Caged Heat

I was never an aficionado of "women in prison" films.  There were plenty of 'em in the 1970s and '80s.  They seemed to play to the lowest denominations: perverts, fetishists, frat boys chanting for more shots of boobs.  Even in my most prurient of days as a film buff I had little interest in watching sex and violence fests behind bars, certain to include obligatory strip searches and shower scenes, punctuated with grisly rapes and torture.  But surely there was quality, possibly even non-exploitive drama to be mined from this setting.

Orange is the New Black was just that for many viewers.  I have not invested time into that one, but of course I can attest there have been several worthwhile movies and television programs that considered the plight of the incarcerated. 1974's CAGED HEAT is most certainly in the grind house class, with many of the requisite elements listed in my first paragraph.  Why did I bother with this? Had my tastes for low budget sleaze widened a bit? Nope.  Check the director.

Yes, I've been on a slow mission to become a Jonathan Demme completist.  He has long been one of my favorite such artists.  His resume is very diverse, and his beginnings were quite modest.  It all started with CAGED HEAT, made for Demme's mentor Roger Corman.  You know Roger's formula - do what you want, but throw in some violence and nudity.  Nothing too graphic.  Exploitation movies were fun in the 1970s.  Many smarter than you might think, too.  Lots of social satire.

I was fully expecting to wince and repeatedly check my watch as I endured this movie.  But it was actually a lot of fun.  In those ways, sure.  There are numerous of shots of naked women.  Girl fights.  Chases. Shootouts.  But there is also a near rape and some torture.  But Demme's quirky sensibility is all over this movie, far moreso than I would've guessed.  His screenplay involves the jailing of a woman named Jacqueline (Erica Gavin, well known to fans of Russ Meyer films) following a drug bust.  She's doe eyed but nobody's victim, including that of the prison bully, Maggie (Jaunita Brown).  Inevitably, there's a jailbreak.

Demme's touch is evident in numerous dream sequences.  He also spends quite a bit of time on an inmate talent show.  His direction is quite assured and imaginative throughout, and with him cinematographer Tak Fujimoto creates some memorable shots (loved the staircase pan).  Sly dialogue and a good sense of small town folksiness (the latter a Demme trademark to come).  There are several moments of oddball humor, quite welcome and unexpected.  Casting B-starlet Barbara Steele as the repressed, wheelchair bound warden who addresses the prisoners by their full names, last name always first, is the piece de resistance of the director's m.o.  She even gets her own dream sequence.

CAGED HEAT really does get to have it both ways - plenty of  peanut gallery fare to delight to the unwashed while those who appreciate more surreal moments will also be pleased, though many in the latter camp will never give this movie a chance.  But c'mon, it's Demme! And John Cale did the score!  You don't even need a case of Schlitz to get through this thing, dear snobby cineaste!