On of the best early 70s exploitation women in prison flicks. The production values are as high as the nudity quotient.It seems like every 3 seconds some hot chick is pulling her clothes off and getting tortured for no reason other than to entertain us.And then there's Pam Grier. She was quite the hottie in her day.Move over Lindsay Lohan....this movie shows the original Fire Crotch!The Plot.Carol Jeffries (known as 'Jeff') is a naive American woman staying in the Philippines. She is given ten years in prison after being set up by her drug-dealer boyfriend, Rudy. She endures the harsh conditions, sadistic head matron and attempts on her life, then convinces her cell-mates to try to escape with her through the jungle, in spite of the knowledge that ruthless trackers will be sent out after them.

Women in Cages (1971) *** (out of 4) An innocent woman named Jeff (Jennifer Gan) takes the wrap for her boyfriend's heroin and is sentenced to a dangerous prison ran by the sadistic Alabama (Pam Grier). Jeff keeps holding out hope of getting out with the help of her boyfriend but her cell mate (Roberta Collins) tells her there's only one way out and that's through an escape. WOMEN IN CAGES isn't Shakespeare and it won no Academy Awards but it at least delivers what the title promises. It's easy to see why this film was such a hit when it was released because it features just about every type of perverted situation that you'd want for a sleazy drive-in movie. In fact, just thinking about the days when something like this was getting released weekly makes you wish these type of things were still being produced and especially at this type of quality. In regards to women in prison movies, this one here is certainly among the better ones thanks in large part to the Philippine locations as well as the cast. Both Gan and Collins make for good partners and while their performances might leave a bit to be desired, it's doubtful anyone coming to a flick like this is wanting great performances. Both fit their roles just fine and their beautiful bodies are constantly on display. Grier is once again the main standout as she gets a shot at playing bad and she does a terrific job with it. It's too bad she wasn't given more roles like this because it seems like she's having a blast. The film offers up women in showers, women fighting, torture sequences, sex scenes and just about everything else that fans of the genre would want. Is this a classic, all time great film? No but it's a fun reminder of what made this genre so entertaining.

I'm a little disappointed with this film. The DVD cover led me to believe that this was BAAAAADDDDAAAASSSSSSS cinema, so I bought it on this pretence. It has Pam Grier in it so it has to be BBBBAAAAADDDDAASSSSS, right? WRONG. This film is just BBBBBAAAAADDDDD! Trying hard to be a 'roughie' and exploitation / escape film at the same time, Women in Cages is a hotch potch job, it's all over the place. I had trouble deciding which character I despised more. Sure, there's nudity and violence etc, but not much else to stay awake for!!! Exploitation, fair enough but this isn't even 'good' exploitation, if that makes sense. I likes mah explore-tation a tad mo sleaziuh and mo well done than this.......

Spoilers ahead? I'm going to have to say that `Women In Cages' is a downright ugly film with little redeeming value. In fact, I can't even imagine a Pam Grier fan liking it. The Queen of Blaxploitation is downright bad in this one, and I don't mean baaaad, as in `Coffy,' `Foxy Brown,' and `Scream Blacula Scream.' Her role as a one-dimensional lesbian sadist is just too much, and her death scene (being drowned in a river while raped by a gang of Asian thugs) is unbearable! Outside of that, Jennifer Gan, who plays Jeffries, is so bad you want to lock her in the hole for good and throw away the key! She stands around like the proverbial gentle giant, hovering above the cast like an Amazon, and looks absolutely pathetic (which the audience is supposed to decipher as innocence, dismissing the fact that her boyfriend is a drug-smuggler). Then, the director expects you to believe this whimpering idiot is capable of masterminding a prison break? Outside of a few TV appearances, Gan's acting career got the Electric Chair after this film (her only other flick is `Naked Angels'). and rightfully so! However, Roberta Collins (who played Matilda the Hun in `Death Race 2000') plays Stoke here and does an OK job, especially when juxtaposed against the rest of the cast, including Miss Del Monte Queen of the Philippines Sofia Moran (an actress once dubbed "The Sophia Loren' of the Philippines). Lastly, Judith Brown is especially bad as the back-stabbing junkie!The direction, lighting, and editing are horrible, the acting is three leagues under bad, and the plot, if you can call it that, centers around different ways to get the cast naked, including scenes involving a floating Asian whorehouse boat. It's not even worth a look if you like women-in-prison films, as the nude scenes are pretty drab and unpleasant looking. To its credit, it's only 78 minutes long though, so it's not like you're sitting through `Dances With Wolves' or `Gettysburg.'