» Le droit d’aimer (1972, France / Italy)
A faithful woman secures a visit with her political prisoner partner after more than two years.
» A cavallo della tigre / Riding the Tiger (2002, Italy)
Pale remake of the 1961 movie of the same name about an unwilling escapee.
» Swamp Women (1956, USA)
Undercover cop escapes prison to recover stolen diamonds in the Louisiana swamp. Tedious.
» Prividenie, kotoroe ne vozvrashchaetsya / The Ghost That Never Returns (1929, USSR)
Silent movie. A furlough for a political prisoner goes awry and leads to one last desperate act for the cause.
» Prisoner Maria: The Movie (1995, Japan)
Awful, sleazy film, very little of it set in prison, of a prisoner used as an extrajudicial assassin.
» Murder in the Big House (1942, USA)
Neat film about a cub reporter who solves a prison murder. Much too neat, really.
» Prisoner/Terrorist (2007, Japan)
Turgid, opaque movie of a terrorist’s tortured descent into madness in prison.
» Prison Planet (1992, USA)
Poorly acted, non-prisonny, pretty awful sci-fi flick. At least it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
» A cavallo della tigre / On the Tiger’s Back (1961, Italy)
An ingenuous petty crook is literally dragged into an escape. Terrific film, but no tigers.
» The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969, UK)
Sympathetic treatment of a guilt-ridden, traumatised teenager and other girls in a remand home.