Nas Teias da Traição

A film doesn't have to be good to be entertaining and GIRLS IN PRISON is a case in point . The intelligence of the script starts and ends with a discussion of The Korean War

" It's supposed to be a police action "

" Yeah ? Then why the hell didn't they send cops "

Which is dialogue that will be forever synonymous with Samuel Fuller who used the line in another film set around The Korean War . But after this exchange strange things start happening where we're shown live footage for the battlefront , something that didn't happen till 'Nam . The McCarthy witch hunts are alluded to but somehow feel overblown and false while someone refers to an ashtray that was given to him by " The King " . What in 1952 ? Maybe he meant the King of England ?

I won't go into too much detail but in a contrived series of events a teenage girl called Aggie O'Hanlon finds herself serving a life sentence for a crime she didn't commit , and it's essential for anyone wanting to enjoy this TVM that they turn off their brain because there's plenty of things that don't make sense . For example a couple of inmates called Melba and Carol promise to protect Aggie . It's never revealed why they do this . Obviously being lesbian lovers it's very easy to jump to the conclusion that they want to involve the sweet and innocent Aggie in female love games but this isn't their motive at all because there is never any explanation for their motive , the audience just have to accept this without question .

The audience have to accept a lot of things that defy credibility as the plot twists and turns but I have to confess I felt very involved in all this , yeah I know melodramatic and far fetched doesn't even begin to describe this movie but it is enjoyable thanks to the good looking cast ( Yes there is some T&A ) and some impressive pastal coloured cinematography from Jean De Segonzac

This one is worth watching just to see Anne Heche in the shower scene.

An odd film. It can't decide whether it wants to be a tribute to 50s/60s "girls behind bars" exploitation pictures, a pseudo-political satire, or a crime drama. In better hands, it might have straddled those genres effectively, but as it is, it's more than a little scattershot.

In some sense, the film only seems to be sure of itself when it lapses into "lipstick lesbians in jail" exploitation. Personally, I could have done with more of that material, but then I watched the emasculated basic cable version on Lifetime. In retrospect, I'd recommend renting the video so you don't have to miss out on any of the "sexuality/nudity", and so you won't have to put up with the lame-o profanity overdubs. One particularly egregious dialogue change (judging from context and lip-reading) was "I shot his balls off" to "I blew his brains out", which renders the followup line "there was nothing to sew back on" utterly nonsensical.

Most of the laughs in the film are unintentional rather than written. The lack of acting from the character who stabs herself got a big laugh from me. The only *good* acting in the film to speak of comes from Anne Heche, who puts more work into her role than you'd expect. Lots of nice bits of business that I can tell were her idea rather than scripted or directed, since her scenes are the only ones with that kind of quality. Oh, I guess Miguel Sandoval (the "digger" in Jurassic Park) has a couple of nice moments as well.

All in all, about what you would expect from legendary (to MST3K fans, at least) schlock producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, who also directed the unrelated 1956 film with the same title. Worth viewing if you're an Anne Heche fan or have nothing better to do, but don't go out of your way.

Funny how people see the same things in such different ways. Although the movie is classified as action/drama I have to say I laughed so hard I almost fell off the chair. This movie would have been a greater success if it had been classified as comedy. The characters are so stereotype that the movie seems to make fun of the kind of genre it is actually supposed to represent. The problem is, that it takes itself serious, otherwise I think I would have liked it. I am not quite sure whether it is just a bad movie or if it is really bad enough to be interesting. In any case - I am still amused about it. (Besides, Anne Heche is hilarious as the bad girl).

Don't let the appellation MADE FOR TV throw you off the scent. This movie was made for cable TV, and like any good 'girls in prison' movie, it has 2 really good shower scenes!

Also, as it is set in the 1950's, Anne Heche gets to wear some clothes that would look right at home on Grace Kelly.