- Title: Big Doll House
- IMDb: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to 1971’s Big Doll House. Produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, the film kicked-off a jungle subset of the women-in-prison genre starring Judith Brown, Roberta Collins, Pam Grier, Brooke Mills, Pat Woodell, and Gina Stuart as inmates in a prison of an unnamed tropical country run by an evil warden (Christiane Schmidtmer) and overseen by the Nazi-like torturer Lucien (Kathryn Loder). Collins, Grier, and Brown would all return for the similarly themed Women in Cages released the same year.
Pushing the boundaries of what was allowed in the loosened ratings of the time, the independent film follows the basic format of the exploitation genre putting the women in various compromising positions guaranteed to get their clothes off such as strip searches, group shower scenes, catfights (one even in mud), lesbian and bondage scenes, and torture. We also get a revolution and escape plot, which would become part of the sub-genre, culminating in the group’s attempt to escape the prison during the movie’s climax. Although not the main character, the film is notable for launching Grier’s career in this genre and blaxploitation films.
Director Jack Hill knew exactly what kind of film he was making as Big Doll House revels in its exploitation roots as we watch the one-note characters abuse each other and be abused by the system through a series of scenes which eventually lead to the escape attempt. However, Hill is careful to keep a lighthearted, even campy, mood throughout the film preventing the audience from taking its rather grotesque nature too seriously. Big Doll House is a romp aimed straight at its target audience (and you know who you are). The film has been released multiple times on home video and included in a Women in Cages collection along with Women in Cages and The Big Bird Cage. It’s also currently available on several streaming platforms.
