Women In Cellblock 9 - Uncut Version -

very happy thank you

This is harrowing. Directed by Jess Franco, it caused a certain degree of controversy by the inclusion in the cast of Susan Hemingway as Maria, an apparently underage actress (a young looking 16 year old). It is as bleak and uncompromising … and dangerous … a film as Franco ever directed. Produced with collaborator Erwin C. Dietrich, this is deliberately gratuitous on many levels. A women in prison peril drama, it features Howard Vernon in one of the most disturbing of his roles: sleazy, dishevelled, perverted Dr. Milton who, even through the gauze of dubbing, still permeates the horrifying persona of someone who really enjoys inflicting many forms of torture (“The last men I did this too became homosexual,” he says at one point, whatever that might imply). Franco is quite restrained here in his camerawork at least, allowing the many scenes of humiliation and inflicted pain to speak for themselves without a frantically zooming lens to highlight a particular horror. What blood and actual gore we do see – with admittedly gaudy red paint – is only partially and briefly glimpsed and therefore powerful indeed; if even the camera daren’t linger on the wounds, how can we, the audience? Films like this, I’d say, more than his more straightforward horror output, earned Franco a reputation as exploitation-ist. As ever, the soundtrack (by Walter Baumgartner here) is glaringly inappropriate. A light jazzy percussive piece, for example, accompanies scenes of the female prisoners trying to seduce their prison guard (including Hemmingway’s Maria, of course: “You can have all four of us,” she says at one point) by indulging in lesbian foreplay. Also known as ‘Escape from the Island of Death’, ‘Tropical Inferno’ and originally ‘Frauen für Zellenblock 9’, this is probably not the best Franco film to show to someone unfamiliar with his work. Often when I watch one of his films, I recognise entirely the technical flaws, the bad dubbing, incomprehensible stories and love them anyway. Here, it is the uncompromising exploitation elements that makes me wince a little, in that we are watching nubile, naked young women continually placed in graphic, often sexual, peril. French Karine Gambier, who has a prolific acting filmography, is excellent as the stoical Karine (and has a look of Jean Rollin’s Castel twins about her); Dora Doll is also very effective as governess Loba. The locations, which Franco always excels at photographing, are either tremendously austere for the prison scenes, or idyllic as befits the sprawling surrounding jungle. The characters are typically under-written and exist purely for the purposes of this film (if we knew a little more about them and saw some semblance of personality – although dubbing strangles this – then we would care more for their plight on a personal level) – but Franco isn’t interested in backstory. As an aside, two years earlier, Hammer released one of their final films, ‘To the Devil a Daughter’, which featured Nastassia Kinski who was reportedly only 14 when her naked scenes were shot, two years younger than Susan Hemingway, and yet the usually prudish British censors seemed happy to let this go without comment, yet ‘Women of Cellblock 9’ is still officially banned in the UK.

item arrived on time and as described.

Love classic movie. It’s a lot interesting and many scenes and actions too

Overall I would say that this DVD is the single greatest "WTF Did I Just Buy?," item. Throw your money in the fireplace! It would be more entertaining to watch your money burn than to watch this film. Film? I don't think anyone would even call it that.

Beautiful women in prison being exploited while naked running through a jungle

Women in Cellblock 9 (also known as “Tropical Inferno”) is exactly what you might expect – late 70's european pulp cinema with lots of nudity and plenty of stylised violence. Noted euro starlet Karine Gambier features in this Jess Franco sleaze-fest – made for notorious and apparently conscience-free Swiss producer Erwin Dietrich, as does the beautiful Susan Hemingway (star of Franco’s “Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun”). This is a “Women in Prison” film about female South American revolutionaries thrown into the clink and into the clutches of the prison’s female commandant and her right-hand man, torture specialist Dr. Costa (genre legend Howard Vernon). Somewhat ridiculous interrogation sessions ensue, information is revealed under duress and the women must then escape and warn their compatriots. This is essentially a parade of nubile female flesh (nothing wrong with that!), but I sometimes wish Franco had just tried a bit harder in general. There is slightly (ever so slightly) more substance to this Franco outing than many of his WIP films from this era. It looks a little “bigger” than his usual exploitation quickies and features a reasonably large number of (occasionally confused-looking) extras. The legendary Howard Vernon delivers a believably sordid performance as a piece of human filth, the women all look beautiful and there is at least some semblance of a plot. The Blu-ray looks awesome but it is essentially featureless – you get seven tailers for similarly off-kilter Franco outings and that’s it. If you already own this on DVD, the Blu-ray doesn’t contain anything new. If you’ve never seen a Franco WIP movie, this may well be a good place to start – just don’t complain too much if you hate it or I’ll send Dr.Costa after you! [Note: This film is collectable because it was refused classification in the UK and remains officially unreleased there as of this writing (2015)].