Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) ( Frauengefängnis ) (Blu-Ray)

Absolute classic WIP from Franco, looks incredible on blu ray; fully uncut to, nice.

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is another of Jess Franco's Latin American based prison dramas concentrating on showing lots of naked women. For the fan of this prolific director's cheap and sleazy output, this version from Full Moon is slightly more explicit than a lot of the other Franco films currently available to buy but, only with the female cast.Once again this production is produced by Erwin C. Dietrich and stars the very nubile looking Lina Romay as Maria, a new intake into the women's prison, a compound near the sea.The dvd blurb reads "Get Ready To Enter The Shocking World Of Barbed Wire Dolls!" which when you watch the movie you can say is quite a clever play on words.The film opens up with a naked woman, chained to the prison cell by way of a dog collar around her neck, begging and screaming to her tormentor to give her a bowl of food which lies just outside her reach. The guard verbally abuses her and beats her with a wooden stick, all the time prolonging the woman's desperate ordeal.When Maria arrives at the prison she is made aware of the fact that she will undergo shock treatment as part of the prison's attempts to rehabilitatethe inmates to correct their original misdemeanours, and she has to sign the internal documentation for them to carry out this treatment.Later we witness Maria tied down to the wire mattress of a bed, with strategically placed bowls underneath the wire mattress on the floor, being subjected to electric shock torture.We later learn that the Chief warden at the prison, the prison Governor and the prison doctor are all corrupt and are operating to their own personal sexual agenda that the outside authorities are not aware of. One of the inmates writes an anonymous letter to try to alert the outside authorities but the letter is discovered and retribution is shortly passed out after the warden has her sexual pleasure with the culprit.The dvd has been digitally restored and remastered, dubbed into English and is a good copy. In my opinion this is better than the recent Jess Franco's 'Slaves' Uncut also released by Full Moon, and which is also produced by Erwin C. Dietrich and starring Lina Romay. However, the film suffers from a lack of special effects when some prisoners attempt to escape, they're killed by machine gun but, no bullet wounds, no blood..... cheaply made.That said, I am finding that a lot of Franco's productions tend to be rather hit and miss. This just about makes it to average by way of releasing a slightly more explicit version from the typical softer core releases that are usually available.

very happy thank you

excellent release

1A...Super

Sometimes a film promises nudity but you get half an hour in and all you've got is a turn of an ankle but in this film, if Franco sees an opportunity for a dollop of nudity, he takes it, in fact, even if there isn't an opportunity for nudity, he still crowbars it in. At one point, a female guard appears dressed in a pair of jeans, a military hat with a machine slung over her shoulder, topless for no apparent reason, well, except that she's got exquisite knockers and, as this is the 70s, there's more bush than the Australian outback.The plot? Who cares, it's your usual women in prison flick, the guards are sadistic nazi's, the girls are good looking, especially the gorgeous Martine Stedil who, I'll admit to much rather seeing her in a film where she's not chained to a wall or receiving EST treatment but y'know.Two other things, one is that you have two audio options with this film, one is dubbed in English and the other is dubbed in German with English subtitles, of course, reading the subtitles means you miss the nudity and if you're watching this for the plot, you might want to try The Shawshank Redemption and the second thing is that this film contains the most unintentional comedy slow motion sequence ever commited to film, it's literally the funniest thing I've seen all year.

in good condition

This is typical Jess Franco fare, with so many of his hallmark themes. On some Caribbean island stands a bleak fortress, patrolled by gun-wielding female guards whose uniforms seem to keep coming undone. Inside we are alerted by the screams of a young woman, naked, chained at the throat, being tormented by a sadistic male officer. Your suspension of disbelief is put on immediate hold by the dreadful acting and disembodied dubbing.The plot? Well, the new girl to the prison has earned the enmity of the sadistic female warden (who parades around wearing a monocle and little else). Some of the prisoners decide to escape - strangely, nobody else seems to have thought about this until the new girl, trouble-maker that she is, arrives. Escape proves no more troublesome than fighting your way through shrubbery - which may, of course, take on a whole new dimension when you're naked. There's talk about the revolutionists! It ends. Abruptly!Women in prison, women in bondage, women being dominated by other women are all Franco themes. While, in some of his films, the camera work and lighting are excellent, here he does the shooting himself, often using a hand-held camera. The results are some blurred and badly lit shots which Franco tries to pass off as art (the extras on the DVD feature a short interview with him).It's classic Franco, but hardly classic cinema. Soft-porn, funny in places, but probably not something you'd want to watch twice.