Prison stuff. In prison movies.
This is a variation on the adage that “You can’t keep a good man down.” Sometimes, it seems, you can’t keep a really, really bad man down, either. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 17th, 2014 at 10:00 pm. Updated on March 17th, 2014 at 10:08 pm.
This is not quite a morality play, but it’s not far removed from one: the two high-living adulterers both come to sticky ends while the poor-but-honest workers prosper and find happiness. And the wrongdoer who goes to jail, but remains true in his heart, gets a second chance. Ahhh. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 11th, 2014 at 9:25 pm. Updated on March 11th, 2014 at 9:25 pm.
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, 1936. Spain is about to plunge into civil war, and an unlikely romance between Daniel Da Barca (Tristán Ulloa), a charismatic Republican doctor, and Marisa Mallo (María Adánez), the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has quickly thrown his lot in with Franco’s rebel Nationalists, is beginning to blossom.
Posted on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm.
The premise sounded promising, if a little in poor taste: a game show involving Death Row inmates competing for stays of execution and prizes for their grieving relatives. The odds are stacked rather heavily against them (which means that they will almost certainly be killed ‘live’ on TV), yet “these people are already on Death Row,” the host reminds us. “Their lives are basically over. We give them a chance, a way to be somebody… a way to be entertaining before they go.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 4th, 2014 at 9:21 pm. Updated on March 4th, 2014 at 9:21 pm.
There’s something a little pathetic about two ageing action heroes reliving their glory days from the ’80s. Granted, neither Sylvester Stallone nor Arnold Schwarzenegger looks mid-sixties, exactly, and they make a far better fist of playing action heroes than the younger but tumescent Steven Seagal in Maximum Conviction (2012). But it’s a worrying trend; I’m not looking forward to seeing Chuck Norris and Burt Reynolds wreak havoc in a palliative care prison.
Posted on February 24th, 2014 at 9:26 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2014 at 1:13 pm.
Jailhouse as haunted house. It’s not the most novel of concepts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 16th, 2014 at 1:35 pm. Updated on February 16th, 2014 at 1:35 pm.
This was released as Women Without Men in Britain – a title suggestive of something a bit wild or scandalous. It’s neither of those. I suppose that if one takes the title at its most literal, it’s indisputable that the women prisoners are without men. And although she might not agree, the lead character, Angela Booth (Beverly Michaels), is decidedly better off for it.
Posted on February 12th, 2014 at 10:00 pm. Updated on February 12th, 2014 at 10:02 pm.
This (along with several other contenders) could serve as a baseline against which all women’s prison movies are measured. It’s far from great, and far from terrible. It’s camp, but not too camp. Well, it’s over-the-top camp at times. It has a brave heroine, a particularly nasty villain, plenty of true-to-life prisoners who have no wish to fly above the radar, some drama… and, presumably because it’s made-for-TV and it’s 1972, a surfeit of beautiful women but no shower scenes, lesbian scenes, or lascivious male officers. What’s more, it stars two prison movie greats: Ida Lupino (Women’s Prison, 1955) and Barbara Luna (The Concrete Jungle, 1982). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 4th, 2014 at 8:18 pm. Updated on February 8th, 2014 at 7:45 pm.
A 1967 poll found that 71% of Japanese opposed the abolition of the death penalty. To those in that handsome majority, director Nagisa Oshima asks: “Have you ever seen inside an execution chamber? Have you ever seen an execution?” And one steels oneself for an uncomfortable two hours of docudrama polemic or a voyage through the mechanics of the gallows. That’s not quite what you get. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 3rd, 2014 at 8:45 pm. Updated on February 3rd, 2014 at 8:45 pm.
There are many men of my generation who will remember Susan Dey as the only reason for watching The Partridge Family. My memory of Laurie Partridge has dulled considerably, but it could well be her who has strayed into this TV movie, and into this TV prison, by mistake.
Posted on January 27th, 2014 at 8:39 am. Updated on January 27th, 2014 at 8:45 am.