast are nice to look at, as is standard for films like this. The Big Doll House is a rather lighter affair than the women in prison films by the likes of Jess Franco et al; but it's all the better for it. There's plenty of action to keep the pulses racing, including various cat fights, arguments and gun fights. There's also a series of rather trippy torture scenes, which seem weirdly out of place in the film. The Big Doll House boils down to an explosive ending and overall I wouldn't hesitate to name this as one of the all time best women in prison films (although The Big Bird Cage is slightly better).

Big Doll House, The (1971)

** (out of 4)

Beautiful women, catfights, food fights, torture, lesbianism, mud wrestling and nudity are the highlights of this cult classic Women in Prison film from Jack Hill. There's always a slight bit of sleaze that makes this interesting but overall it's pretty dull without enough story and the dramatic moments don't work. Judy Brown and Pam Grier star.

It should also be noted that I prefer the rougher women in prison films by the likes of Jess Franco. Franco started this genre with 99 Women but I prefer his darker WIP films like Barbed Wire Dolls, Women in Cell Block 9 and Sadomania.