The Big Bird Cage

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.

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.

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.

This is the third film in the loose women-in-prison trilogy, preceded with The Big Doll House and Women in Cages. And you know what? This one is just more of the same. Blah de blah de blah. Whether you think this is a good thing or a bad thing is entirely down to your appreciation of this sub-genre.

First of all, I would like to say that I find Leonard Maltin's review of this film rather inaccurate. "Amusing SPOOF of prison films"? Calling "The Big Bird Cage" a spoof is like calling "Die Hard" a spoof of action films because it contains some wisecracks and comic-relief characters. That said, I found this film inferior to its predecessor in pretty much every aspect. It is more exploitative, the direction has no pace, the characters are not as strongly drawn and Roberta Collins is sorely missed (Candice Roman is a pretty blonde, but not as pretty as Roberta). Pam Grier's dominating presence (especially in the scene where she proclaims herself the leader of the prison camp) is not only the best, but one of the few things that this film has going for it. (**)