Scott LeBrun By their very nature, Women In Prison films are often pretty damn sleazy, but this one takes the cake. Directed by the inimitable Jesus Franco, it wallows in filth and degradation and nudity for a suitably grimy 81 minutes. As it plays out, there are numerous closeups of the female anatomy. There's shock therapy, masturbation, and sexual fetishes in this salacious story. Surprisingly, it's actually kind of slick looking for this sort of thing, enabling its eager viewers to view all of the action in great detail.Francos' longtime leading lady Lina Romay stars as Maria de Guerra, the fresh fish at a womens' prison. She was convicted of murdering her father (played by Franco himself in a flashback), who'd attempted to rape her. Forming a subplot is the fact that one of the lady convicts has authored a scathing note telling about the atrocities visited upon her and her cellmates. The people in charge decide to punish everybody when the guilty party won't step forward.Lovers of cinematic trash are likely to be pretty satisfied with what they see. There's not a particularly strong story here, but who is going to care? Franco serves up the exploitation and the sex with fervour. Also helping matters is the relatively brief running time. The performances are fun - Romay is appealing as usual, Paul Muller is good as the guilt ridden doctor Carlos Costa, and Martine Stedil shows conviction as the passionate Bertha Contrini. But the lady who dominates the proceedings is Monica Swinn as the Wardress; she's a hoot as a monocle and short-shorts wearing sadist.Pleasingly putrid entertainment up to and including the ending.Seven out of 10.

BA_Harrison Whenever I play DVD Russian roulette by plucking a film randomly from my collection and forcing myself to watch it, I prepare myself for the worst: with so many of prolific director Jess Franco's films clogging up my shelves, it's extremely likely that I'll end up popping one of his 'masterpieces' into the player.Last night, the metaphorical 'bullet in the chamber' was Barbed Wire Dolls, a sleazy women-in-prison flick starring Franco's fave piece of crumpet Lina Romay and a gaggle of wanton women all willing to flash some flesh on film for the pervy Spaniard.Romay plays female prisoner Maria da Guerra, imprisoned for the murder of her incestuous father (played by Franco himself in a faux slow-motion flashback scene that defies description). Persecuted by the monocle wearing lesbian in leather hot-pants who runs the prison (Monica Swinn), and mercilessly tortured by sadistic guard Nestor (Eric Falk), Maria eventually plans an escape from the hellhole, with a little help from pretty blonde cell-mate Bertha (Martine Stedil).This 'plot' serves as an excuse for Franco to depict countless scenes of laughable violence and sordid sex, including lesbian trysts, rape, and female masturbation, with the director's wild zoom lens performing close-up gynaecological examinations whenever possible.Whilst all this inept in-your-face sleaze is admittedly fun for a while, eventually, like so many of Franco's efforts, monotony sets in; towards the end of the film, even Franco himself seems to tire of the tasteless torture and endless crotch shots, and in order to end the tedium, he shoehorns a surprise (and rather daft) revelation into proceedings (Maria never killed her father; it was the directoress who was responsible) and wraps things up with an extremely abrupt ending.Like this.

HumanoidOfFlesh "Barbed Wire Dolls" has to be one of the sleaziest Women in Prison epics ever created.This is Franco's first film for Swiss producer Erwin C.Dietrich and it offers tons of nudity and sleaze.A beautiful Maria(Lina Romay)is imprisoned in a penitentiary run by a cruel lesbian warden(Monica Swinn).She is accused of murdering her father(played by Jesus Franco himself)but the wardress actually did the deed.Once in prison,Maria is tortured by being tied nude to metal bed-frame which is hooked up to electrical current."Barbed Wire Dolls" is as sleazy as they get.The film features incredible amount of sleaze including whippings,masturbation with a cigarette,lesbian sex scenes,rape and a close up of one of the inmate's private parts being penetrated by a guard's fingers.The acting is actually not bad and the film is never boring.So if you're a fan of European exploitation give this dirty classic a look.9 out of 10.

Pierre-Alexandre Buisson Women in prison films are always kinda... ridiculous. And this one doesn't save the genre, or the day. A gorgeous brunette, miss Romay, Jess Franco's nice wife, plays the main character : a murderous whore who killed her lover because he was cheatin. Being an average actress, our dear Lina just keeps on getting nude to shine bright... And the story is the same as in all prison movies : get nude, get raped, get tortured, scream, spread those legs, be cute, scream once more, make love to your cell mate, kill, fight... This time around Jess Franco himself saves the day by breaking in the prison and kidnapping the young and innocent prisoner, who later kills him to get away with an obscure insurance agent and the money of a robbery (?!?). This is not a particulary good Franco film, but it sure is respectable fun for the whole family and you'll laugh to death as Lina Romay gets her electric treatment right... between the legs. So franco-esque.