Pam, Sid, and Anitra...............Now that's a 3-some!,
Added 11/9/2007
Toning things down a bit from Big Doll House, Hill returned to his old stomping grounds the following year to make The Big Bird Cage, essentially a spoof of the WIP genre. If you don't take it too seriously and can handle a few sudden 180-degree mood swings, it's one of the most entertaining and certainly best-made women's prison movies of the 1970's. Somewhere on a dictatorially reigned tropical island, American actress Terry (Anita Ford) is taken hostage by revolutionary Django (Sid Haig), when he pulls of a heist on a bar with his girlfriend Blossom (Pam Grier) and other fellow revolutionaries. While on the run from the police, Django leaves Terry back, who is mistaken for his female accomplice and brought to a jungle prison camp for women...
Anitra Ford is the token heroine, but Pam Grier makes an even stronger impression as a singing, machine-gun carrying revolutionary. Once again Pam rules with an iron-clad fist as soon as she arrives at the jungle prison, taking charge of the other prisoners (with a classic line of dialogue I can't repeat here) and engineering the inevitable prison break. Sid Haig is a fellow revolutionary this time around. He hits Pam with a real dead duck, and a mud fight ensues. Carol Speed (Abby) makes an appearance, the guards are all gay this time around (though again it's impossible to take offense at this broad, almost slapstick humor), and there are beautiful locations, some used later in Apocalypse Now. The cruel warden casually kicks a dog (off-screen) while ranting, "No fighting! No fornication! Work, work! Punishment, punishment!" For 1972, there's a surprising amount of full-frontal nudity (priceless dialogue: "My God! She's all covered with chicken fat!") An interesting tidbit is that the prison's sugar mill was designed by Hill's father, a man of considerable talent who also designed the Disneyland castle!
Pam Grier star quality is evident from the start, even if these admittedly sleazy productions never got the attention or respect of the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (Two-Disc Collector's Edition). Credit is due to Roger Corman for giving her a start in movies. Interestingly, in both movies, women rape men - a feminist statement or simply an additional exploitation gimmick? You decide. For the various prices, its are worthy additions to the "guilty pleasures" section of your video collection. As Jack Hill says in one of his commentaries, "PC is a bummer."
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Anitra Ford really only movie star performance
Added 1/31/2007
The only reason I bought this movie, because it had Anitra Ford in it. Pam Grier plays the role of Blossom, Anitra Ford plays the role of Terry and Sid Haig plays the role of Djanglo. Terry is invite to go to a small tavern in town where Blossom is singing. While their Blossom and here thugs try to rob the place. Terry is taken hostage by Djanglo and thrown in a getaway car. When the local police catch up with the car Djanglo jumps over the bridge leaving Terry to fend for herself. Despite her innocents, Terry is sentence to life on a Government work farm known as the Big Bird Cage. When Blossom tries to take at the local politicians. She is also sentence to the work farm. There Blossom, Terry and Djanglo who's undercover as a Warden Guard get together one more time. How does one escape from the work farm? If you do escape, do you make out alive? I first saw Anitra Ford on the Price is Right Game Show as a model with those gorgeous long legs. As far as I'm concern Anitra does an excellent showing for herself. If you like Anitra Ford then you like this picture.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Jack Hill, precursor to 80's action directors?
Added 3/31/2005
I'm not out and out familiar with the Women In Prison genre, nor am I all that familiar with the work of Jack Hill. I came to this flick by way of a growing interest in Transgressive/Exploitation cinema of the 60's and 70's.
That being said, The Big Bird Cage is a strange animal of a flick. The trailer for the film comes off as a mean, angry, sadistic prison exploitation movie, when in actuality it's more light-hearted than it lets on. The plot is fairly simple, a band of revolutionaries, lead by Pam Grier and Sid Haig, plan to raid a women's prison/work camp in the hopes of boosting the morale of their troops (by getting the men some ladies) as well as starting a revolution (e.g. the storming of the Bastille in the French Rev.)
What follows is fairly entertaining fare involving bumbling overweight homosexual guards, a angry, tall, blonde, Amazon-like woman greased in chicken fat, and one of the best performances from Sid Haig this side of House of a Thousand Corpses. Though firmly rooted in the exploitation genre, this film feels more like an 80's action film than standard 70's exploitation fare (Thriller: A Cruel Picture, 2000 Maniacs, Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS). I think it's because the film is more concerned with entertainment and crass humor than shock value and gore.
All in all the film feels like a long episode of the A-Team with a lot more nudity, mud wrestling, and female leads.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Solid Grier Action Movie
Added 1/13/2005
This movie is much better than I anticipated. Despite being a "women in prison" exploitation movie, this film has more to offer than just cheap voyeurism. The plot surrounds life inside a womens prison in the Philippines and culminates in a break out. Complexity is added by the role of Pam Grier and her revolutionary friends who are hoping to assist the break out for their own aims. Grier is good as ever and well supported here by an unusual cast that work well. The whole movie is somewhat tongue in cheek, but still works as an action movie. There are few dull moments as the movie has plenty of action maintaining a good tempo and you come away feeling satisfied. The quality of the DVD version I have seen is quite high and it looks fresh and good to look at. Whilst you cannot take it too seriously, this would be quite worthwhile owning.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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A big DUD --- avoid this one like the plague!
Added 7/23/2004
Women-in-prison films are supposed to be erotic! That means they're supposed to have AT LEAST ONE of the three following things (and preferably MORE than one):
1) An evil lesbian warden who enjoys the bodies of her pretty prisoner-playthings, turning at least one of them into her beautiful nude sex slave.
2) Evil lesbian guards who occasionally strip the girls naked before whipping/spanking them, and later take them into their own quarters for their private pleasures, especially late at night.
3) Tough, lesbian inmates, who prey on the younger, most beautiful newcomers, often in the shower, but also in their beds at night.
Well, this particular video HAS NONE OF THESE THINGS! There are NO LESBIANS in this prison! There are only gay male guards and a boring old man as the warden. The women are certainly pretty enough and their outfits revealing enough, but as a women-in-prison flick THIS ONE SUCKS!!! IT'S NOT EROTIC!!! NOT RECOMMENDED!!!
4 out of 14 people found this helpful.
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Pam, Sid, and Anitra...............Now that's a 3-some!,
Added 11/9/2007
Toning things down a bit from Big Doll House, Hill returned to his old stomping grounds the following year to make The Big Bird Cage, essentially a spoof of the WIP genre. If you don't take it too seriously and can handle a few sudden 180-degree mood swings, it's one of the most entertaining and certainly best-made women's prison movies of the 1970's. Somewhere on a dictatorially reigned tropical island, American actress Terry (Anita Ford) is taken hostage by revolutionary Django (Sid Haig), when he pulls of a heist on a bar with his girlfriend Blossom (Pam Grier) and other fellow revolutionaries. While on the run from the police, Django leaves Terry back, who is mistaken for his female accomplice and brought to a jungle prison camp for women...
Anitra Ford is the token heroine, but Pam Grier makes an even stronger impression as a singing, machine-gun carrying revolutionary. Once again Pam rules with an iron-clad fist as soon as she arrives at the jungle prison, taking charge of the other prisoners (with a classic line of dialogue I can't repeat here) and engineering the inevitable prison break. Sid Haig is a fellow revolutionary this time around. He hits Pam with a real dead duck, and a mud fight ensues. Carol Speed (Abby) makes an appearance, the guards are all gay this time around (though again it's impossible to take offense at this broad, almost slapstick humor), and there are beautiful locations, some used later in Apocalypse Now. The cruel warden casually kicks a dog (off-screen) while ranting, "No fighting! No fornication! Work, work! Punishment, punishment!" For 1972, there's a surprising amount of full-frontal nudity (priceless dialogue: "My God! She's all covered with chicken fat!") An interesting tidbit is that the prison's sugar mill was designed by Hill's father, a man of considerable talent who also designed the Disneyland castle!
Pam Grier star quality is evident from the start, even if these admittedly sleazy productions never got the attention or respect of the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (Two-Disc Collector's Edition). Credit is due to Roger Corman for giving her a start in movies. Interestingly, in both movies, women rape men - a feminist statement or simply an additional exploitation gimmick? You decide. For the various prices, its are worthy additions to the "guilty pleasures" section of your video collection. As Jack Hill says in one of his commentaries, "PC is a bummer."
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Anitra Ford really only movie star performance
Added 1/31/2007
The only reason I bought this movie, because it had Anitra Ford in it. Pam Grier plays the role of Blossom, Anitra Ford plays the role of Terry and Sid Haig plays the role of Djanglo. Terry is invite to go to a small tavern in town where Blossom is singing. While their Blossom and here thugs try to rob the place. Terry is taken hostage by Djanglo and thrown in a getaway car. When the local police catch up with the car Djanglo jumps over the bridge leaving Terry to fend for herself. Despite her innocents, Terry is sentence to life on a Government work farm known as the Big Bird Cage. When Blossom tries to take at the local politicians. She is also sentence to the work farm. There Blossom, Terry and Djanglo who's undercover as a Warden Guard get together one more time. How does one escape from the work farm? If you do escape, do you make out alive? I first saw Anitra Ford on the Price is Right Game Show as a model with those gorgeous long legs. As far as I'm concern Anitra does an excellent showing for herself. If you like Anitra Ford then you like this picture.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Jack Hill, precursor to 80's action directors?
Added 3/31/2005
I'm not out and out familiar with the Women In Prison genre, nor am I all that familiar with the work of Jack Hill. I came to this flick by way of a growing interest in Transgressive/Exploitation cinema of the 60's and 70's.
That being said, The Big Bird Cage is a strange animal of a flick. The trailer for the film comes off as a mean, angry, sadistic prison exploitation movie, when in actuality it's more light-hearted than it lets on. The plot is fairly simple, a band of revolutionaries, lead by Pam Grier and Sid Haig, plan to raid a women's prison/work camp in the hopes of boosting the morale of their troops (by getting the men some ladies) as well as starting a revolution (e.g. the storming of the Bastille in the French Rev.)
What follows is fairly entertaining fare involving bumbling overweight homosexual guards, a angry, tall, blonde, Amazon-like woman greased in chicken fat, and one of the best performances from Sid Haig this side of House of a Thousand Corpses. Though firmly rooted in the exploitation genre, this film feels more like an 80's action film than standard 70's exploitation fare (Thriller: A Cruel Picture, 2000 Maniacs, Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS). I think it's because the film is more concerned with entertainment and crass humor than shock value and gore.
All in all the film feels like a long episode of the A-Team with a lot more nudity, mud wrestling, and female leads.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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