Uncle Jess Franco's itchy camera zooms away from an austere, guarded prison building to the sound of a young woman, naked and chained as it turns out, screaming for mercy. This will be one of a collection of Franco/Erwin C. Dietrich collaboration then, a 'women in prison' drama.Lucky Lina Romay (as Maria da Guerra) is a new inmate. "The crime you are guilty of could not have been committed by a normal woman," she is told, and is soon sent by duplicitous 'doctor' Carlos Costa (Paul Muller) for electro-shock therapy. The torture is suitably graphic and convincingly played, as are subsequent indignities, both sexual and 'therapeutic'. Mostly, this is conducted accompanied by the inappropriately cheery jazz score from regular composers Daniel White and Walter Baumgartner. And while I'm listing familiar elements from other 'WIP' films, yes, the locations are excellent and the director makes very good use of them.On one hand, this is a series of scenes featuring pretty, dubbed women in various sexual situations. On the other, if you find it possible to look beyond that - and it's not always easy - you have a thin tale of Maria, a mentally delicate girl, being abused in a vile manner in a film only Franco could make. The 'doctor' played by Muller has been dubbed with a very camp voice, which makes his sexual manipulation of Maria unlikely. After sharing with us all the dubious sight of his hirsute back whilst rutting with Soledad Miranda in 1970's 'Eugenie De Sade', here similar treats are in store for Lina Romay - lucky Paul Muller! By this time, Maria's so forlorn, she can barely smoke a cigarette.Maria's crime is told in flashback, and in the telling, provides one of the strangest moments in a Franco film - which says a lot. A slow motion scene of incest and violence between her and daddy (Jess Franco) - although it is acted in slow-motion, but filmed at normal speed - demonstrates Maria's current predicament. This is followed up with some almost penetrative shots of various inmates' genitalia (one with inserted cigarette) and a close-up of a dead mouse in Maria's breakfast. Whilst the story is an overall mish-mash and is leanly spread out, there is no denying the set-pieces are guaranteed to disturb, one way or another.Romay is excellent, as is Martine Stedil as Bertha and Beni Cardoso as deranged Rosaria. Monica Swinn plays the monocle-wearing, trouser-less chief wardress. She's very good, even given the usual wall of dubbing that compromises any performance. Why does she do what she does? Because she can. Just why she reserves special treatment for poor Maria, well ...

www.eattheblinds.comThere's a scene in Barbed Wire Dolls that is so perfectly horrible it should be cinematic legend. It's a young girl's flashback of her father (played by Franco himself) attempting to rape her. The entire scene is shot with Franco's patented wandering zoom, a lens slathered with vaseline and a slow motion effect you have to see to believe.Doing double-duty as "Cinematographer," Franco apparently didn't realize you could change the frame rate on the camera and decided slow motion is best acquired through slow motion acting. Yup, actors pretending to go through the motions in real time slow motion. Hilarious.For someone who hates his own movies and wishes he'd directed Citizen Kane, Franco's taste is not nearly as bad as the choices he consistently makes behind the camera. Within the realm of bad movies, if Ed Wood Jr. is Orson Welles, then Jess Franco is quite possibly John Ford. High praise, indeed. Barbed Wire Dolls is a B- movie with so many juicy tidbits of ineptness, tasteless raunch, camp and cliché you can't help but love this senseless mess. See the slow motion genius for yourself:

This is one for the real deranged sex maniacs out there. There's virtually no plot just one flimsy excuse or another to show helpless women being sexually tortured and degraded. There are plenty of laughs to be had if that sort of thing rocks your boat, though. One outrageous scene has Jess Franco playing in-mate Lina Romay's father who attempts to rape her in slow motion...only trouble is they actually act (very badly) in slow motion live rather than slow down the actual film!!! incredible! Franco's worst? Hardly, It's actually one of his filthy sadistic best as there is no time to get bored for a change (a rarity with his movies!). Fans of that ol' Spanish zoom lens we've come to know and love will not be disappointed. Wild and crazed as only Franco could do..he out viles the ILSA series with ease here.Perfectly putrid!(and I loved every moment!)

Well, you can't openly declare that you like (or even enjoy) watching this type of movies because then – let's face it – you automatically get a stamp on your head that says 'potential threat to society'. Barbed Wire Dolls is a non-stop series of sex and violence that explicitly focuses on female nudity and sexual torture. The more reasonable reason to be interested in this film is the man who made it. Jesus Franco, the undeniable Godfather of sleaze takes on the ultra-controversial subject of 'Babes behind Bars' here. Franco is a remarkable director to say the least, with over 180 films on his repertoire as a director. Although this 'Barbed Wire Dolls' doesn't come close to his best achievements, it sure is memorable. But not exactly for the right reasons… The plot is thin to non-existent, it lacks range and feeling and there's no tension to detect. Even the typical exploitation-music (a must for films like this) is absent. Compared to what you might think, it isn't even THAT gross or nauseating. The film doesn't feature sequences of extreme bloodshed or severe mutilation. Instead, Barbed Wire Dolls only serves a lot of naked female beauty and absurd characters. We have the lesbian guard with obvious Nazi-tics, insane prisoners and fraudulent authority-figures. Oh, and let's not forget the falsely accused heroine and the remorseful male guard. Actually, Barbed Wire Dolls looked ideal to supply with a neutral rating. Like 4 or 5 out of 10…but then it got entirely spoiled by the abrupt and idiotic ending. Really, it looks like Franco all of a sudden got tired of it and just said: 'That's a wrap'. Maybe he had to hurry to another set…your agenda is pretty much filled with 180 movies to direct.