Gefangene Frauen

Though Gefangene Frauen masquerades as a Women In Prison movie, it's more like the collected footage of some people on a nudist vacation, shot between meals and sight-seeing, sort of like a nude Sports Illustrated Prison Swimsuit video. The plot is slapped together in normal euro-trash fashion, and takes up very little of this flick, which is a shame, since it's really pretty comical. At one point there's three consecutive coup d'états in the span of ten minutes. The dialog is scant but always poignant:

Warden: "You cannot and will not leave this island. As a reminder you will no longer wear your clothes. Everyone undress!"

.. which is thought-provoking, since everyone (including the warden and the guards) was already undressed almost the whole time. But now it's for real.

Directed and written by Edwin Dietrich, euro-smut-peddler extraordinaire, Gefangene Frauen takes place mostly outdoors in what seems like a Mediterranean island. The light is crisp and the color is subtly beautiful, which is rare for a flick of this caliber. It helps that the cast is completely nude throughout almost the entire duration of the movie, be they in their cells, or performing manual labor (ie. throwing small rocks around) in the countryside.

Gefangene Frauen dispenses with the sadistic aspects of the genre, and focuses mostly on nudity and getting the scenes shot before dinner time. It's a good movie to play in the background while doing something else, though it's a must to pay attention any time there's dialog.

Put them all together: Erwin Dietrich behind the camera, Brigitte Lahaie and a whole bunch of gorgeous, very naked women in front of the camera, keep the nudity and hot scenes going from beginning to end, and you've got a winner. Storyline?... who cares! Okay, okay... a bunch of beautiful girls are kidnapped from a bordello by a paramilitary force (yikes!) and taken to a deserted island to be held as sex slaves. That's the bad news. The good news is they don't suffer much at all, and they are nude most of the time. Basically the same cast from "Come Play With Me" (another wonderful Erwin Dietrich romp) with a bunch of welcomed additions. Fans of '70s Euro sleaze will definitely enjoy this one.

Caged Women (1980)

*** (out of 4)

A group of women are having fun and working at their local whorehouse when the police storm the building and arrest them all. They are sent to a prison located on an island cut off from the rest of the world and it doesn't take long for them to fall victim to the evil warden (Karine Gambier) and her rapist guards.

Also known under its original title, GEFANGENE FRAUEN and ISLAND WOMEN, this film came pretty late in the whole WIP (women-in-prison) movement. I've often said that if you've seen on WIP movie then you've seen them all. The only difference in them is the level of cruelty that they will go for. To me Jess Franco's BARBED WIRE DOLLS is the best of the lot but CAGED WOMEN deserves a lot of credit as well.

The film was written and directed by Erwin C. Dietrich, the long time producer for several Franco classics including BARBED WIRE DOLLS. He certainly knew what he wanted to deliver and this here is pretty much a remake of that film. With that being said, this movie is without question one of the most gratuitous movies in the genre. I say that because the sleaze factor is pretty much off the charts and especially when it comes to the sexuality and nudity.

The opening twelve-minutes or so is pretty much just a showcase for the various women. We see all of the ladies strip down, masturbate and do various other sexual things that certainly cross the line of what you'd see on Cinemax. It's like the director is teasing us with all of the beautiful women he has lined up and it just grows even sleazier once we hit the prison. I also give the director credit because there's not a single ugly woman to be found here as they're all extremely attractive and constantly naked.

Gambier, another Franco vet, is good in her role as the warden and you've also got Eric Falk playing a sadistic guard. The always stunning Brigitte Lahaie plays one of the prisoners and as I said there are countless other beautiful women in the cast. Storywise there's nothing original here and there's certainly no great direction or anything else but the film was meant to be pure trash and exploitation and on that level it works really well.

Much like Tinto Brass ("Caligula"), the people who made this movie can't tell the difference between explicitness and eroticism. No build-up at all, just throw naked women on the screen; no, it doesn't work that way. If close-ups of female genitalia aren't your thing, prepare to be looking away from the screen at many points (I often did). The "all women are whores at heart" mentality of the movie is offensive, and the "story" is by turns absurd and boring (the escape is the most boring part!). But halfway through there is a random scene that pops out of nowhere and involves one of the (female) prisoners and one of the (male) guards in a nude wrestling match, which she wins with a couple of judo moves. Although the choreography of the fight is bad, the whole scene is undeniably memorable. In fact, that scene and the nice cinematography are the only two reasons I give this film * out of 4, instead of 0.

Clearly in the top 3 of all WIP flicks, my main addiction to this 80 minutes of celluoid is born of seeing Brigitte Lahaie and a bevy of other beauties parading around naked in bright daylight. "Gefangene Frauen" (Caged Women) is one of Dietrich's finest softcore achievements. He has taken the WIP genre and added a twist of his own.

The girls are kidnapped from a brothel and taken to an island prison. There they undertake a modest degree of insubordinate behaviour which triggers obligatory punishment. This consists of having to strip and walk around naked in the prison for the rest of the film. And what can you say against that? What with nude wrestling, nude whipping and a nude escape project, it's all a go-go.

Sure the acting is weak and the plot rattles, but that is not what we are here for. It delivers what it says on the tin. Big time.