Watch Women Behind Bars For Free

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Really Surprised!

Just so...so bad

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Cunning and duplicitous moll Shirley Fields (Lina Romay at her most fetching and sultry) winds up serving six years in a penitentiary after she shoots her jewel thief boyfriend dead in what she claims to be a crime of passion. Naturally, Shirley's brash nature doesn't go over well with the sadistic prison staff.Director Jess Franco, working from a sordid script by Marius Lesoeur, keeps the usually complex, yet still entertainingly trashy story moving along at a steady pace, maintains a gloomy tone throughout, and pulls off a neat surprise ending. Moreover, Franco not only delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity (the inmates all sleep in the nude!), but also further treats the audience to leering zoom-in close-ups of hairy distaff nether regions, a scorching lesbian make-out session, and even some brutal torture set pieces that include a bloody whipping and Shirley receiving electric shocks to her breasts and groin. Buxom blonde babe Martine Stedil lends sturdy support as Shirley's chummy cell mate Martine, Ronald Weiss makes for a suitably hateful villain as strict and vicious warden Carlos de Bries, and Franco acquits himself well in a sizable role as ruthless mobster Bill. Franco's sharp widescreen cinematography and Daniel White's groovy jazz score are both up to par. Fans of Franco's sleazefests should dig this one.

Well, here we go again. This is another in Jess Franco's endless selection of exploitation movies. In this case Jess has turned his hand to the women in prison genre. It's certainly an area that is well suited to Mr Franco's sensibilities seeing as these are types of movies that demand sleaze by the bucket full. Women Behind Bars is no different seeing as it has loads of full frontal nudity and a couple of torture scenes. The story, such that it is begins when some diamonds are stolen from a Chinese junk. The only surviving thief is shot by his wife and she hides the jewels. She is then sent to a tough women's prison where abuse is the order of the day. Meanwhile, several characters try to free her so that she can reveal the location of the diamonds.This production was another product of the infamous cheap-jack French exploitation film producers Eurociné. Its main claim to fame is easily its inclusion on the notorious Video Nasty list, which was a group of films released on home video that were regarded as obscene by the British establishment back in the early 80's. It seems pretty obvious that this one fell afoul of the censors on the basis of its two torture scenes. In them, one naked woman is viciously whipped and then another has electrodes attached to her vagina. That sort of stuff pretty much guaranteed Video Nasty status, irrespective of how unconvincing it was. Other than this there is a lesbian sex coupling and many shots where the camera zooms into female crotches. All of the depravity is overseen by a sleazy and sadistic warden who expects sexual favours from the inmates.Franco muse Lina Romay stars in the lead role and she looks quite nice. But like any film from this director, acting performances are merely an after-thought. The film-making is very cheap and amateurish throughout. Like many Franco films it feels like it must have been shot in a couple of days. He adopts the approach of merely pointing the camera at the action and shooting (and then zooming in). The camera-work is shaky and there is little in the way of editing. But despite the Z-Grade nature of Women Behind Bars it was entertaining enough. The short running time was certainly a bonus admittedly. Franco's sledgehammer approach does have a grimy charm though and this one far from his worst.

Women in Prison is infamous director Jess Franco's third, well, "women-in-prison" movie, following 99 Women and Barbed Wire Dolls. While it is by no means a good movie (no single film should have this many zoom shots), it is entertaining enough and moves along fast enough to never get boring.Lina Romay plays a woman who's lover robs what he believes is a loot of jewels from a docked boat. When he arrives back at the restaurant they own, he discovers that the case he stole is empty. Romay shoots him, then calls the police and turns herself in.What follows is standard W.I.P. fare. Romay has a lesbian tryst with her cellmate, nude women are whipped and tortured and the warden demands sexual favors from the prisoners. While it is strictly by-the-numbers for this type of movie, most of these scenes zip by at a good pace and there's no shortage of bare breasts and buttocks on display. Romay is slightly out of shape, which adds a touch of realism to her character, though most likely unintentionally.Romay manages to escape and is surprised to be greeted with an unexpected getaway car (driven by director Jess Franco, in one of his many supporting roles). She finally meets up with her partner in crime and it is revealed that the whole thing was a set-up and he had the jewels all along. One thing that is never explained is why Romay's going to the prison was ever part of the plan! Regardless, logic and coherence are not things I am too worried about when watching a movie like this. It delivers what the title implies and at the compact running time of 80 minutes never really gets a chance to become tedious. Recommended for fans of the director or the subgenre. All others needn't bother.

This film has been a special target of mine for some time; not because I particularly enjoy the women in prison genre; but simply because it was the only film on the DPP's Video Nasty shopping list that I hadn't seen. Anyway, the inclusion of this film on the Video Nasty list would seem to be another huge error from the DPP. The 'women in prison' genre has no shortage of vile, exploitative efforts; and many of those would deserve a place on the Video Nasty list. This one, however, is one of the least exploitative I've ever seen and yet it's the only women in prison film on there! Furthermore, the film actually has a plot! It focuses on a diamond robbery; followed by the murder of the man that did it by his girlfriend, who is then sent to a women's prison where she is subjected to some mild exploitation. There's some lesbian sex and stuff featured; but nothing really that 'bad'. The film does feel cheap and nasty in places; but the cinematography is decent and it feels like a professional production. It has to be said that the film is a little bit dull at times; but it doesn't overstay it's welcome at less than eighty minutes and just for the fact that it has some story, I'd rate this among the better films of the genre.