The Big Bird Cage

This was the third women in prison (WIP) movie produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures within just two years, beginning with THE BIG DOLL HOUSE and WOMEN IN CAGES, both released in 1971. In spite of the similar titles, there's no narrative connection between BIRD CAGE and DOLL HOUSE, though the films were later shrewdly retitled `Women's Penitentiary I' and `II' by distributors who hoped each film would capitalize on the other's popularity. Director Jack Hill, who also helmed DOLL HOUSE, says Corman hired him to make a sequel, but since the WIP genre had already become formulaic and predictable, Hill played up the humor and delivered a parody instead. Like DOLL HOUSE, the film features Pam Grier and Sid Haig in prominent roles and was shot in the Philippines. This time, Hill makes much better use of both actors as well as the beautiful locations.

Perhaps the movie is best remembered as the screen debut of Anitra Ford, the exotically beautiful model who turned quite a few heads as well as price tags on television's THE PRICE IS RIGHT game show. She plays Terry, an American tourist visiting a Central American banana republic where her indiscreet flirtations with the prime minister get her in trouble with the governing party. She's sent to a bamboo shack prison for women staffed exclusively by gay guards and centered around a towering, archaic-looking sugar cane mill, the `big bird cage' of the title. The warden (Andy Centenera) designed the structure himself and is more than willing to sacrifice a few of his charges now and then to keep it in working order. At one point, an unfortunate prisoner is crushed to death when she's forced to crawl under the contraption to reposition a gigantic, misaligned cog.

Prisoners who lose their wits are permanently confined in a cage for `crazies' while those who attempt to escape are tracked down by attack dogs. Regardless, Terry makes a run for it and nearly gets gang raped in the process. When the effeminate head guard Rocco (Vic Diaz, who has been called `the Peter Lorre of the Philippines') catches up to her as she's being molested by half a dozen local men, he dryly comments, `Why doesn't that ever happen to me?' As punishment for her attempted escape, Terry's left hanging from a rope tied to her long, dark tresses. Talk about having a bad hair day!

The other inmates are the usual batch of rag tag stereotypes. There's the butch top dog (Teda Bracci), the sex starved nymph (Candice Roman), and a pathetic new kid (Marissa Delgado) who's befriended and championed by the heroine. The most original character is an Amazonian lesbian (Karen McKevic) who's supposedly so violent she must be chained to her bed, though she looks more like an unusually tall anorexic. She seems to have been included strictly for laughs: in one especially silly scene, she smears chicken fat over her body hoping to slip past her other cell mates so she can get her hands on a teasing tormentor.

Curiously, the most entertaining parts of the film don't involve the prisoners but rather a nearby group of revolutionaries led by Blossom (Grier) and Django (Haig). Neither actor has ever been more appealing in any role and they work brilliantly together. In the opening scene, they pose as musicians in a local band to burglarize a seedy nightclub and Grier actually sings on the soundtrack. Later, they wrestle in the mud before kissing and making up. As they noisily make love in a hut, another bandit ruefully comments, `What an army we could raise if we only had a lot of women.... Where could we find [so many] women to steal?' Thus are the unlikely seeds of a prison break sewn!

Haig is hilarious in the scenes where Django `camps it up' flirting with the guards to weasel his way into the prison staff and Grier leads the eventual riot with her usual gusto. The film features lots of action including a fiery finale. There's also quite a bit of nudity, though unfortunately only a few brief glimpses of foxy Ms. Ford in the buff. She shows a bit more skin in her next two films, INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS and STACEY (both 1973).

There is a curious theme of homosexuality throughout the majority of Women In Prison (WIP) flicks. Usually there'll be a lesbian character in the sadistic warden like in "The Big Doll House" (this one's predecessor) and "Women In Cages", or it's one of the inmates, like the Sybil Danning character in "Chained Heat", who will protect the young ingenue from the prison gangs if she'll just scrub her back in the shower.

"The Big Bird Cage" is the only one I can remember seeing in which there are no lesbians, but there are gay men. It's notable for a scene where Sid Haig, that dependable b-movie stalwart who had a renaissance with Rob Zombie, pretends to be gay to con his way into the prison camp by flirting with the guards.

It's also notable for an inexplicable lack of shower scenes - though there is one point where women cover their naked bodies with chicken fat and streak through the camp in an escape attempt! This provides some of the first full-frontal nudity I have seen in the genre. The filmmakers were apparently slow to realise that shower scenes were the WIP sub-genre's main draw; they're pretty much the only reason anyone watches these movies now.

The only other thing I can think of to say about "The Big Bird Cage" is that it barely seems to qualify as "prison" movie; there are no bars on the windows or cells, and no high prison wall. It's set in what is more like a forced labour camp, which kept reminding me of Pol Pot's genocidal "re-education" program.

So it's an outlier for a few reasons, but none of them are particularly engaging.

Jack Hill's follow-up (but not a sequel) to his earlier 'The Big Doll House' is a much more confident and enjoyable movie. Hill wrote as well as directed this one and I think that makes a world of difference. The basic model of the earlier film is followed but Hill shrewdly saw that the handful of scenes between Pam Grier and Sid Haig in that movie showed plenty of potential, so this time round he casts them as singing Revolutionary lovers (yeah baby!), an inspired move that really makes this one something special. The foxy Anitra Ford ('Invasion Of The Bee Girls') plays a sassy character who crosses their paths early in the film during a robbery. Super cool Django (Haig) takes a fancy to her but before he can do anything about it she is arrested and sent to a brutal prison. (I should point out that even though this movie, like the others in this short-lived 1970s cycle, was filmed in the Philippines, it is set in some nameless Banana Republic). Before too long Grier also finds herself in the same compound, which is dominated by "the bird cage", a strange contraption the women are forced to work on as punishment. Django cooks up a nutty plan to save her by pretending to be gay to ingratiate himself with one of the camps (very camp) guards Rocco, played by Vic Diaz, who later reunited with Haig and Grier in 'Black Mama White Mama'. This is a fantastic piece of entertainment overall and a guaranteed hoot! Personally I would say it is only rivalled by 'Caged Heat' and 'Chained Heat' as far as women in prison exploitation movies go. Highly recommended fun.

In the 70s, a popular exploitation sub genre known as women in prison produced low budget schlock after low budget schlock. Somewhere in the shuffle, there were a few enjoyable gems. Pam Grier (The L Word, Jackie Brown) seems to have a lock on these, as her "Women in Cages," "The Big Doll House," "The Arena," and this one, "The Big Bird Cage" all seem to be the most fun. I'm sure Roger Corman is to thank for these hilarious movies as well.

There really isn't much to the plot. A bunch of broads are in a prison and used as slave labor. They are trying to get out. They have some in fighting and it usually involves mud. The guards are gay stereotypes. Pam Grier doesn't take any crap. Sound like your cup of tea?

If you go into this movie expecting "The Godfather," you may not enjoy it, but if you are looking for an enjoyable flick to catch, this is the one. Pam Grier and Sid Haig(The Devil's Rejects) steal the show here, as their over the top performances anchor the rest of the mostly there to exploit, but serviceable cast. If you like your women in prison exploitation films to be more bouncy fun and less disturbing torture, I highly recommend you start here. If only they still made flicks like this.

I got a hold of this one mainly for the presence of Pam Grier. Needless to say, I was surprised at just how amusing this one was. Although it contains its share of exploitation elements, large sections of this film are really tongue-in-cheek and pretty damned funny actually. Sid Haig and Pam Grier are great as revolutionaires, and there are a sprinkling of decent character actors that round out the cast for a decent outing. The ending is chock full of early 70's combat sequences and wonderfully photographed burning buildings. Actually, I was also impressed by the director's good use of scenery; I hate to admit it, but the backdrop (jungle and mountains) were actually breathtaking in parts.