That was an excellent one.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Although there have been a few prison-set comedies, such as the British "Porridge" (based upon a popular TV series), most films about men in prison have been made with a serious purpose ("Cool Hand Luke", "Brubaker", "The Shawshank Redemption", etc.). At one time this was also true of the smaller number of films about women in prison; the American "Caged" and the British "Yield to the Night" are well-known examples from the fifties. The late sixties, however, saw the birth of a new genre, the women in prison exploitation film. Jesús Franco's "99 Women" is an early example of the type. Films like this were made as entertainment catering for male sexual fantasies rather as serious drama about crime and punishment, but in their early days they were not explicitly pornographic. Even in the swinging sixties there was a limit to what the censors would permit. (A film on this subject made ten, or perhaps even only five, years after this one would doubtless have been considerably more sexually explicit). We know that "99 Women" will turn out to be an exploitation film as soon as we see that the inmates of this particular jail- all 99 of them- are young and attractive and that the prison uniform consists of little more than a very short mini-dress. The actual plot storyline does not matter too much- it includes the punishment and humiliation of the women by a cruel female warder, the attempts of a relatively liberal new governor to reform conditions and a jail break- but the film features several recurrent clichés of the women in prison genre. These include cat-fights between prisoners and physical abuse of the prisoners by sadistic guards. There are, however, no real sex scenes and no full nudity. Those mini-dresses may get ripped, but the girls' underwear always stays intact. Any lesbianism remains implied rather than explicit. "99 Women" was a box-office success when it first appeared in 1969, but by the standards of anyone other than the titillation-hungry young men of the late sixties it is a very poor film indeed, with a hackneyed plot, a villainously written script and generally low standards of acting. The film was originally shot in French and dubbed into English, but in the version I saw the dubbing had for some reason been omitted from several scenes, which remained in the original language without subtitles. In most of Franco's films the cast is made up of long- forgotten porn stars, but this one features several well-known names, not only the former Bond Girl Luciana Paluzzi but also actors as distinguished as Herbert Lom and the one-time Oscar-winning Mercedes McCambridge, neither of whom can be said to have enhanced their reputation by appearing in it. The film is today of no more than historic interest except perhaps to those who subscribe to the idea that Franco was some great "cult director". To my way of thinking he had more talent for arousing controversy than he did for actually making films and the only "cult" that grew up around him consisted solely of those attracted to his brand of soft-core erotica. 3/10

Anyone at all familiar with the work of director Jess Franco knows that choosing a rental from his gigantic oeuvre of 190+ films (!) is a crapshoot at best. "99 Women," from 1969, is fairly typical Franco: cheaply made, often sleazy, and featuring an overdependence on the ol' zoom lens. This early WIP (women in prison) flick transpires at an unnamed island locale, although the press kit for the film states that it takes place off the coast of Panama. Here, the 99 female inmates of the title are sadistically looked after by a superintendent played by Mercedes McCambridge, in heavily accented monster mode; on the other side of the island, Herbert Lom (born Schluderpacheru...love that name!) wards over the 500 male prisoners, using Mercedes' girls as his own private brothel. The film boasts a very impressive cast, including Luciana Paluzzi, Rosalba Neri and Maria Rohm--three of the hottest Eurobabes of the time--as prisoners, and Maria Schell as a kindly prison investigator. Unfortunately, the great Paluzzi is shockingly underused in this film, her role limited to a mere seven words of dialogue and barely 10 minutes of screen time. Worse, a seemingly obligatory soft-core lesbian scene between Rosalba and Rohm is somehow made quite dull by Franco; don't know how he managed that with two such smoking beauties! On the plus side, "99 Women" features some fairly decent acting (especially by the old pros McCambridge and Lom), scenic outdoor locales (on one of this Blue Underground DVD's copious extras, Franco reveals that the film was largely shot at an ancient fortress in Alicante, Spain, on the Mediterranean coast), and a nicely downbeat ending. The movie, apparently, was quite a hit in its day, and with its many exploitative elements--nudity, lesbianism, prison escape, prison riot, whippings, drug and prostitution references--it is easy to see why. Today, the film strikes the viewer as entertaining shlock, but at least it IS entertaining, and certainly worth a slack-jawed look....

Ah, women-in-prison and Jesus Franco. What can we expect.It really depends on the version you watch, as there are versions from 70 minutes (UK) to 99 minutes (Argentina). The US and Sweden have 86 minute versions, although Sweden banned even that. This is a 90 minute unrated version.One does not expect to find a double Golden Globe and Oscar winner in a Jesus Franco film, but here she is - Mercedes McCambridge (All the King's Men - 1949) as the prison superintendent.Also Maria Schell, who has 2 BAFTA Film Award nominations and another 14 awards, as an inspector from the Ministry. She did get prisoner 99 (Maria Rohm) out of solitary on her first day.More expected is Herbert Lom as the Governor, the only surviving member of The Ladykillers (1955), and a Razzie nominee for King Solomon's Mines.It appears Franco was going for quality as it is more than a half hour in before we see a breast, and some girl-on-girl action. Even that was shot with a lot of Vaseline on the camera. Don't the women in this prison take showers? Marie (99), Zoe (Rosalba Neri), and Rosalie (Valentina Godoy) attempt to cross 30 miles of snake-infested jungle and swamp at night to escape. yeah, right. They find a lily-covered pond that looks the same as the one in Virgin among the Living Dead.Of course, it isn't the snakes on the ground they have to worry about, but the snakes attached to the dozen male prisoners that saw them and are running after them. One doesn't make it.A good drama with some famous actors, but disappointing as a WIP exploitations.

99 Women (1969) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Director's Cut One of the first WIP (Women in Prison) films deals with an innocent girl (Maria Rohm) being sent to prison where she has run ins with the wicked warden (Mercedes McCambridge) as well as a woman (Maria Schell) out to make the prison a better place. This was directed by Jess Franco who was still in his serious film-making days where he was actually producing higher budgeted, better looking films. The movie is decent enough but I prefer Franco's later, more sleazier efforts like Barbed Wire Dolls, Women in Cellblock 9 and Sadomania.