Masterful Movie

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

JACKSON COUNTY JAIL is an acceptable thriller from producer Roger Corman; not particularly good, but at least remaining fast-paced and engaging enough to be worth a look for fans of 1970s-era grindhouse cinema. Yvette Mimieux (of THE TIME MACHINE fame) plays one of those movie characters who ends up thrown in the titular jail through no fault of her own, where she's subjected to one of the more unpleasant rape scenes of the era. Eventually she busts out with the help of youthful hoodlum Tommy Lee Jones, and the two escape cross-country, pursued by the corrupt cops. The rape scene aside, this is moderately entertaining, with Mimieux striving to invest her character with realism and Jones excelling in an early role. The gut-busting climax reminded me of DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY.

Still from time to time I watch the old cult classics of B king Roger Corman, and just viewed this romp called "Jackson County Jail" as it's clear they don't make movies like this one anymore! Still this picture like most Corman works doesn't take things serious yet it entertains in an old fashion way with blood, guns, sex, and fun! The story has advertising executive Dinah Hunter(Yvette Mimieux)who after a life in L.A. and upon finding that her husband has cheated on her with a young hot gal, decides to go cross country for a new life in New York. Along the way she gets off track and lost on the trail after being robbed by hitchhikers, and then she's stranded in a small southern town and thrown in a jailhouse that's very corrupt. These bad cops are sadistic and mean in the very sense of committing jailhouse rape! Her only hope is in the form of another prisoner Coley Blake(Tommy Lee Jones in a young and early role)soon the two embark on a wild car chase with the good old boys of corrupt southern justice! You name it fists, blood, car chases and plenty of tough fun action is found making this a good B list movie watch!

Fast, tough, and unsentimental. Sure, a potboiler like this is not going to win any awards, but it's got more sheer pluck and energy than twenty A-productions of the time. Pity poor Dinah Hunter (Mimieux). One minute she's a bigshot ad executive in Hollywood; the next, she's ducking cop bullets somewhere in fly-over country. It's a yuppie nightmare all the way for poor Dinah, a steady downhill once she tries a cross-country car ride. On the way she meets homicidal kids, a chiseling waitress, a righteous cop, and a prison guard from heck. No wonder she's on the run with cool dude Coley (Jones). How else can you deal with a cross section of Roger Corman's rural America. Next time she better take the plane like other bi-coastal types.Corman really hit pay dirt with hillbilly epics like Boxcar Bertha (1972), Big Bad Mama (1974), Crazy Mama (1975), and this one. One look at these and you'd think rural America is just as bloody and hormonally driven as big city America. But these epics are also in the great tradition of the American B-movie, those cheap productions that show guts, energy, and style. Sure, a flick like JCJ is also what some might call vulgar and exploitative, which it is. Still, there can be a lot of truth even in exaggerated crowd pleasers. Besides, these drive-in specials are generally entertaining as heck, just like this one.

I thought the film was good with fine acting coming from the stars : Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones. Jones is in his first major movie of his career and performed well. The jail house rape of Yvette is very graphic and I doubt if any other movie will show such a powerful scene unless you see "Two Women" again where the Italian Star is similarly abused.Perhaps the scenes showing Jones in a gun battle with the local police was not too realistic as it might have been but overall I believe the story rang fairly true to life and regret that it had to be placed in the area that presented the law as having such men who would take advantage of a good looking blond woman in distress. The truth is that such things do happen and if nothing else the movie reminds us all that while it is good to try to help strangers in need,it is not wise to pick up hitchhikers.