7. Women In Prison - Caged Heat (1974)
This little movie is the mother of all Women In Prison (WIP) films. It is very easy on the eye as it features a bevy of beautiful actresses including: Scream Queen legend Barbara Steele, Erica Gavin (last seen in Russ Meyer's Vixen!), cult favourite Cheryl 'Rainbeaux' Smith and future hard core porn actress - Desiree Cousteau. The plot is quite flimsy and typical of the WIP genre. Girl gets thrown in jail on trumped up charges. She befriends the other prisoners and they stick together as a group to try and bring down the corrupt and tyrannical prison regime. Nothing special there you say. How is Caged Heat different from other WIP films? The production values are somewhat classier than the average WIP and as I have mentioned before - there is a very strong cast whose acting is spot on and creates believable characters. The film was the directorial debut of Jonathan Demme (under the guidance of B Movie legend Roger Corman) and it was an auspicious start to his career - stylish and well paced. If you want to see ample nudity, Jess Franco style pubic hair zoom shots or mad passionate lesbian couplings among the women, you will not find much of that here. Although the film is pure exploitation, it has a little more substance than most of its WIP cousins, and is able to rely on story rather than gratuitous nudity and depraved goings on. This may disappoint sleaze mongers who like the racier WIPs. Happily, Caged Heat has some wonderful action pieces and dialogue to make up for the lack of sleaze. The film flirts with feminism and the empowerment of women joining together in the face of male oppression. There is also a fabulous blues score from John Cale which is entirely appropriate to the film. Some may call it WIP lite but I believe that Caged Heat is the ultimate WIP film in terms of storyline, style and substance.