Known for such women in prison nasties as Barbed Wire Dolls and Love Camp, Jess Franco has been pumping out films steadily since the late 1950s and at this point in his long and storied career has over two hundred films under his belt. While the content and premise of Women Behind Bars might make it seem like an ideal project for Franco, sadly it's not nearly as remarkable as the sensational title would lead us to believe.

A gang of thugs lead by a man named Perry pull off a diamond heist aboard a fancy yacht and make it away with the loot. Once they're free and clear, Perry wastes the men who helped him pull off the robbery hoping to keep the diamonds for himself. Imagine Perry's surprise when his girlfriend, Shirley (Lina Romay), finds out that he's been screwing around on him and freaks out and kills him! Shirley is sent off to a woman's prison to server out her sentence but soon finds herself in a bit of a pickle. Though Shirley killed Perry not out of greed but out of jealousy, many believe she murdered him to keep the diamonds for herself. As such, there are those who want that information - an insurance investigator named Milton Warren (Roger Darton) and the warden of the prison (Ronald Weiss) - and who will do whatever they deem necessary to Shirley in order to make her talk. The only hope Shirley has is a private investigator named Bill (Jess Franco) who has been hired by the owner of the yacht to get back the gems but Bill is under orders to kill the woman as soon as he frees her and has her lead him to the treasure.

Shot in France with a nifty cast of Franco regulars, Women Behind Bars looks nice even if the director's over reliance on the zoom lens is in full swing throughout the picture. The locations are pretty and the cinematography, while not particularly remarkable, is at least competent and somewhat stylish in spots.

While the locations are pretty enough, believable they are not. The prison which Shirley is sent to after the murder is really just a big fancy house surrounded by a cyclone fence and only two guards seem to have been assigned to securing it. From the looks of things, it would take someone in average physical condition all of about two minutes to break out of the joint! Seeing as the bulk of the picture plays out here, this winds up being a pretty significant strike against the picture.

Unfortunately, the film itself is quite dull. Yes, there is the notorious scene where poor Lina has her girl parts electrocuted and there is some softcore girl on girl coupling as well as a whole lot of nudity but not a whole lot happens in the film. It's too dull to be a good film and it doesn't offer enough exploitative thrills to work very well as a trash movie and as such it sort of fizzles out. That's not to say that the picture is completely without worth, however. The electroshock theme does leave a lasting impression and Lina is smoking hot throughout the film. Additionally, Franco is fun as the private investigator and his many fans will enjoy seeing him in a prominent action her role here. Unfortunately, that's just not enough to make this one essential, at least for the casual viewer - the Franco completists will likely find much more of worth here than anyone else.

Video:

Blue Underground's 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks nice and sharp on this new DVD. Color reproduction looks quite good and aside from a bit of mild grain in some scenes there aren't really any visible defects on the picture. Mpeg compression is never a problem and there are only a few scenes where some mild edge enhancement is present. Foreground and background detail looks nice and clear while flesh tones look lifelike and accurate.