House Of Whipcord
The women-in-prison genre, while not the most reputable, has always had the potential for a fun, exploitative good time. In this film from British director Pete Walker, we get perhaps the most BORING example of what the genre has to offer, with minimum nudity, no substantial Ilsa-style torture scenes, and not even a little lesbian activity (or shower scenes) to spice things up. What we do get is a lot of the female prisoners whispering among themselves and conspiring with each other, and more than enough glimpses of the behind the scenes politics and power struggle among those running the place. A ditzy, free-spirited, yet gorgeous French model (Penny Irving) is picked up by an intense yet smooth-talking lothario and brought out to the country to meet his mother, only to discover she is the head governess of a âprivate institutionâ that feels that morality laws are too lax and that the model (who has a public nudity conviction) among others are to be punished and taught how to âhate their bodiesâ, with the whole thing presided over by a blind (and senile) old judge who does little else but get wheeled out to pronounce sentence on the wayward girls. As previously stated, the nuts and bolts of the actual punishments are merely glossed over leaving quite a bit of filler, occasionally cutting back to the modelâs best friend and roommate who realizes (over a week later!) that something is seriously wrong and tries to seek her missing girlfriend out. It should also be noted that the production values are extremely poor, especially the lighting and cinematography, which in a grindhouse atmosphere would be fine if the film delivered on the âgood stuffâ, but instead (at 104 minutes), the film seems to drag on forever, as the unclear themes of whom the director is condemning (either the ultra-conservative extremists who run the institution or the lax liberal legal system that drove them to these ends), leaves the viewer mostly disinterested and bored. One true bright spot in all this is the performance by Barbara Markham as the draconian Head Governess. Still smarting over the death of a female prisoner 30 years before that cost her her job in the correctional system, her twisted paranoid nature and absolute belief that the new prisoner will be the downfall of everything is potent right up to the end. Robert Tayman as her son is also effective, while Penny Irving as the model maintains an Ewa Aulin-like innocence thru the depraved goings-on. Itâs all for naught though as the lack of any kind of sense of humor (except for the old judgeâs senile ramblings) or spark help make this one of the most tedious exploitation films ever, and anyone looking for an early model of torture porn are better off with the Ilsa films and Bloodsucking FreaksâŚ
4/10