Customer Reviews

Sadomania

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK, briefly, women's prison movie, two guys show up, they help the girls escape, kill warden, the end. Franco, so that means a lot of silly camera effects, but no red and green lights this time. I think that about covers it.

The most interesting thing about this particular version is that everyone is topless, all the prisoners, most of the guards and even the (female) warden, all the time. Aside from lingerie, they don't even appear to own tops! There's a lot of R sex and nudity, and that's about it, practically no torture or whipping (which, considering Franco's lack of skill in filming such scenes is probably a blessing). There's also a lot that makes no sense, like, what exactly is the topless chain gang trying to accomplish hacking at the soil most of the way through the picture? And why, after all their breasts get dirty from working all day, is there no shower scene? There should be ten shower scenes in this thing, it looked pretty hot and sweaty to me, wherever it was filmed. Of course, the main purpose of shower scenes is to display some nudity, and there's no need for an excuse here, this looks like a nudie parody of a women's prison film.

Well, never mind, picking at a Franco film is a pretty empty exercise, but there's really not much here for fans of sex sleaze, despite the screaming DVD box descriptions, as usual. There's one minor pinning the medal on the prisoner (no shirt and no medal), but it pales next to the "Wicked Warden" pin scene. But all those swinging and bouncing boobs . . . we'll have to give it two stars for the NTRL factor alone (nudity to total running length), which is about 98%, a record.

This film caught my interest when I watched the trailer on Blue Underground's Web site. But, alas, as so often happens, the trailer was better than the movie. "Sadomania" is overly long for what it is and much of it tends to drag. There are several eye-rolling moments to nudge you out of your stupor, however: A woman getting attacked by an obviously plastic alligator; prison uniforms of Daisy Dukes and boots--and nothing else; a governor's bushy fake mustache; toy guns, one of which even drips water when fired; and director Jess Franco in a small role as a swishy gay pimp. There are attempts to augment the movie's lack of sadism by offering plenty of sleaze, like the governor's wife (imagine a young Terri Garr in "The Ivana Trump Story") having sex with the prisoners to arouse her husband, then promptly selling them into white slavery (and after she tearfully told her husband she wants to have his baby!). But between the laughable dialog (the guards actually say, "Halt! Who goes there?") and sloppy production values, such trashy plot twists just add to "Sadomania"'s silliness.

The prison's warden is played by transexual actress Ajita Wilson, who, aside from its laughable campy moments, may be the only other reason to see "Sadomania". Wilson's an exotic beauty and definitely dominates the scenes she's in, but Ilsa she's not. In an interview included on this DVD Franco says Wilson wasn't comfortable with her character's brutality and you can tell. Given her career in hard- and soft-core porn, it's not surprising she seems more at home in her sexier moments, like seducing a prisoner's skinny husband.

Franco can't be entirely dismissed as a talentless hack, yet he makes so many decisions that make him appear so. Fans of his other movies may wonder what--and if--he was thinking with "Sadomania." The DVD's extras--an interview with Franco, Spanish and English trailers, a bio of the late Ajita Wilson--almost make it worth three stars. Too bad "Sadomania"'s three-star extras can't make up for the two-star movie.

It is all here--All the sleaze and bad taste that we all avoid or are ashamed off. In Jess Franco's interview, he states that Sadomania was an influence of the adult comic books he has read in Italy. And yes, Sadomania is like a strange perverted comic book. The film contains perverted scenes such as bestiality--a naked woman being tied down to a chair and being raped by a German shepherd. It is a very bizarre scene.

Franco's Sadomania is a women in prison exploitation with mainly topless blonde bombshells wearing only "Daisy Duke" pants. There is lesbianism, sadistic torture, bad dubbing, the director of the film playing a gay pimp, etc.

If it wasn't for Quentin Tarantino's appreciation and non-discrimination viewpoint to all of cinema, I would have probably ignored this. But with an open mind, I can say that Jess Franco is an artist because he made a film that he wanted to make. He is an artist of sleaze. If you are in the mood for sleaze or for some bad taste, I recommend this Jess Franco masterpiece.

This movie comes with a lot of hype but very little substance. We start with a newlywed couple who drive onto private property. The man is let go, but the woman is thrown in a women's prison. A prison where guards and prisoners all go topless. A tyrannical and sadistic warden watches over all.

But the warden and the prison seem to be around solely for the benefit of the Governor and his wife as they take advantage of the availability of the female captives.

Throw in a little slavery, prostitution, and the return of the new husband bent on rescuing his bride and you pretty much have the whole film.

Nudity, depraved sex, and violence are in almost every single scene. But there is little or no feeling of connection in the movie. The warden's wife is trying to have his baby but some of the methods are suspect. The warden becomes a simpering ditz in the end. Too many of the characters look alike and cause confusion.

This is a good movie if you want to look at topless women, but if you want story or any real drama, this is one to avoid.

"We Goofed on SADOMANIA! Several "day-for-night" scenes were inadvertently transferred for day instead of night or dusk. So, we re-graded the video, re-encoded the DVD master and replicated new SADOMANIA Version 2 DVDs. The SADOMANIA DVD you own is not defective. We just decided to upgrade the DVD for the purists among you. Do not return your SADOMANIA DVD to retailers. SADOMANIA Version 2 is only available directly from Blue Underground."

If you are a US or Canadian resident and wish a SADOMANIA Version 2 replacement, please mail your SADOMANIA DVD along with your name and address to:

SADOMANIA UPGRADE
11271 Ventura Boulevard #500
Studio City, CA 91604

I have tried to own every old '70's Euro-sexplotation flick worth watching...so when I bought this film recently I had very high expectations. I ended up giving it three stars because it hits the mark in some important areas, but misses the chance to be an excellent five star sex flick with others. Is there naked women being abused in this film? Yes. Are the abuse scenes "erotic enough" to excite the common "freaky" viewers out there? Somewhat.

For example, in one sequence where a young, hot looking naked prisoner girl was caged and subsequently "whipped" by the transsexual wardon...the whipping of her breasts was done so gently and ridiculously fake...it was a phony turn off!

However, in another sexual scene where a young prisoner girl was sold into sexual slavery to a rough looking guy on a fishing boat...his subsequent rape of that girl was a "very hot" sex scene and worth all three stars, in my rating of this film! So you see folks...if you are looking for constant stimulation while watching this old sex classic...you have to look elsewhere, such as the film "The Image".

I know there are couples out there just dying to get their hands on these old Euro sex flicks to watch after a nice dinner to lead them into a sexual fantasy mode...this movie may be good enough to do that for you...

The hot sex scene on the boat with the kidnapped teen is worth a boner or two!

A couple of young newlyweds take a wrong turn in a Mediterranean country and discover that they have trespassed onto the grounds of a prison for women. Black transsexual Ajita Wilson plays the warden who decides to throw the blonde wife in jail and, incredibly, to let the husband go. Why, so he can come back or go to complain somewhere? Most of the gorgeous inmates are fair-skinned. They all labor in a rock quarry under the blazing sun topless with cut-off jeans. How do they keep from having their skin burned off by sunburn? The governor of the province and his wife are sadists who use the prison inmates to satisfy their perverse desires. The movie is a veritable orgy of depravity. The action includes lesbianism, sex under coercion, false imprisonment, white slavery, hunting women as sport, brutality, etc. Franco has a role as a gay pimp. Despite some obviously outrageous and even ridiculous aspects this movie works for me. It is quite similar to Ilsa, the Wicked Warden. Franco is pretty good at these WIP type movies.

They all sound pretty interesting (if you like women in prison movies) but for the most part, they are all very obviously softcore porn and that of a very low budget production. But, for this film "Sadomania" I will say that the picture quality is very, very, good, but the English dubbing is kinda bad. And you get no option to hear it in its original language (I think either Italian or Spanish), so you'll have to accept the poor English dubbing.

If you like films where all the women (the prison guards as well as the prisoners) are gorgeous, topless, and sweaty than this film is for you. I wasn't too crazy about the gay scene or the girl being raped by a dog, but the other sexual scenes were quite decent, especially because the film transfer looks really good.

I've watched several "women in prison" films this past year, but I'll have to say that Sadomania is the second best one I've seen (of the low budget, soft porn genre), but my favorite "women in prison" film is still Pam Grier's early seventies film "Black Mama, White Mama."

But with Sadomania, you get lots of gorgeous sweaty hot blondes. However, the Warden was a black female (transsexual), but was still quite beautiful. I heard she died. Oh well.

This movie was a major disappointment. The plot is awful. The dialogue stinks. The camera-work is amateurish, even by b-movie sleaze standards. It's poorly lit. The acting is terrible, and most of the actresses are in fact ugly slags. There is a lot of nudity, but don't expect to be aroused by it. The people who made this did not put much effort into it at all and it shows. I guess they figured that nudity + perversion was a big enough selling point, and that they could lazily toss the rest of the movie together in a slapdash manner. Unfortunately, this movie does not even excel on the nudity and perversion front, except for perhaps the odd fellow who has a thing for trannies. In other words, this movie has no redeeming value, and even the onanist should look elsewhere. For something in a similar vein and from the same era, but that is actually enjoyable, I'd recommend something from the Something Weird catalogue instead.

I have the uncut Euro version of 99 Women and have seen Barbed Wire Dolls, and this is his worst women in prison film. Ursula Fellner is this movies' only saving grace. Blue Underground did their usual good job on the transfer to DVD. There were no surprises here. I thought that the sex was somewhat muted in comparison to the other films I had already mentioned. Probably an OK rental but that is about it. Charlie S.