''The Big Doll House'' is a 1971 American women-in-prison film starring

Pam Grier Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star (although, there are some who dispute that claim and believe Cheng Pei-pei actually holds that distinc ...

, Judy Brown,

Roberta Collins Roberta Collins (born Roberta Lee Hefley, November 17, 1944 – August 16, 2008) was a film and television actress who was known for her attractive physique, blonde, curly hair, and Marilyn Monroe appearance. She starred in many exploitation fi ...

, Brooke Mills, and

Pat Woodell Patricia Joy Woodell (July 12, 1944 – September 29, 2015) was an American actress and singer, best known for her television role as Bobbie Jo Bradley from 1963 to 1965 on ''Petticoat Junction''. Career Woodell was born July 12, 1944, in Win ...

. The film follows six female inmates through daily life in a gritty, unidentified tropical prison. Later the same year, the film ''

Women in Cages ''Women in Cages'' is a 1971 women in prison sexploitation film directed by Gerardo de León and starring Jennifer Gan, Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, and Pam Grier. Co-produced by Roger Corman, it was prominently featured in the ''Planet Terror'' ...

'' featured a similar story and setting and much the same cast, and was shot in the same abandoned prison buildings. A nonsequel follow-up, titled ''

The Big Bird Cage ''The Big Bird Cage'' is a 1972 American exploitation film of the "women in prison" subgenre. It serves as a non-sequel follow-up to the 1971 film ''The Big Doll House''. The film was written and directed by Jack Hill, and stars Pam Grier, Sid Ha ...

'', was released in 1972.

Plot

Collier (Brown) enters

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

, having been found guilty of killing her husband. She is introduced to the beautiful occupants of her cell, doing time for crimes ranging from political insurgency to

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and bro ...

addiction. The women often clash, which leads to their

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

by sadistic guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder). The torture ceremonies are viewed by an impassive cloaked figure. Collier's cellmates Alcott and Bodine (Collins and Woodell) plan to escape. Collier and another cellmate Ferina (Gina Stuart) agree to go along. Assisting is their other lesbian cellmate Grear (

), though doubts exist Grear's heroin-addict girlfriend Harrad (Brooke Mills) will be equipped to escape. Ferina, Alcott, and Bodine break from the solitary-confinement sauna and take their revenge on Lucian. The escapees wield guns, attitude, and sexuality to free themselves. During their escape, they round up various personnel from the prison as hostages, taking elegant prison warden Miss Dietrich ( Christiane Schmidtmer), sympathetic prison medic Dr Phillips ( Jack Davis), and two local men regularly allowed access to the prison to sell market produce, Harry (

Sid Haig Sidney Eddie Mosesian (July 14, 1939 – September 21, 2019), known professionally as Sid Haig, was an American actor, film producer, and musician. He was known for his roles in several of Jack Hill's blaxploitation films from the 1970s, as we ...

) and Fred (Jerry Franks).

Cast

as Grear * Judy Brown as Collier *

as Alcott *

as Harry * Brooke Mills as Harrad *

as Bodine * Christiane Schmidtmer as Miss Dietrich * Kathryn Loder as Lucian

Production

This was one of the first films made by

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

giant

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

for his company New World Pictures. According to

Stephanie Rothman Stephanie Rothman (born November 9, 1936, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter, known for her low-budget independent exploitation films made in the 1960s and 1970s, especially ''The Student Nurses'' (1 ...

, Corman originally purchased a screenplay by James Gordon White, which he then asked to be rewritten. Rothman says her husband

Charles S. Swartz Charles Samuel Swartz (April 22, 1939 – February 10, 2007) was an American filmmaker, researcher, and academic. He was raised in Dallas, earned a degree from Yale University and did graduate work at the University of Southern California. At USC ...

, New World story editor Frances Doel, and she pitched story proposals to Jack Hill, who did not like any of them. They then plotted a new storyline themselves and hired Don Spencer to write the screenplay. Rothman also says that Corman wanted her to direct the picture, but she turned it down, so Corman hired Jack Hill, instead. John Ashley says Corman originally intended to make the film in Puerto Rico, but he persuaded them to make it in the Philippines. Ashley and his partners went on to put up the above-the-line part of the budget, with Corman providing the rest.

Reception

The film earned $3 million in rentals.Roger Corman & Jim Jerome, ''How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime'', Muller, 1990 p 183

References

External links

* *
Jack Hill on ''The Big Doll House''
at

Trailers From Hell ''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a web series in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and expl ...