Forget the title; this is not your ordinary Women in Prison exploitation movie. Well, yes, there is some adolescent preoccupation with sex (principally as a spectator sport), and a collection of minor players whose sole function is to wear little underwear and have their prison uniforms ripped in fights, but it is more comic ghost story than soft-porn. And it’s the ghosts that make it a little unusual. (more…)
Posted on January 14th, 2014 at 9:02 pm. Updated on February 8th, 2014 at 7:52 pm.
Ah, the thirties! There’s always been a bit of a fascination with prison workers falling in love with prisoners, but prison-hospital romance seemed to be of particular interest in the late 30s. Take, for example, Prison Nurse (1937), featuring a relationship between a nurse and a doctor-prisoner, Prison Farm (1938) with a doctor and a female prisoner, and Buried Alive (1939) with another nurse and a male prisoner. And then this one. But the interest doesn’t seem to be due to just the scandal or titillation of illicit relationships, but from a more noble notion that the stigma attached to those who are (or have been) prisoners, should be removed – that ex-prisoners should not be excluded from mainstream society. And who better to socialise and legitimise such a notion than a handsome doctor or a pretty nurse? (more…)
Posted on January 13th, 2014 at 9:38 pm. Updated on January 13th, 2014 at 9:38 pm.
7 Stones is only 46 minutes long. It seems longer. It is a fairly opaque 46 minutes. (more…)
Posted on January 8th, 2014 at 9:50 pm. Updated on January 8th, 2014 at 9:50 pm.
Based on a true story, this is, but it bears a remarkable similarity to another based-on-a-true-story film, Hell in Tangier (2006). Except on this occasion, it is an ill, innocent American woman being held in an Ecuadorian prison, rather than an ill, innocent Belgian man being held in a Moroccan prison. There is, it seems, more than one innocent person held in a nasty third-world prison with a story to tell. (more…)
Posted on January 1st, 2014 at 12:49 pm. Updated on September 19th, 2014 at 9:18 pm.
This little known film noir is a prison movie in the classic mould, and features one of the coldest, most heartless prison bad guys going around. (more…)
Posted on January 1st, 2014 at 9:54 am. Updated on January 1st, 2014 at 9:55 am.
I think I made a mistake in reading Roger Ebert’s review of this film (which is also known as ‘Snake Canyon Prison‘), before I watched it. As a result I was expecting something truly execrable – but it turned out to be merely unfunny, in the manner of most prison comedies. (more…)
Posted on December 28th, 2013 at 9:33 pm. Updated on December 28th, 2013 at 9:33 pm.
Translating as Ward 72 (or Cell 72), this is an updated version of the 1987 film based on Orhan Kemal’s 1967 play about being imprisoned during his wartime military service in Ni?de. If you’re looking for a cheery film to watch, this probably isn’t it. But it’s very much worth watching. (more…)
Posted on December 21st, 2013 at 7:21 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 8:10 pm.
I thought that this was a variation on the theme played out in several films – including The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Devil’s Island (1939) and Hellgate (1952) – where doctors (and one veterinarian) treat injured felons because they’re injured, and then get charged with being an accessory. This is a little different; the small town doctor here does take a bullet from the chest of a young man (whom he had delivered 26 years previously and known all his life), but also gives him money and hides him for a few days – in doing so knowingly helping him evade arrest. So he might be a little more culpable than some other doctors in those other movies. (more…)
Posted on December 12th, 2013 at 11:08 am. Updated on December 12th, 2013 at 11:08 am.
This could just as easily be called ‘In Defence of Prison Education’, if providing education to prisoners ever really needed defending. (more…)
Posted on December 2nd, 2013 at 4:45 pm. Updated on December 2nd, 2013 at 4:57 pm.
Three years after The Concrete Jungle was released, a film called Concrete Hell (aka Turning to Stone) hit the cinemas in Canada. There are plenty of parallels between the two, aside from their shared interest in building materials used in prison construction. Both feature young women charged with cocaine importation who are deserted by their male partners and dropped into brutal prisons which are controlled by big-haired queen bees. The Concrete Jungle definitely came first. Turning to Stone is definitely better. (more…)
Posted on November 27th, 2013 at 9:09 pm. Updated on November 27th, 2013 at 9:09 pm.