Fundamentally "Jackson County Jail" has all the makings of a crass exploitation picture but is, in fact, a hard-hitting pro-feminist expose of American mores. It also gives that fine and underrated actress Yvette Mimieux one of her best roles as a young businesswoman whose drive across America turns into a nightmare that begins when her car is hi-jacked and goes all the way downhill from there to rape and murder. Of course, whether the audiences of the day caught the film's underlying message or just enjoyed the blatant sex and violence is a different matter but it has certainly built up something of a cult reputation and is well worth seeing.

Still from time to time I watch the old cult classics of B king Roger Corman, and just viewed this romp called "Jackson County Jail" as it's clear they don't make movies like this one anymore! Still this picture like most Corman works doesn't take things serious yet it entertains in an old fashion way with blood, guns, sex, and fun! The story has advertising executive Dinah Hunter(Yvette Mimieux)who after a life in L.A. and upon finding that her husband has cheated on her with a young hot gal, decides to go cross country for a new life in New York. Along the way she gets off track and lost on the trail after being robbed by hitchhikers, and then she's stranded in a small southern town and thrown in a jailhouse that's very corrupt. These bad cops are sadistic and mean in the very sense of committing jailhouse rape! Her only hope is in the form of another prisoner Coley Blake(Tommy Lee Jones in a young and early role)soon the two embark on a wild car chase with the good old boys of corrupt southern justice! You name it fists, blood, car chases and plenty of tough fun action is found making this a good B list movie watch!

Fast paced, compelling chase thriller casts the lovely Yvette Mimieux as Dinah Hunter, who decides within the first few minutes of this story to head back to her old advertising job in NYC. She makes a couple of fateful decisions, however (starting with deciding to make the trip from LA to NYC by car), that land her in one unfortunate situation after another. Sadly, these circumstances are all too believable, and it's hard not to feel an immense amount of sympathy for her as she ultimately ends up a fugitive from justice, having killed a lecherous deputy after he forced himself on her in her jail cell. She's assisted by a natural born outlaw by the name of Coley Blake (Tommy Lee Jones); even while existing outside the usual legal boundaries, Coley is a man of some integrity and softly educates the somewhat naive Dinah on some of the cold, hard realities of their predicament. In fact, Coley is far more likable than the majority of the other characters; Jones, in his first substantial film role, displays a great deal of quiet charisma. And Mimieux remains feisty and likable throughout, as she's forced to deal with one rotten lowlife after another: a chauvinistic executive (Cliff Emmich), her unfaithful boyfriend David (Howard Hesseman), a sneaky waitress (Betty Thomas), a young pair of robbers (Robert Carradine and Nancy Lee Noble), a lecherous bar owner (Britt Leach), and, the real kicker, the rapist (Fredric Cook). The flavourful music score by Loren Newkirk is fine accompaniment for a straightforward story, written by Donald Stewart and directed with maximum efficiency by Michael Miller, who keeps the action flowing smoothly. Solid performances from a cast full of familiar faces helps, also featuring cuties Marcie Barkin and Patrice Rohmer (as the girl in the restaurant and Cassie Anne, respectively), the very amusing Severn Darden as the folksy sheriff, and the always welcome Mary Woronov as Pearl, one of Coley's associates. Look also for stuntman turned director Hal Needham as the Fallsburg police chief. The movie is exciting and involving all the way. What really makes it work is the interplay between the two leads, as highly unlikely outlaw Dinah gets to know Coley and care for him no matter how little time they actually spend together. The sequence where they have some down time before the climactic action kicks in is sweet and subtle, and is definitely the best. But trash lovers will still be reasonably satisfied with the level of female skin displayed and entertained with the standard unflattering depiction of the rural types / antagonists. The downbeat, violent ending is right in keeping with the ethos of the entire decade, with beautiful, melancholy music to follow it and play along with the end credits. Good fun overall; Miller remade it for TV two years later as 'Outside Chance' and it would be remade again as "Macon County Jail" in 1997. Eight out of 10.

Fast, tough, and unsentimental. Sure, a potboiler like this is not going to win any awards, but it's got more sheer pluck and energy than twenty A-productions of the time. Pity poor Dinah Hunter (Mimieux). One minute she's a bigshot ad executive in Hollywood; the next, she's ducking cop bullets somewhere in fly-over country. It's a yuppie nightmare all the way for poor Dinah, a steady downhill once she tries a cross-country car ride. On the way she meets homicidal kids, a chiseling waitress, a righteous cop, and a prison guard from heck. No wonder she's on the run with cool dude Coley (Jones). How else can you deal with a cross section of Roger Corman's rural America. Next time she better take the plane like other bi-coastal types.Corman really hit pay dirt with hillbilly epics like Boxcar Bertha (1972), Big Bad Mama (1974), Crazy Mama (1975), and this one. One look at these and you'd think rural America is just as bloody and hormonally driven as big city America. But these epics are also in the great tradition of the American B-movie, those cheap productions that show guts, energy, and style. Sure, a flick like JCJ is also what some might call vulgar and exploitative, which it is. Still, there can be a lot of truth even in exaggerated crowd pleasers. Besides, these drive-in specials are generally entertaining as heck, just like this one.