99 Women 1969

Jesus Franco’s campy women’s prison film is worthwhile for genre devotees primarily due to an outstanding cast. Mercedes McCambridge is unintentionally hilarious as sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz, spitting tacky dialogue with exuberant venom in a performance so overbearing that it verges on classic. The plot is standard for the genre, as three women (Maria Rohm, Elisa Montes, Luciana Paluzzi) are sentenced to an island prison off the Panamanian coast, only to encounter torture, rape, and lesbianism. When sympathetic Warden Caroll (Maria Schell) replaces Diaz, the prisoners assume that conditions will improve, but their agony only worsens until they decide to escape. Rosalba Neri co-stars, and Herbert Lom runs the corrupt men’s prison nearby. 99 Mujeres was heavily censored in various prints, with versions running anywhere between 70 and 108 minutes. Edits running 84, 86, and 94 minutes are most commonly available.

🍀 𝗭𝗼𝗼𝗺/𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 🍀