Jailhouse Wardress (1981) (MVD Classics)

[MifuneFan]

MVD Classics will be releasing Jailhouse Wardress (1981), from directors Alain Deruelle, and Jess Franco (who also stars in the film), on October 24th.

One of the most notorious "women in prison" epics, this Jess Franco production stars Lina Romay (Female Vampire) as Maria da Guerra, who's sentenced to life after killing her father, who had attempted to assault her. While behind bars, Maria encounters a sadistic female warden and hatches an escape plan involving the seduction of a male nurse. Monica Swinn (Barbed Wire Dolls) and Paul Müller (Eugenie de Sade) also star in this salacious tale.

[agentalbert]

Awesome! Any new Jess Franco release is good news to me.

[agentalbert]

Don't like the MVD censored the art. See the VHS cover. It's not like this thing is sitting in retail stores for people to pick up off the shelf. I hope it has reversible art with the earlier cover intact.

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Don't like the MVD censored the art. See the VHS cover. It's not like this thing is sitting in retail stores for people to pick up off the shelf. I hope it has reversible art with the earlier cover intact.

that's ^^ front art that Screenbounds DVD has (with tassels)
and it has reverse art which is tassel free,
so yeh I agree hopefully it has reverse art with no tassels

[Walter Kafka]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Don't like the MVD censored the art. See the VHS cover. It's not like this thing is sitting in retail stores for people to pick up off the shelf. I hope it has reversible art with the earlier cover intact.

That's not the original art either. I won't post it here. See Letterboxd.

[postmodel]

Amazon has this dated for December now.

And yeah, original cover is much more…blatant you could say.

[JasonMichael]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Don't like the MVD censored the art. See the VHS cover. It's not like this thing is sitting in retail stores for people to pick up off the shelf. I hope it has reversible art with the earlier cover intact.

Originally Posted by Walter Kafka

That's not the original art either. I won't post it here. See Letterboxd.

The art agentalbert posted is the art I found on Letterboxd.

https://letterboxd.com/film/jailhouse-wardress/

[Walter Kafka]

Originally Posted by JasonMichael

The art agentalbert posted is the art I found on Letterboxd.

https://letterboxd.com/film/jailhouse-wardress/

You're missing a key difference there.

[JasonMichael]

Originally Posted by Walter Kafka

You're missing a key difference there.

Ah yes, the swastika. It didn't occur to me they would change that. I assumed it was something to do with the woman's clothing.

[agentalbert]

Jeez. So it's gone from swastika, to cross, to nothing. And while I don't see the original, above someone said "tassel free". If that's true, it went from topless to tassels to full bra.

I find the changes completely unnecessary and condescending.

[agentalbert]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

that's ^^ front art that Screenbounds DVD has (with tassels)
and it has reverse art which is tassel free,
so yeh I agree hopefully it has reverse art with no tassels

Can you post a link to the tassel free image?

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Can you post a link to the tassel free image?

just took a couple pics so maybe NSFW

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

Screenbound did a few of these with random postcards inside
so I had to buy a few other different DVD releases to actually get this postcard

[agentalbert]

Thank you. I wrote MVD to ask why they are censoring the artwork, and ask if there would be reversible with the uncensored image. We'll see if I get a reply.

Can someone tell me the relation between Jailhouse Wardress (1981) and Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)? Is Jailhouse a sorta new picture repurposing footage from BWD?

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Thank you. I wrote MVD to ask why they are censoring the artwork, and ask if there would be reversible with the uncensored image. We'll see if I get a reply.

Can someone tell me the relation between Jailhouse Wardress (1981) and Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)? Is Jailhouse a sorta new picture repurposing footage from BWD?

yeh it's a total mess as a movie in it's own right
as was just re-edited & uses footage from at least 3 other films
first 4m or so starts with scene from Elsa Fraulein SS
then it switches to scenes from BWD & Hitler's Last Train & Elsa Fraulein SS (aka Captive Women 4) throughout

[agentalbert]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Can someone tell me the relation between Jailhouse Wardress (1981) and Barbed Wire Dolls (1976)? Is Jailhouse a sorta new picture repurposing footage from BWD?

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

yeh it's a total mess as a movie in it's own right
as was just re-edited & uses footage from at least 3 other films
first 4m or so starts with scene from Elsa Fraulein SS
then it switches to scenes from BWD & Hitler's Last Train & Elsa Fraulein SS (aka Captive Women 4) throughout

Thanks. Any opinion on which is better, or is there enough unique footage between the two to make both worthwhile? Of course, the other disc (which I don't have) is Full Moon, which doesn't make it very appealing.

[agentalbert]

Got my Jailhouse Wardress blu-ray recently. Haven't watched yet as I've just returned from a trip. No slipcase. The artwork is disappointingly just the censored/altered image without the prior versions on the inside (no reversible art). No slipcover. I got it from deepdiscount.com

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

yeh it's a total mess as a movie in it's own right

No truer words have ever been spoken. I didn't read up on the film until after I watched it to see that it was mostly footage from other films. At 84 minutes this was still a chore to get through. The editing was pretty bad but that kind of makes sense considering how the film was made.

The Blu-ray is low end as well. No slipcover or reversible sleeve. There are at least two errors on the package as well. It has a listed run time of 75 minutes (which is what IMDB states) but the disc is actually 84 minutes long. It also lists Lina Romay as being sent to prison for killing her father but in the film she calls him Uncle Jess multiple times.

There is various damage throughout the film. I would consider much of the disc to be of DVD quality. I was going to say that it appeared that two films were shot and then edited together but that point is moot as that's basically what happened. Here is a quote I found about the movie:

"This film had very little new footage shot for it. It consists very heavily of footage taken from Barbed Wire Dolls- and also footage from Elsa Fraulein SS and Last Train For Hitler. In many instances the film is dubbed over with different dialogue than that was in the films the footage is taken from- in an attempt to maintain a narrative through all of the composite footage."

On a positive note, there are many (mostly good looking) women that are willing to get completely nude. Still, this is not a good starting point for anyone interested in Jess Franco's career.

[agentalbert]

Thanks for the comments. It doesn't cost much (still $13.99 at deepdiscount), but even if the movie and disc are a mess, that would be worth it just to have it with the un-sanitized artwork. I'll have to watch this soon just to put it to bed.

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by agentalbert

Thanks for the comments. It doesn't cost much (still $13.99 at deepdiscount), but even if the movie and disc are a mess, that would be worth it just to have it with the un-sanitized artwork. I'll have to watch this soon just to put it to bed.

Although I was not a fan of the film I'm still glad to own it. I'm trying to be a Franco completist on HD.

[agentalbert]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

No truer words have ever been spoken. I didn't read up on the film until after I watched it to see that it was mostly footage from other films. At 84 minutes this was still a chore to get through. The editing was pretty bad but that kind of makes sense considering how the film was made.

The Blu-ray is low end as well. No slipcover or reversible sleeve. There are at least two errors on the package as well. It has a listed run time of 75 minutes (which is what IMDB states) but the disc is actually 84 minutes long. It also lists Lina Romay as being sent to prison for killing her father but in the film she calls him Uncle Jess multiple times.

I watched most of this last night. I noticed on the English dub, he's Uncle Tony, but is Uncle Jess on the French. While both are dubbed, it seemed like the actors were mostly speaking French, and the French dub matched their lips closer. That whole faked slow-motion sequence was hilarious to watch! I don't know the mechanics of slow-motion. I thought you sped up the film so it appears slow when played back at 24 frames. Maybe the equipment Franco was working with wouldn't work, or they didn't have time to adjust things. So he and Lina just try and move in slo-mo, which was very funny!

I also got a kick out of the governor playing with his little army men figures in his office.

I found I had the Full Moon Barbed Wire Dolls disc as well, but had never watched it. Just did, and it's a much better picture. It's actually coherent as a story, and despite being Full Moon and so having a fake 5.1 lossy audio (English only, no subs), it's a much better looking transfer.