The Big Doll House (DVD)

...be surprised to learn that the actresses most known work stems from the 1970's. Here is the actresses' second movie a women's prison exploitation movie from 1971.

The arrival of Collier (Judith M. Brown) in a prison causes a stir amongst her cell mates. First convinced that she is a "fink" (a spy)her fellow prisoners set about first torturing her then fighting over her as a potential lesbian love interest. The two leading ...
...(Pat Woodall), initially falling under the control of Bodine, Collier becomes a frequent cause of disillusion.

The prison camp is ruled over by prison warder Lucien (Kathryn Loder) , who seems to be working for a higher power. Sporadically picking on troublesome inmates and torturing them at her leisure in the most sadistic of manners. Unwilling to tolerate this treatment any further the group of inmates decide to make an elaborate ... more

While some only became aware of Pam Grier when she starred in Quentin Tarentino's Jackie Brown you may be surprised to learn that the actresses most known work stems from the 1970's. Here is the actresses' second movie a women's prison exploitation movie from 1971.

The arrival of Collier (Judith M. Brown) in a prison causes a stir amongst her cell mates. First convinced that she is a "fink" (a spy)her fellow prisoners set about first torturing her then fighting over her as a potential lesbian love interest. The two leading the battle over Collier are Grear (Pam Grier) and Bodine (Pat Woodall), initially falling under the control of Bodine, Collier becomes a frequent cause of disillusion.

The prison camp is ruled over by prison warder Lucien (Kathryn Loder) , who seems to be working for a higher power. Sporadically picking on troublesome inmates and torturing them at her leisure in the most sadistic of manners. Unwilling to tolerate this treatment any further the group of inmates decide to make an elaborate escape.

The Big Doll House is a titillating romp that while firmly in the boundaries of exploitation is not perhaps as sexually provocative as many others. Yes there is a lot of sexual tension in the air, and a lot of teasing; it's actually incredibly tame by today's standards. The movie is not dissimilar in fact to the St. Trinians movie from the 1970's, it is that sort, it's that sort of muted eroticism, it's more a case of words being louder than the actions, but the actions being described pretty well.

There is little nudity to the movie despite similar offerings of the time, yet somehow this movie was considerably more successful. And let's be honest at the time as boundaries of acceptability in the movie world were being widened viewers wanted to see more and more pushing the limits as far as they go. The odd nipple shot is quickly panned off before you really have chance to realise what you saw. And that is as far as it goes, lots of scenes of both male and female cast bouncing around in their underwear. I should point out a rather funny fight between Alcott (Roberta Collins) and Grear in which the two frolic around in skimpy prison uniform in the mud apparently fighting over Collier.

The thing about Big Doll House is there is actually a storyline, a competent one too; but I'm not promising Oscar winning stuff here. Big Doll House is very much Grindhouse/Drive-In movie style entertainment, made on an ultra-cheap budget and designed for the 70's teen audience.

There is a rather nice surprise for Rob Zombie fans in that Sid Haig, who plays Captain Spaulding in House Of 1000 Corpses, and Devils Rejects gets a nice tasty role as a trader prepared to do anything to get a decent buck. Determined to get "R.A.P.E. - ZAPP" in the prison, and he is not offering himself as the perpetrater but the victim, he is rather amusingly disturbed when the receiver of the "Zapp" transpires to be his rookie helper on his second day of work. Just in case the rape/zapp thing confuses our dodgy trader claims that the letters R.A.P.E. spell Zapp, not funny in writing I know but amusing enough when put into context with the film.

The acting is pretty near awful, Pam Grier obviously needs acting lessons and a scene in which she is attacked is by far the biggest delayed reaction I have ever seen in the movie. To some extent though the bad acting almost seems deliberate, although I will say that Judith M. Brown performs head and shoulders above the others. No wonder in that case that Brown is one of the few that still actively works providing acting classes on some of recent years biggest blockbusters including Poseidon, Running With Scissors, and A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Sadly the image despite extensive restoration on all DVD's sold across the world is fairly rough, lots of grain and a few flaws here and there but to be honest it somehow adds to the charm of the piece, showing its age almost like a flag, for all I know the movie could have looked this way all the way back in 1971.

You might recognise the movies song "Long Time Women" written by Hall Davis, as it seems to be used in pretty much any homage to movies of this genre, despite not getting a release of its own as a solo product. The music and particularly this song frames the movie very well, and helps to put a little more character to the offering.

The Big Doll House is not a movie that will appeal to a great number of people, but if you have a passion for the 1970's or watching things that politically the government might not want you too then this is one to put on top of your list. It's a cheesy, funny movie that allows your mind to wander and your body to be transported back to a time when things were so much simpler.

I watched The Big Doll House through a projector, and I must say it really suits the movie well; it's great to see a movie like this as a great big image, even though this is a panned and scanned print it still looks incredibly good and is obviously the way the movie is meant to be seen.

The Big Doll House comes with a trailer promoting the movie and is available on the Prism label with the likes of Amazon and Play offering it for a little over £3.

Spencer Hawken 03/08 

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