PARADISE ROAD (1997)
directed by Bruce Bresford
cast: Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Juiliana Marguiles

 The film, based on a true story, involves the uplifting ordeal of women captured by the Japanese who formed a vocal orchestra in order to bear and even transcend their internment. Interludes of communal singing -- clearly the picture's selling point -- are cannily juxtaposed with the usual scenes of imprisonment, punishment, bonding and death. The cast is led by veteran hambone Glenn Close as the choirmaster -- a role that sings -- and Frances McDormand, who delivers a blue-ribbon bad performance as a cynical German doctor, essentially the Peter Lorre part. It's strange to imagine the subject of World War II a now no-brainer in the same league as sequels and old TV show-spinoffs, something safe and familiar in light of its new, "inspiring" spin. But that's the only way to explain the existence of this otherwise pointless picture.

 

 

Penitentiary Angel (2000)

directed by Shei Chin
cast:Zhao Wei, Chao Na Na

The film "Penitentiary Angel" relates how seven women with varied disposition serve their term in a East China prison.  The story portrays how they, under the inspiration of the police guards, abandon evil and eventually begin a new life ...

 

 

 

 

PLAYING FOR TIME (1980)

directed by Daniel Mann

cast : Vanessa Redgrave

Certainly the most dramatic film of this site. This Emmy Award-winning television drama tells the story of a group of women prisoners in Auschwitz who survived the gas chambers by playing in a small orchestra. Based on a true story. A powerful adaptation of Holocaust survivor Fania Fanelon's autobiography. Fanelon, a Jewish singer-pianist, was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. There, she was able to stay alive by becoming a member of the prison's female orchestra. In the process, she struck up a close relationship with Alma Rose, the musical group's leader, as well as the other members of the band. Playing for the Nazis, however, robbed the women of much of their dignity and most of them often questioned whether remaining alive was worth the abuse they constantly suffered.

 

 

PRISON A GO-GO (2004)

directed by Barak Epstein

cast : Rhonda Sheer

A wild parody of the great 'Women in Prison' films of the past. When sweet, girl-next-door Callista is abducted for "scientific" reasons, her brainy sister Janie must solve the mystery and attempt a rescue. But the only clue leads to a notorious prison in the Philippines, where committing a crime may be the only way in. And no one who’s entered has ever come out…because they’re all having such a wild time! Welcome to PRISON-A-GO-GO! The rowdy womens' prison filled with multiple shower scenes! Girls running amok! Kung fu food fights! Ninjas! Mutant Zombies! Evil Scientists, Prominent Product Placement! Genetic Mutation! and Mad Mud Wrastlin'!

 < Review >

 

PRISON DE FEMMES (1938)
directed by Roger Richebe
cast:Francis CARCO, Viviane ROMANCE, Renee SAINT-CYR,

 

 

 

 

 

PRISON DE FEMMES (1958)
 Directed by Maurice Cloche.

cast:Joelle BERNARD, Gabriel CATTAND, Daniele DELORME

 

 

 

 

 

PRISION DE MUJERES (1978)
 directed by: Rene Cardona Sr.
cast: Carmen Montejo, Hilda Aquirre, Zully Keith, Susana Kamini

Mexico ,a group of violent female revolutionaries are imprisoned .Contains nudity and lesbian scenes.
 

 

 

 

PRISON FOR VIOLENT WOMEN (1977)  a.k.a  Presídio de Mulheres Violentadas  a.k.a. Porno detenute

directed by: De Oliveira Oswaldo (brazil)

cast :Esmeralda Barros,Hugo Bidet

 

 

 

 

 

PRISON GIRL (1942)
directed by: William Beaudine
cast: Rose Hobart, Sidney Blackmer, Claire Rochelle, Lynn Starr, Jane Novak

In this drama, a woman performs a mercy killing and ends up in jail. To clear her name, she escapes and ends up hiding out with a kindly country doctor who helps her.


 
 PRISON GIRLS (1972)
directed by Tom DeSimone
cast: Robin Whiting, Angie Most, Tracy Handfuss, Maria Arnold, Uschi Digard

An early softcore film (originally in 3D) from Tom (REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS) DeSimone. Set up the police, 6 imprisoned girls are released for a weekend furlough in hopes that they will lead the law to the where abbots of ,I notorious bank robbers.

 

 

 

 

 

PRISON HEAT (1986)
Horrific Asian prison houses beautiful babes at the mercy of sadistic gaurds. Lots of leering Asian men ogling naked and helpless captives.

 

PRISON HEAT (1993)
 Directed by Joel Silberg
cast: Rebecca Chambers, Lori Joe Hendrix, Kena Land, Toni Naples
Four babes (3 students & a counselor) graduate from school in Greece and decide to take a celebration trip to Turkey. Any American going to Turkey should see Midnight Express before going. Actually, you may want to see it instead of watching this B-Rate movie!  The Turkish authorities shake down a group of vacationing college women on trumped-up drug charges, and the accused fight back desperately to avoid a prison term.
 < Screenshots >    < Review >

 

 

 

 

PRISONERS(1929)

Directed by :William A. Seiter

According to Crowther (1989), however, the film with the first sort of idea of ‘women in prison’ .

Riza steals 300 florins from a cafe owner, and Nicholas, a young lawyer, is assigned to defend her in court. Riza has seen Nicholas before and declares her love for him. Nicholas disbelieves her but listens to her story, learning that she stole the money in order to buy finery with which she hoped to attract his attention. Nicholas' fiancée, Lenke, begins to suspect that he is infatuated with Riza and secretly offers to repay the 300 florins to the cafe owner if Riza will leave town. Riza refuses and is sentenced to 8 months in jail. Nicholas recognizes her deep love for him in this sacrificial act and, discovering an equal love in his own heart, determines to marry Riza when she is released from jail.

 


 PRISONER MARIA: THE MOVIE (1996)
directed by Shuji Kataoka
cast: Noriko Aota,
Prisoner Maria is based on a Japanese manga that mutated into a movie of the week style TV series. In the TV show Maria was played by actress Naomi Kawashima, but the big screen treatment finds CC Girls singer Noriko Aota in the starring role. The plot is pretty kooky, but a welcome change to someone who has sat through as many WIP films as myself. Maria is prisoner 209 serving a life sentence for offing a mob boss who had killed her husband. The warden uses Maria as an assassin in his covert crime fighting organization that operates outside of the law. In order to keep Maria coming back to jail after her missions, they threaten her with the well being of her son. The film starts with Maria dispatching a Mafioso ALA a red neck grin, the death of choice in this film. Then we learn of a serial killer who has political ties, and must be eliminated to stop a scandal. This leads to all sorts of goofiness involving Taiwanese Mobs and Mental Institution mind control. 

  < Review fr >
 

 


PRISONERS OF CELL BLOCK H (1970-80th) (serie TV)

Australia : Soap Opera

Follow the adventures of the infamous Bea at Wentworth Detention Centre.
A long-running series which has attained cult status, set in a women's prison, with several long-standing lesbian characters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRISON OF SECRETS (2001)

directed by Fred Gerber

Caught in a living nightmare, a young mother and wife is convicted by profiting illegally from a business venture. Unaware that she was breaking any laws by sharing in the money she saved her boss, Lynn Shaffer (Stephanie Zimbalist) nevertheless receives a 10-year prison sentence.
Held captive by male guards who extract sexual favors in exchange for doling out everything from drugs to toothbrushes, the women inmates live in fear of this renegade group of lawless lawmen. Lynn also learns that some women are taken off the prison grounds each night and forced into prostitution by guards who double as pimps.
Appalled by the abuse and degradation, Lynn is forced to take a dangerous stand. Aware that others have died trying to fight, she can only succeed if she can get others to testify. This movie is based on actual events.

 

 

PRISONIERES (1989)
 French film directed by Charlotte Silvera.  
Starring Agnès Soral, Marie-Christine Barrault, Annie Girardot, Bernadette Lafont

A women's prison. Women arrive, some for as long as eight years. They work making teddy bears.

   < Screenshots >

 

 

 


PRISON STORIES:WOMEN ON THE INSIDE (1991)

Directed by Penelope Spherris, Donna Deitch, and joan Micklin Silver.
Starring Lolita Davidovich, Rachael Ticotin, and Rae Dawn Chong.


Made for cable three segment film  deals with prison mothers. Yuck! None of the exploitive elements worthy of a good (bad) WIP film. 

 

 

 

 

PRISON WITHOUT BARS (1938)

directed by: Leonide Moguy
cast: Annie Duchaux, Roger Duchesne, Corrine Luchaire, Ginette Leclerc

 

 

 

 

 

PRISON WITHOUT BARS (1938)
directed by: Brian Desmond
cast: Corinne Luchraire, Edna Best, Barry Barnes,  Martita Hunt, Mary Morris

Same as above this time in a reform .school Reprising her role form the French original Corinne Luchaire plays a reform .school inmate who vies for the physical attention of a prison doctor.

 

 

 

PRITELKYNE Z DOMU SMUTKU  (1991) (serie TV ,4 episodes) a.k.a. My Companions in the Bleak House

Directed by Hynek Bocan

cast : Ivana Chýlková,Anna Geislerová,Jirina Bohdalová

From the book 'My companions in the bleak house' by Eva Kanturkova

A nonfiction account of Kanturkova's time in a women's prison, focusing not on her own story, but on those of the other inmates. Unlike herself, these women were not dissidents, imprisoned for political "crimes," but ordinary criminals, and members of the most marginalized class of Czech citizens.


  < Screenshots >
 


 

 

PROBLEM GIRLS (1953)
 directed by E.A. Dupont
cast: Helen Walker, Ross Elliot, Susan Morrow

A dull film Hyped by great ad campaign 1920's, German born E.A. Dupont appeared on the American film scene only to wind up directing such features as NEANDERTHAL MAN and this rarely seen flic. It was promoted with a poster depicting a strung up young girl in a nightie being blasted with a water hose. Ads promised . She Had A Knife.. . She Toyed With Men... She Played With Matches... Why Do So Many Rich Girls Go Wrong?. This well planned out ad campaign cannot conceal the fact the film rarely delivers on the promises of the poster.
 

 


PURGATORY (1989)
 directed by: Ami Artzi
cast: Tanya Roberts, Julie Pop, Hal Orlandini, Rufus Stewart, Adrienne Pearce 

  Two female Peace Corps workers are jailed on bogus drug charges, and sentenced to 11 years in a hellish foreign jail.During their confinement they are tortured and raped.

  < Review >