Barb Wire Dolls (1975)

It seems fitting (if not a legal imperative) to renew this blog with a classic exploitationer from the leading exponent of explotation films - Jess Franco. Uncle Jess has been churning them out an at alarming rate for over 40 years, and though he has slowed down a lot (and to be fair, he's 80) he is still making them.

Barb Wire Dolls is one of the many Women In Prison films that he made and, for me, one of his best. I do have a preference for 99 Women, but that does have Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and especially Rosalba Neri to help it along. Anyhoo, the plot of Barb Wire Dolls is that Lina Romay has been banged up for killing her father, and apart from an 'out of left field' plot twist that's about it. But when has the sparcity of plot held our man back? Never, that's when. So without having to think about the plot too much, Jess gives us the lesbian warden, the lebian trysts, the gynaelogical zoom shots (often), the torture scenes and the ultimate escape. And he manages to make it fun and keep the viewer (me) tuned to the screen. Sleaze can oh so easily become boring after a while and it's to Franco's credit that he manages to keep things rolling along quite nicely. The actors fit there roles competently with a special nod to Monica Swinn as the sadistic, masochistic, hotpants wearing warden who keeps a monocle firmly embedded in her eye, unless she is asking one of her charges to slap her about making it fly off.

As is most usually the case, you kind of need to already be a Franco fan to enjoy this, but luckily I am.