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Special Features
- Roger Corman interviewed by film critic Leonard Maltin
- Eight page booklet outlining Roger Corman's career
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Director Jack Hill, a protégé of the original schlockmeister, Roger Corman, knew his way around a low budget and a shocking subject. Women-in-prison films were nothing new in 1971, but The Big Doll House had it all--sex, violence, nudity, a sadistic guard, and a sexually frustrated warden--and served it up with an abundance of cheapjack energy and tongue-in-cheek humor. The beauty of Hill's movies lay in the way they could appeal not only to the hordes who would go see them at drive-ins but also to the true trash-cinema fans who could appreciate his offbeat sensibilities. The plot is rather hoary, with a new inmate discovering the corruption of the prison setup, complete with a drugged-out psycho, a cellmate informer, and a guard who delights in torturing the women with poisonous snakes. The girls put their heads together and begin to devise a way out of their tropical hellhole, but not before disrobing several times and having a knock-down, drag-out fight in the muddy rice paddy where they're forced to toil all day. The Big Doll House, like some of Hill's other movies, was shot in the Philippines, with the cast and crew making up plot elements and dialogue in near-guerrilla filmmaking. Though the islands were a cheap place to produce movies in the '70s, the working conditions were boot camp-like. Where The Big Doll House really succeeds is in its mix of titillation and action, a fast-paced combination that makes it one heck of a fun exploitation movie to watch. It's also worth noting that this movie gave the great Pam Grier her first real starring role; she would become a Jack Hill regular before moving on to more substantial roles. --Jerry Renshaw
Product Description
Female prisoners in a Phillippine jail are being subjected to sadistic torture. Five of the women--along with the help of two men--plot an escape.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Wow....I just finished watching this movie and it is a real jem. Ladies in prison flicks are cool but this one takes the cake as far as campy goes. Here are some of the things you will experience if you watch this flick.
1. Tons of 70's babes with tight skimpy outfits on.
2. More babes with skimpy outfits on.
3. Homosexual prison gaurds
4. Homosexual prison warden
5. A Philipino Revolution
6. More 70's babes with tight outfits on.
7. A woman hanging by her ponytail as punishment for trying to escape
8. Mud wrestling
9. Crazed women inmates imprisoned in an cage with other crazy wild women (they act like animals....funny!)
10. Inmates who want to be "raped" by men, because they haven't "had any sex in a very long time".
11. More sex starved female inmates in tight outfits.....especially one very "hot blond babe" who begs for sex!!
I must admit this is by far the funniest and sickest movie I have seen in a long time. The plot centers around this band of revolutionaries who want to take over thier country by force. They come up with the crazy idea of breaking into an all "womens prison" and freeing the women who will help them with the revolution.(This is the first time I have ever seen anyone break "into" a prison.) Not much of what goes on makes any sence but it sure makes for one hell of a laugh riot. Roger Corman impressed me again. I have only seen one other Roger Corman movie "Bucket of Blood" and I have to admit that this film is stranger and funnier than "Bucket". As I was watching this film I kept asking myself "Is Roger Corman for real?... is he trying to be serious or trying to be funny?"....the script is a zany hoot and the film kept my attention all the way through. I recieved the VHS version and there was 2 spots where the audio did not sync up to the film, this error actually added to the wierdness of the flick. The entire movie had that "made for T.V" feel to it. There is some nudity and bad launguage but the contentnt is so bizzare and offbeat that it deserved a "R" rating. I highly recommned this film for the cinema nut who thinks he has seen it all. You will not be dissapointed!.....the highlight of the film is when halfway thru the movie you find out the prison guards and warden prefer men sexually over women...gay prison guards!!!!.....this twist in the scipt is just TOO FUNNY!!........buy it today....you will thank me!!
1. Tons of 70's babes with tight skimpy outfits on.
2. More babes with skimpy outfits on.
3. Homosexual prison gaurds
4. Homosexual prison warden
5. A Philipino Revolution
6. More 70's babes with tight outfits on.
7. A woman hanging by her ponytail as punishment for trying to escape
8. Mud wrestling
9. Crazed women inmates imprisoned in an cage with other crazy wild women (they act like animals....funny!)
10. Inmates who want to be "raped" by men, because they haven't "had any sex in a very long time".
11. More sex starved female inmates in tight outfits.....especially one very "hot blond babe" who begs for sex!!
I must admit this is by far the funniest and sickest movie I have seen in a long time. The plot centers around this band of revolutionaries who want to take over thier country by force. They come up with the crazy idea of breaking into an all "womens prison" and freeing the women who will help them with the revolution.(This is the first time I have ever seen anyone break "into" a prison.) Not much of what goes on makes any sence but it sure makes for one hell of a laugh riot. Roger Corman impressed me again. I have only seen one other Roger Corman movie "Bucket of Blood" and I have to admit that this film is stranger and funnier than "Bucket". As I was watching this film I kept asking myself "Is Roger Corman for real?... is he trying to be serious or trying to be funny?"....the script is a zany hoot and the film kept my attention all the way through. I recieved the VHS version and there was 2 spots where the audio did not sync up to the film, this error actually added to the wierdness of the flick. The entire movie had that "made for T.V" feel to it. There is some nudity and bad launguage but the contentnt is so bizzare and offbeat that it deserved a "R" rating. I highly recommned this film for the cinema nut who thinks he has seen it all. You will not be dissapointed!.....the highlight of the film is when halfway thru the movie you find out the prison guards and warden prefer men sexually over women...gay prison guards!!!!.....this twist in the scipt is just TOO FUNNY!!........buy it today....you will thank me!!
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
While any movie starring Pam Grier is worth watching, the Big Doll House is a particularly entertaining entry in the "Women in Prison" film genre. Produced by the great Roger Corman and filmed in the Philippines, this movie features all the violence, mayhem, and nudity one expects in a 70's "Girls Behind Bars" flick. It also has the added bonus of a great scene where Pam Grier and another woman fight it out in the mud of the rice fields (where the women are forced to toil). Don't miss it!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Good old Roger Corman; he never saw a film genre he didn't like. Moreover, he never hesitated to make cheap knockoffs of hit films. "Star Wars" breaking box office records? Enter Corman's "Battle Beyond the Stars." "Jurassic Park" raking in the dough? "Carnosaur" and its sequel will do quite nicely, thank you. How about films full of car chases? Those were quite popular in the 1970s, weren't they? You bet, and Corman rolled out "Eat My Dust" and "Grand Theft Auto" to capitalize on the craze. I could go on and on, mentioning how Rog saw fit to make "Big Bad Mama" to present his own take on 1930s gangster epics, or how he tossed out "Humanoids From the Deep" to cash in on a resurgence of monster films. The vaunted women in prison subgenre of the 1970s was yet another field of endeavor for this King of the B-movie rip off. Corman underwrote several of them, beginning with director Jack Hill's classic "The Big Doll House." Hill went on to make his own name in exploitation films with "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown," two movies that formed the foundation of the blaxploitation genre. Thanks to DVD, a new generation of schlock film lovers will finally see these classics.
We see "The Big Doll House" unfold through the eyes of Collier (Judy Brown), a woman convicted of murder on trumped up charges and sentenced to life in a Philippine prison. She has a tough time adjusting to her new digs at first, largely due to the tough as nail attitudes of her fellow cellmates. The tough and cynical Alcott (Roberta Collins) runs the cellblock with an iron fist, and she makes it crystal clear to Collier early on that she will not tolerate any dissension in the ranks. Of course, there is always opposition to Alcott's tyranny, usually in the form of Grear (Pam Grier), a just as tough black girl who smuggles drugs into the prison as well as acting as a stoolie for the prison authorities. Bodine (Pat Woodell) could run the entire prison if she wanted to thanks to her size and fearsome reputation, but she's one of these gals who finds contentment sitting back and avoiding prison politics. She also corresponds infrequently with her boyfriend, a revolutionary currently engaged in a struggle to overthrow the government. No discussion of the prison would be complete without mentioning the hapless Harrad (Brooke Mills), a kooky chick drifting along in a haze of heroin. Perhaps it is appropriate that the phrase "A Dead Bee Makes No Honey" is etched on the wall of the girls' cell because there is very little sweetness exhibited here.
It should go without saying that the name of the game in "The Big Doll House" is figuring out a way to escape from the prison. After the other girls finally come to accept Collier, grudgingly in a few instances, she starts agitating for a plan. No one has ever successfully fled the penitentiary, apparently, so it will take awhile to come up with a ploy that works. In the meantime, the film treats us to all sorts of sordid activities, including whippings, electroshock treatments, and poisonous cobras. We also see Grear make a play for power by wrestling Alcott in a mud pit. Other characters emerge to engage our attentions, too, such as the vicious female warden with her schemes of corruption and intrigue. Comic relief arrives in the form of a couple of guys from the outside, the most important of whom is Harry (Sid Haig), who brings supplies into the penitentiary. These two can get anything, including drugs and hard liquor, for the right price, a price most of the female inmates are unwilling to pay. If you think that most of these characters, the ones that survive anyway, will come together in the film's denouement, you would be correct. "The Big Doll House" is an often squalid film whose bleak tone carries all the way through to its downbeat conclusion.
This is the type of film that lovers of low budget cinema adore. It's got everything, from lots of beautiful '70s babes running around in prison attire to over the top violence to Sid Haig hamming it up. "The Big Doll House" also has Pam Grier, which is always a big bonus. Her acting isn't that great here, probably due to the fact that this was only her second film, but she puts enough heart into the role that the viewer quickly forgives her failings. Her scenes with Haig are particularly memorable. Hill was so impressed with Grier that he cast her in his future productions, namely the aforementioned "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown," which led to her becoming a major presence in 1970s' cult cinema. Considering how big a fan he is of these types of movies, it's no wonder that Quentin Tarentino based an entire film around the beautiful Grier, who, I might add, looks absolutely amazing today. Can you tell I'm a big Pam Grier fan? The primary reason I enjoyed this film is because Grier gets a lot of screen time. But even if you aren't a fan, you can still kick back and chuckle over the seedy set pieces, the crazy dialogue, and the wacky situations that pop up in this film every five minutes or so.
The DVD version of the film contains a commentary from Jack Hill, cast biographies, a trailer, and additional trailers for "Big Bird Cage," "The Arena," and "Women in Cages." The commentary track is rather dry, something I've found rings true for other Hill commentaries, but it does contain plenty of interesting information on the production of the film. "The Big Doll House" is arguably the best women in prison film I've seen so far; it's certainly light years ahead of films such as Pete Walker's "The House of Whipcord" and Bruno Mattei's "Violence in a Women's Prison."
We see "The Big Doll House" unfold through the eyes of Collier (Judy Brown), a woman convicted of murder on trumped up charges and sentenced to life in a Philippine prison. She has a tough time adjusting to her new digs at first, largely due to the tough as nail attitudes of her fellow cellmates. The tough and cynical Alcott (Roberta Collins) runs the cellblock with an iron fist, and she makes it crystal clear to Collier early on that she will not tolerate any dissension in the ranks. Of course, there is always opposition to Alcott's tyranny, usually in the form of Grear (Pam Grier), a just as tough black girl who smuggles drugs into the prison as well as acting as a stoolie for the prison authorities. Bodine (Pat Woodell) could run the entire prison if she wanted to thanks to her size and fearsome reputation, but she's one of these gals who finds contentment sitting back and avoiding prison politics. She also corresponds infrequently with her boyfriend, a revolutionary currently engaged in a struggle to overthrow the government. No discussion of the prison would be complete without mentioning the hapless Harrad (Brooke Mills), a kooky chick drifting along in a haze of heroin. Perhaps it is appropriate that the phrase "A Dead Bee Makes No Honey" is etched on the wall of the girls' cell because there is very little sweetness exhibited here.
It should go without saying that the name of the game in "The Big Doll House" is figuring out a way to escape from the prison. After the other girls finally come to accept Collier, grudgingly in a few instances, she starts agitating for a plan. No one has ever successfully fled the penitentiary, apparently, so it will take awhile to come up with a ploy that works. In the meantime, the film treats us to all sorts of sordid activities, including whippings, electroshock treatments, and poisonous cobras. We also see Grear make a play for power by wrestling Alcott in a mud pit. Other characters emerge to engage our attentions, too, such as the vicious female warden with her schemes of corruption and intrigue. Comic relief arrives in the form of a couple of guys from the outside, the most important of whom is Harry (Sid Haig), who brings supplies into the penitentiary. These two can get anything, including drugs and hard liquor, for the right price, a price most of the female inmates are unwilling to pay. If you think that most of these characters, the ones that survive anyway, will come together in the film's denouement, you would be correct. "The Big Doll House" is an often squalid film whose bleak tone carries all the way through to its downbeat conclusion.
This is the type of film that lovers of low budget cinema adore. It's got everything, from lots of beautiful '70s babes running around in prison attire to over the top violence to Sid Haig hamming it up. "The Big Doll House" also has Pam Grier, which is always a big bonus. Her acting isn't that great here, probably due to the fact that this was only her second film, but she puts enough heart into the role that the viewer quickly forgives her failings. Her scenes with Haig are particularly memorable. Hill was so impressed with Grier that he cast her in his future productions, namely the aforementioned "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown," which led to her becoming a major presence in 1970s' cult cinema. Considering how big a fan he is of these types of movies, it's no wonder that Quentin Tarentino based an entire film around the beautiful Grier, who, I might add, looks absolutely amazing today. Can you tell I'm a big Pam Grier fan? The primary reason I enjoyed this film is because Grier gets a lot of screen time. But even if you aren't a fan, you can still kick back and chuckle over the seedy set pieces, the crazy dialogue, and the wacky situations that pop up in this film every five minutes or so.
The DVD version of the film contains a commentary from Jack Hill, cast biographies, a trailer, and additional trailers for "Big Bird Cage," "The Arena," and "Women in Cages." The commentary track is rather dry, something I've found rings true for other Hill commentaries, but it does contain plenty of interesting information on the production of the film. "The Big Doll House" is arguably the best women in prison film I've seen so far; it's certainly light years ahead of films such as Pete Walker's "The House of Whipcord" and Bruno Mattei's "Violence in a Women's Prison."
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Grind House Classic
Real, original grind house classic. Pam Grier as foxy as ever. A must have for anyone who loves this movie genre.
Published 5 months ago by devilbunny
this movie was a major disappointment
I bought this movie based on the reviews I have read on this web site and I have to say the reviews are completely bogus. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Topper In Missouri
Big Doll House...very dated.
Watched Big Doll House a couple weeks ago, very dated and "B" quality movie. Movie is set in an all women's prison, with torturous key holders. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Erik Behrendsen
Great flick! I would've given it 5 stars if it were in widescreen...
SHORT REVIEW: I really enjoy these old 70's Pam Grier/Sid Haig flicks. If this one were presented in widescreen, I would easily give it 5 stars. Read more
Published on February 10, 2010 by Grapey Grimes
You got catfights, the "hot box," whippings, food fights, electric...
At times, you don't know exactly how silly this is supposed to be, and the whole film has a tone of naivety in spite of its run of sex and violence (with drug addiction thrown in... Read more
Published on September 25, 2007 by Jenny J.J.I.
Ladies in the big house.....
Anyone who likes women in prison films will appreciate this classic.... a lot of death and gore plus eye candy from the various players.... Read more
Published on November 3, 2006 by S. King
Welcome to the Dollhouse
This film is not one of the best Women in prsion movies I have seen but it is good. Pam Grier does bring a big bad quality to it and it gets really good with mud wrestling! Read more
Published on March 16, 2006 by Eric O. Del Grande
This set the WIP standard...
OH YEAH! This is the film which set the standard for the women-in-prison genre. The Big Doll House has everything you could possibly need if you are WIP junkie: cat fights (one... Read more
Published on March 7, 2006 by Wil-n-Tally
"Search them...inside and out!"
In the late 1960s actor/producer John Ashley, initially famous for appearing in a number of JD flicks, hooked up with writer/director/producer Eddie Romero in the Philippines to... Read more
Published on February 2, 2006 by cookieman108
Judith Brown & Pam Grier!
What a combo. 'Ladies in Prison' movies is the best idea next to breast implants, and we all know Pammy don't need those. Read more
Published on August 26, 2002 by Johny Bottom
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