At first, Chano (Antonio Mayans) looked like nothing more than a quick
fuck for prostitute Marga (Lina Romay) - but before the night was over,
they've fallen in love. He returns to the brothel she works at night after
night, until soldiers come searching for him and Marga hides him - even if
that means she and Rosalba, another prostitute working at the same place,
are imprisoned for it. They are soon tortured and publicly humilated, and
before long, Rosalba is made the sextoy of the prison's gouverness while
Marga becomes the country's feared leader, the Colonel's plaything -
ironically, Chano, who turns out to be one of the Colonel's guards, has
arranged this ... even though he claims to still be madly in love with
Marga. Marga doesn't seem to mind having sex with the Colonel all that
much, while Rosalba despises her time with the gouverness, even if she
always treats her to cigarettes, perfume and the like. Eventually, Marga
even brings Rosalba along to see the Colonel and helps him rape her (?).
Then though, Chano provides both the girls a chance to escape ... even if
that means killing the gouverness (which Marga enjoys very much). Marga
and Rosalba have a hard time making it to the jungle though, while Chano
spills the beans where to pick them up to the Colonel. While on the run,
Marga and Rosalba are raped by a bunch of guys, something Rosalba doesn't
survive while Marga makes it out in the nude ... to at the appointed
meeting point find the Colonel with Chano and two other guards awaiting
her. But when Chano proceeds to handcuff her, he finally turns to shoot
both the Colonel and his guards dead ... One of Jess Franco's
lesser women-in-prison movies, basically because he doesn't seem to have
invested all that much imagination into this one: While Franco's best
movies of this ilk often contain interesting takes on master-slave
relationships or at least are imaginative in the perversions (basically
sado-masochism in all forms, humilation and voyeurism/exhibitionism), but
this one is very plain, is comparatively boring in its sex scenes and
positively dull in its S/M content. Plus Franco's predilection for
tongue-in-cheek humour is mostly absent here. And as for the way the whole
thing is filmed and edited: Sure, Franco's camera still wanders around
like nobody's business, but for a change, it doesn't make much sense,
doesn't add another layer to the movie. And as for the editing ... it at
times seems to positively abandon the narrative - and in key scenes, too. In
a word, pretty much a disappointment.
|