Raffaello Matarazzo's colorful SHIP OF CONDEMNED WOMEN is an 18th century- set "penny dreadful" cross between a WIP (women-in-prison) flick and a swashbuckler with beautiful May Britt as an innocent girl convicted of murder and sentenced to a penal colony. She's thrown into a ship's cargo hold with a bunch of other female convicts (led by exotic belly dancer Kerima who's top-billed here for some reason) while topside are the real killer (a villainess worthy of Milady De Winter) and the young lawyer who defended and fell in love with May during her trial, stowing away just to be near her. Melodramtics of the highest order ensue, culminating in a "jail break" where the women use sex to make the sailors revolt against their corrupt captain. There's an "orgy" right out of Cecil B. DeMille (lewd dancing, passionate embraces, bare breasts, and women being carried off) just before a hurricane turns this over-the-top MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY into TITANIC. Don't miss it!
Review of The Ship of Damned Women
