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I don't think that any exploitation sub-genre has disappointed me as consistently as the 'women in prison' film; despite the massive potential for unbridled sleaze, extreme violence and all-out depravity, it seems that the majority of efforts (particularly those from Europe) offer very little for the discerning deviant other than endless unerotic lesbian trysts, shower scenes and unconvincing cat fights, all of which gets very tedious, very quickly.

Hell Penitentiary is no exception.

This derivative piece of garbage has Dr. Julia Rogers (Linda Jones) deliberately getting herself thrown in the slammer in order to find the only witness to her sister's murder. Once inside, Julia befriends influential prisoner Eureka Thompson (who has sex with her), gets herself a cushy job assisting the prison doctor (who also has sex with her), but arouses the suspicion of nasty dyke Warden Landers (who surprisingly doesn't have sex with her, preferring to torture her with a hot poker instead!). Eventually Julia locates the missing witness, who has been held drugged in secret room by Landers, but not before the despicable governor has repeatedly forced himself on an innocent inmate, the girls have taken plenty of showers, and the prisoners have rioted.

Directed on a shoestring with little imagination by Gianni Siragusa (from a script by SS Experiment Camp's director, Sergio Garrone) Hell Penitentiary is packed with soft-core lesbian sex and full-frontal female nudity from a motley selection of second rate skanks, which I have no doubt will prove to be a crushing bore to all but the most desperate of perverts. Likewise, the scenes of torture and violence are unlikely to impress, being amateurish and unconvincing in the extreme. Some amusement might be gleaned from the film's sheer crassness (the fact that all prisoners seem unable to button their blouses made me snigger), but the chances are that even the most avid WIP fans will find this one more than a little dull.

What can I add to previous reviews? Not much. Plenty of lesbian action in this soft-core porn flick. Probably considered shocking at the time, but pretty mild by today's standards. (The most shocking thing will probably be the unshaved armpits and the full bushes.) On the other hand, it delivers all the required WIP scenes. It would have been nice if they had been able to afford some good-looking women, but you can't have everything. At least you aren't seeing a lot of silicone.

Perhaps the most irritating aspect of the film is the music score, which is wildly inappropriate at times.

Favorite quote: "Please find out immediately who told the governor I was torturing (blank)."

Recommended only for those people who HAVE to see every WIP flick.

Anyone who has given this trash more than a 3, I really feel sorry for you. What's sad about this corrupt prison exploitation flick, which joins all those others, dubbed or not, was this vehicle, had quite a good plot, which if properly approached, wouldn't of come off as not a bad pic. 'But no', we're going for that same T and A, + lesbianism, and some ugly blood slashing pic. The acting is so unbelievably bad, and wooden, like those road posts you see in Sydney. Even some of the actor's movements, if reacting, in some scenes, aren't believable, and seem weird. Some of the actors hardly register any emotion. Hadn't they haven't been to an acting class? Sadly, there is a tragic moment for our heroine, infilltating this dirty stank prison, in a grand avengement. This is the redeeming feature, and I must say, I was truly heartbroken (satrical). AKA: fittingly known as Hell Penitentiary Great video cover though. Don't be deceived.

Women-In-Prison movies at their best can be either serious or fun, but this terrible film is neither. It is....nothing. It just sits there, never doing anything exciting. Incompetence and cheapness are obvious in almost every frame - the climactic prison "riot" is represented by a couple of off-screen shotgun shots. It's really unerotic too - as I've said before, explicitness (which is certainly present here) does NOT equal eroticism if there is no proper buildup. The heroine spends the entire movie seeking "the truth" about her sister's death - a truth the viewer knows right from the start. Simply put, this film is an endurance test for even the most die-hard WIP fanatics. (*)

Oh, well... Here in my region (Northeast of Brazil), there is a popular term used to refer to something with a very low quality: PEBA. And I think that it is the ideal adjective to describe this. Yes, this is an extremely "peba" movie!

Poor Ajita Wilson. After a few years enjoying kind of a stardom in the sexploitation circuit (her notoriety was such that she was considered for a role in Fellini's "La Città Delle Donne"), the Venus of Ebano had her career severely damaged as a result of some scandals and bad choices in the early 80s. Thus, in the final chapter of her life in show business (1983-1985), she was almost only cast for hardcore porn, with the exception of two ultra cheap Italian woman-in-prison productions shot back-to-back by a certain Gianni Siragusa (who?). One of them is this "Detenute Violente".

Although the print I watched was with terrible quality (the original widescreen aspect ratio was clearly cropped to adjust to a full screen presentation), it is possible to note that little to nothing can be saved here. The atrocious English audio matches very well with the total lack of talent of the cast. Ok, Rita Silva as the sadistic lesbian warden is not that terrible, and Ajita's magnetism compensate her modest acting skill, but all the remaining members of the cast can't even breath in a convincing way! I will give a credit to the protagonist, Linda Jones, only for her exhuberant face

The premise could have resulted in an interesting WIP film: Jones plays a woman whose sister was killed in what was considered an accident, but she believes it was a murder. After knowing the only witness of the tragic event was arrested, our heroine decides to enter the prison passing for a inmate in the hope of having access to the witness and eventually discover the name of her sister's killer. However, the cruel warden makes things very difficult.

All the clichés of the genre are here: the torture of prisoners, a corrupt governor, lots of badly simulated lesbian sex etc. This is not a problem when we have as director a master like Jess Franco, but the complete ineptitude of Siragusa makes the experience of watching this film painful. I don't know if we can consider there was a director here. Everything seems improvised by the cast, and the aesthetic of a poor telefilm rules. The mediocre music is so repetitive and sometimes out of place that gets annoying.

A curious detail is that in her sex scenes, Rita Silva is always with her panties on, while the other actresses have no problem in being fully naked. Well, perhaps the cruel lesbian warden still had some prudishness.