Frauengefängnis (1975) aka Barbed Wire Dolls - Jess Franco(1).avi

Maria (Lina Romay) is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her sexually abusive father (Jess Franco). Upon her arrival at the prison, she meets the cold-blooded, sadistic wardress (Monica Swinn) and the spineless and equally sadistic Dr. Costa (Paul Müller). Together the two systematically torture and abuse the inmates, including Maria, who organizes a plan to rebel and escape...
Barbed Wire Dolls is one of Jess Franco's more infamous films. Produced by Swiss exploitation mogul Erwin C. Dietrich, the thinly plotted potboiler allows Franco to wallow in sadism, nudity and sleaze to an almost pathological degree, thus creating an atmosphere of Sadean cruelty. The end result may seem like a pointless exercise in exploitation, but Franco's treatment of the material transforms it into a dark meditation on the evil side of human nature. Though not the best of Franco's many forays into the "women in prison" or WIP genre (that would have to be the Harry Alan Towers-produced 99 Women, with a name cast that includes Herbert Lom and Maria Schell) it is perhaps the most direct in delivering up-front titilation and sadistic thrills. The camera lingers lovingly on the beautiful bodies of the various participants, notably Lina Romay and Martine Stedil, but the darker elements prevent the film from being a mere sex fest, it's difficult to imagine viewers becoming overly, um, stimulated by so dark and downbeat a film.
Key to the film's success is the expert performance of Paul Müller (Lady Frankenstein, Eugenie de Sade) as the pathetic Dr. Costa, a recurring name — if not identical character — in other Franco films. (Howard Vernon plays a more gleefully sadistic incarnation in Women in Cellblock 9.) Müller portrays Costa as a closet masochist under the control of the sadistic wardress (a wonderful caricature from Monica Swinn, made up to look far less fetching than she really is), who yearns for freedom and is unwilling to admit his own baser instincts. He falls in love with Romay's character, a move that proves fatal for him in a film where love, in any form, is either forbidden or deadly. As noted by producer Dietrich, the film is sloppy on the technical front — so much so that he considered shelving it without giving it any release; he fortunately reconsidered and made a big profit from it, leading to a 14 more collaborations with Jess Franco. What Franco goes for here is a sense of reality that ignores pretty photography and technical finesse — this gives the film something of a home movie feel, which adds to the disturbing quality. Though somewhat at odds with the campy tone of the wardress and some of the action, this stylistic decision gives the film a nervous energy that keeps it moving at a nice pace. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is an expert and surprisingly intelligent slice of exploitation from a man whose erotic cinema is less concerned with carnal stimulation than capturing and evoking a sense of sadness and futility.