Writer / director Jack Hill follows up his Women In Prison classic "The Big Doll House" with this savvy send-up of the genre. It's fast paced and consistently amusing entertainment with everybody in fine form, including Hill and his winning actor combo of Pam Grier and Sid Haig. It's appropriately trashy stuff as we get an eyeful of our attractive female cast members and get generous doses of sex and violence.The stunning Anitra Ford ("Invasion of the Bee Girls") stars as Terry, a promiscuous young woman who's been with some important men. She gets caught up in a robbery staged by Blossom (Grier) and Django (Haig), and is assumed to be in on the whole thing and sent to prison - a typical prison for this sort of thing with sadistic guards and a maniacal warden (Andres Centenera) and a towering wooden structure (the "big bird cage" of the title) in which the prisoners are forced to risk their lives as they process sugar. Soon, however, Blossom and Django infiltrate the prison in an ambitious attempt to help the convicts break out.This is highly enjoyable stuff, and the sense of humour helps make it go down very easily. The actors are a treat to watch, especially sassy and sexy Grier and the always entertaining Haig. The ladies playing the prisoners include Candice Roman as the tough talking Carla, Teda Bracci as comedy relief character "Bull" Jones, Carol Speed as the feisty Mickie, and Karen McKevic as the Amazonian fighter Karen. Lovers of Filipino cinema will also relish the appearance by Vic Diaz (a very familiar face in this sort of thing) as one of the guards.Hill and his editors keep the movie moving along nicely, and building towards the inevitable big breakout sequence which is wonderfully rousing. Our hottie inmates are people we can root for while we also enjoy hating the villains. Along the way there's time for mud wrestling and some great laughs as Haig pretends to be gay in order to get close to the guards. The most ridiculous but riotous scene has McKevic smearing chicken fat over her naked body so she can slip past people in order to get her hands on Speed, who's been teasing her.All in all, this is a real hoot of a movie, and a refreshing artifact from a time when filmmakers weren't about to worry about being politically correct. Highly recommended to anybody who loves Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Jack Hill, and Women In Prison pictures in general.Eight out of 10.

The Big Bird Cage (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Jack Hill directed women-in-prison flick has Pam Grier and Sig Haig playing revolutionary lovers who kidnap a woman (Anitra Ford) who ends up going to a brutal prison ran by a sadistic warden (Andres Centenera) and a bunch of homosexual male guards. Soon the two lovers decide to get into the prison and free all of the ladies. THE BIG BIRD CAGE is a fairly entertaining WIP flick but at the same time you might also call it one of the tamest to come from this era. Yes, this still more graphic than most Hollywood films that were out during this period but when compared to other films in the genre this one here puts comedy first and exploitation second. I was really surprised to see how much comic relief was here and it's really too bad so much attention was given to it because the majority of it doesn't work. The first twenty-minutes of the movie seems to be nothing but comic relief and there's really nothing overly funny going on. The biggest laughs in the film come from the homosexual male guards who are constantly hitting up on each other and not looking at all the beautiful women that surround them. This leads to some funny scenes towards the end with Haig must pretend to be gay in order to seduce the male guards into getting him in the prison. Yeah, as you can tell this could only be from the 70s. While there's nudity here most viewers are probably going to be shocked at how little there is. Even the violence really doesn't happen until the end of the picture and there's no lesbian scenes, which is another rare thing for the genre. Grier is sadly wasted as she's not seen enough in the film but whenever she's here it's certainly the highlight of the picture. Haig appears to be having fun in his part and Vic Diaz is a blast as the main gay guard. At 96-minutes the film runs way too long as I'm sure ten or so minutes edited out would have helped the pacing.

When it comes to Women In Prison movies, I usually want 'em to be as sleazy and as violent as possible, but director Jack Hill's WIP flicks look set to be an exception to this rule: The Big Bird Cage, his second foray in the genre (after The Big Doll House), is a gloriously camp exercise in trash cinema, occasionally tasteless but presented with such a goofy sense of humour that it proves to be far less offensive than many of its contemporaries and almost impossible not to enjoy.Set in an unnamed 'banana republic' (but shot in the Philipines), the film opens with beautiful brunette social climber Terry (the belly-licious Anitra Ford), a close personal 'friend' (i.e., lover) of the president, being abducted by revolutionary Django (Sid Haig) during a daring robbery. To avoid capture by the law, Django resorts to leaping off a bridge, leaving poor Terry to be apprehended by the police, after which she is accused of being an accomplice in the crime; this presents the authorities with a convenient opportunity to rid themselves of Terry, a potential embarrassment for the government, by shipping her to a high security camp where unruly prisoners are forced to do dangerous work in a towering, wooden sugar mill—the 'Bird Cage' of the title.Meanwhile, Django, his feisty woman Blossom (busty Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier) and their revolutionary pals continue to plan their political uprising. Concluding that their cause would benefit immensely from the recruitment of more gutsy females like Blossom, they put into motion a scheme that involves Blossom getting herself incarcerated in the same establishment as Terry, and Django going undercover as a camp guard (and I do mean 'camp'—all of the guards are homosexuals so as not to tempt the prisoners).With his tongue firmly planted in cheek, director Hill delivers everything one might expect from such a set-up—umpteen cat-fights (some in mud), the lesbian inmate, a sadistic warden, the camp informant, the tragic deaths of several prisoners, and an eventual uprising—plus, of course, lots of lovely women wearing very short shorts (I like short shorts!) and ill-fitting garments that frequently expose their breasts. All these lovely ladies AND Sid Haig as a hot-blooded revolutionary who must pretend to be gay to save the day = an unmissable treat for WIP fans!

In one of those jungle prison camps, females are forced into hard labor, working within the "bird cage" of the title, an elaborate sugar mill. Sid Haig and Pam Grier are revolutionaries who rob from societal fat cats, soon finding themselves within the prison labor camp causing a revolt against maniacal warden(Andres Centenera) and his host of homosexual male guards(..including a hilarious turn by Vic Diaz).The center of my attention was the incredibly yummy Anitra Ford, a stunning beauty whose character has a reputation notorious for her sexual involvements with various political leaders..she's deemed a threat whose knowledge is a threat. She seems to have no fear or nervousness about her current situation due to her confidence in getting out of captivity. While Pam Grier is recognized as the star, she often plays second fiddle to Ford because her role doesn't really make a certain impact until getting herself purposely put in Zappa's(Centenera)labor camp, where she forges the girls together in a planned rebellion, tired of their superior's tyrannical ways and slave labor. Teda Bracci is the leader over the girls until Grier challenges for authority / supremacy and secures the role. Candice Roman and the statuesque Karen McKevic supply extra eye candy as other white girls who found their ways into this camp. Carol Speed is the feisty(..she has a mouth that often gets her into heated situations where she runs and squeals when potential harm could come to her)token black girl of the bunch until Grier comes along..her fate when the mill breaks down, in regards to needed repairs, is horrifying. Marissa Delgado is Rina, a nutty prisoner Ford befriends and helps along the way.The mill is essentially a tower with a wooden skeletal frame, gears moving in proactive fashion, the girls keeping it running through blood, sweat, and tears...in the shape of a bird cage, this was designed by Hill's father. You get everything the women-in-prison genre offers in unique ways. There's the shower, cat fights, explosive finale with shootouts and violence, sadistic bonkers warden constantly shouting(barking orders), women yearning for the touch of a man(..poor Vic Diaz gets balled at the end!), attempted escapes, torture towards our heroines, and grim conclusion(..few make it out alive).Haig and Grier are superb together and have marvelous chemistry(..they're mud fight where Haig hits her across the ass with a dead duck is hilarious). Haig's posing as a gay man to gain access inside the labor camp, actually getting hired as a guard because Diaz wants to ravage him, had me in ribbons. The beautiful Phillipine locations compliment the lovely women quite well..and, best of all, the girls are outfitted in short shorts and shirts tied off above their wastes, so that we can lustfully gaze at their impressive figures throughout.