JAILBIRDS

US, 1991, 94 minutes, Colour.
Dyan Cannon, Phyllicia Rashad.
Directed by Burt Brinckerhoff.

Jailbirds is a pleasant telemovie: it is a variation on the classic The Defiant Ones, with black and white convicts handcuffed to each other. However, this is given a comic and a lightly feminist tone in the early '90s with Felicia Rashad (from The Cosby Show) as an upmarket sales representative stranded in the South and put into jail along with Dyan Cannon as a local troublemaker. There are the usual racist bully boys and good old boys who attack the women, who are covering up for drug dealing and murder.

It is all done with the light touch, generally predictable, relying on the strength of the two actresses and their interaction to keep audiences interested and entertained.

1. Entertaining comedy? Drama? The background of The Defiant Ones, the black and white convicts together, their antagonism, bonding? Helping each other?

2. The Californian settings, the open road and highway, the southern towns, the rivers and marshes? The contrast between the two worlds? The musical score?

3. The title, expectations? Justice and injustice? The criminals - alleged? The law enforcers? Criminals?

4. The race themes, black and white? The South? Feminist themes? The victimising of the two women? The stance that they take, self assertion?

5. Janice, her competence, work for the firm? Meetings? Travelling the roads? The accident? The town, friendship and hostility? The car dealer? The desperation, buying the car, being arrested for a stolen car? Her encounters with Rosie in the cafe? In jail? The clashes with Rosie and Rosie's reaction to her snobbiness? Her trying to send messages to Larry? Their not getting through? The sheriff and his antagonism? Baxter and his investigations? The other police? The jailbreak, handcuffs? Her ignorance of the locations, her fears? With Rosie, clashing? The encounter with Beetle and his brutal attack? Rosie urging her on to pretend so that they could get away? The success? Her growing admiration for Rosie? The visit to her family, the hostility of the father? Rosie's skill in designing dresses? The change of clothes for Janice? The separation, the pursuits? Her wanting to help Rosie? Speeding towards the state border? The encounter with the two black men, leading them on? Their comeuppance? The happy ending, the resolution of the murder - after the confrontation with the sheriff and his violence? Going to New York - and inviting Rosie to come along?

6. Rosie, in the town, work? Jimmy Lee and his two-timing her? Loretta? Her anger? The murders? Her being put in jail, her reactions? Not liking Janice, her rough and ready ways? Clash with the sheriff? Baxter? The escape, knowing the terrain, avoiding the dogs? Beetle and playing up to him and getting away? Her family, her father's hostility? The support of her mother? Her skill with dressmaking and design? On the road again, speeding in the car for the state border? The separation? Each trying to help the other in the town, especially with the arrival of the sheriff? The confrontation and working out who did the killing? The happy ending - and her decision to go to New York to be a designer?

7. The sheriff, redneck racist? His putting down his men? Clashes with Baxter? The arrest of Janice? Treatment? Arresting Rosie, despising her? The pursuit, the investigation? The irony of the truth about the car, the dead body? His drug dealing? The violence - and his being outwitted by the women? Baxter and his ingenuous style, yet his ingenuity? Working out what happened?

8. Beetle, the brutal redneck, sexual advances? The women turning the tables on him?

9. Larry, affluent, his relationship - and missing out on Janice's messages?

10. The black boys, Janice's style in leading them on, sexual attitudes, their being outwitted?

11. Popular ingredients for an entertaining comedy escapade - with serious American undertones?