BIG DOLLHOUSE

US, 1971, 95 minutes, Colour.
Judy Brown, Pam Grier, Sid Haig.
Directed by Jack Hill.

Big Dollhouse is an exploitation film of 1971, a period which is often referred to as Grindhouse, and given homage by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino in the double bill movie of that name.

In comparison, this film is quite restrained. Filmed in the Philippines and manipulating its storyline to fit into that country, it is a story about a women’s prison where, in fact, all the prisoners are white Americans, the guards being Filipinas, and the warden a butch Germanic type. There is a rather meek and mild doctor on the staff. The other two main characters are, again, white Americans who deliver fruit and vegetables to the prison and have sexual exploitation in mind.

Acting talent was not particularly required from any of those in the film. The main style of performance is posing and posturing, especially with the group of women in a cell as well as in the shower block. The women are introduced when a newcomer, accused of murder, is brought into the prison, determined to escape.

Some of the women are sullen, magazine-photo pouting looks. Another is drugged-out and all of them look as if they are models for men’s magazines. There is a lot of tough talk and clashes with the warden.

The doctor is fairly ineffectual, but the two men with the vegetables and supplies for the women in their cells have intentions which are less-than-noble-sexual.

However, before anything too salacious can take place, some of the women take the warden as a hostage, bring along the doctor, use the men and their truck for an escape. The warden, trussed in the back of the truck, pulls a gun on one of the women – but it is empty and she herself becomes the victim. Just as we are wondering what could possibly happen, a group of rebel soldiers appear on a hill and there is a shootout between the women and the soldiers, the soldiers retreating while some of the women are killed. One of them, more demure than the others, has written a letter to her lover in exile and committed it to the central character who rushes on to a very ordinary road and is picked up by a truck passing by – which is to take her back to prison.

Of historical interest, Pam Grier appears as one of the prisoners and actually sings the song over the initial credits. The director, Jack Hill, was a writer-director of exploitation films and was to go on to make Coffy and Foxy Brown with Pam Grier.