Women in Cages (1971)

Director:

Gerardo de Leon

Writers:

James H. Watkins (story) and
David Osterhout (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 November 1973 (West Germany)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

White skin on the black market!

Plot:

American women prisoners in a foreign country. Sex and action.

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Jungle | Sex | Brutality | Strip Search

Cast

Judith Brown	...	Sandy (as Judy Brown)
Roberta Collins	...	Stoke
Jennifer Gan	...	Jeff
Pam Grier	...	Alabama
Bernard Bonnin	...	Acosta (as Bernard Bodine)
Charlie Davao	...	Rudy (as Charles Davis)
Johnny Long
Holly Anders
Dwight Howard
Roberta Swift
Paul Sawyer
Jeffrey Taylor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nick Cayari	...	Lorca (uncredited)
Andres Centenera	...	Dignitary (uncredited)
Marissa Delgado	...	Juana (uncredited)
Paquito Diaz	...	Jorge (uncredited)
Sofia Moran	...	Theresa (uncredited)

Directed by
Gerardo de Leon		(as Gerry de Leon)

Writing credits
James H. Watkins		(story) and
David Osterhout		(story) (as David R. Osterhout)
James H. Watkins		(screenplay) and
David Osterhout		(screenplay) (as David R. Osterhout)

Produced by
Ben Balatbat	....	producer
Roger Corman	....	producer (uncredited)
Cirio H. Santiago	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Felipe Sacdalan		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Ben Barcelon

Art Direction by
Ben Otico

Makeup Department
Tony Artieda	....	makeup artist
Rey Salamat	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Aurelio R. Navarro	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ruben Rustia	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Willie Arce	....	sound recordist
Demetrio de Santos	....	sound engineer
Tony Gosalvez	....	sound effects

Special Effects by
Santos Hilario	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Johnny Araojo	....	camera operator (as Johnny Araujo)
Edmundo Bautista	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Felisa Salcedo	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Tito Arevalo	....	musical director

Production Companies

• Balatbat Productions
• New World Pictures

Distributors

• New World Pictures (1971) (USA) (theatrical)
• International Film Distributors (1971) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Charter Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• New Concorde Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• New Concorde Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• New Horizons Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• RBC Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Shout! Factory (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Shout! Factory (2011) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2010) (Australia) (video) (VOD)

Also Known As:

"Bamboo Doll House" - USA (poster title)

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA | Philippines

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA | USA:R | UK:18 (video rating, heavily cut) | UK:R (original rating) | New Zealand:R16 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Philippines

Company:

Balatbat Productions

Trivia:

The character Alabama in True Romance (1993) was named after Pam Grier's character in this film. In the original script, Clarence even mentions that the name sounds like a Pam Grier Character.

Quotes:

Alabama:No one escapes from my prison, no one!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

Early Pam Grier jungle sleazefest

American B-film companies found in the Philippines a cheap, plentiful supply of labour and locations for their tropical drive-in sleazefests. Admittedly these exploitation films are an acquired taste and a dubious form of entertainment; however they mark an important cultural milestone as the first features where a black actress, even playing a prison moll or topless revolutionary, is given a lead role of any substance. Director Jack Hill started the eightball rolling when he shot The Big Doll House in 1971, set in a nameless Latin American prison but filmed in the Filipino jungle. Unseen in Australia since the early 70s, the film featured a mixed cast of local and American exploitation regulars, but it's remembered as the first high-profile role for the later Queen of Blaxploitation, Pam Grier.

Legend has it that Sam Arkoff, head of American International Pictures saw a statuesque Grier at his company switchboard and cast her on the spot for her breakthrough hit Coffy. That, as they say, is bull shee-it. The former beauty queen made her film debut in 1970 as an extra in Russ Meyer's big breast bonanza Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, and appeared in a number of B-pics shot in the Philippines the following year for AiP's rival company, Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Alongside her role as the tough-as-nails prostitute in Big Doll House were supports in the horror flick The Twilight People and as a topless hooker (again!) in Cool Breeze, then back behind bars for Women In Cages.

In Women In Cages, Grier plays the sadistic warden for once, a pot-smoking lesbian with a fully-equipped torture chamber (including a guillotine!). The 'New Fish' (a recent inmate, for you prison film novices), a ditzy blonde ex-stripper called Alabama, has taken the heroin possession rap for her pimp boyfriend. She knows too much, so the pimp blackmails her cellmates to execute her. A competent and well-shot entry in the tropical prison genre from Filipino director Gerry De Leon, it places the embittered ex-addict and prostitute Grier in the position of slave owner, watching her white charges toiling away in the plantation with obvious ironic glee.