The Women in Cell Block 9 (1977) from Tuna

This is a nasty little WIP (women in prison) flick from Jess Franco.

Karine Gambier is transporting a truckload of women through some undisclosed country that is supposedly in the middle of a revolution. She is stopped, and all of the women are detained. Three are left to the soldiers to be raped and killed, but Karine Gambier, Aida Gouveia and Esther Studer are taken prisoner by a very nasty female warden, and her doctor accomplice, Howard Vernon. The prison officials have no political leanings, and are just in it for the fun of torture.

The first damsel to be tortured is student Susan Hemingway, who was caught with subversive propaganda in her dorm room. She has been chained for days just out of the reach of water. She is brought in and made to give the warden head, and is then given some champagne, but with a dash of salt. She is then put in the dreaded cell block nine along with the three captives, all held upright with manacles around their necks. All four women are stark naked, and remain so for the entire film, providing nearly unlimited full frontal and rear nudity. Each of the women is brought to the dungeon and tortured. Gambier is broken and gives the names of three of the resistance leaders. All four decide they must escape and save their comrades. The escape part is relatively easy, as they simply start up a four-way until they get a male guard interested in joining them.

Thus begins act three, with four stark naked women running through the jungle trying to escape.

This is straight-ahead nudity and torture in a WIP setting, and there is nothing complex about the story, but the transfer is wonderful, the nudity is copious, and the English dub is rather well done, so it is definitely worthwhile for fans of WIP movies.

DVD info from Xploited Cinema

NUDITY REPORT

Non-stop nudity from Susan Hemingway, Karine Gambier, Aida Gouveia and Esther Studer

The Critics Vote ...

  • No major reviews online

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

 

Based on this description, this film is a C. It holds no interest for the general public, but WIP fans will definitely want to view it.

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