Friday 13 March 2015

6 Schwedinnen hinter Gittern (1980, dir: Ann Perry) Illusions UNLTD Blu-Ray Review

 Candide Royalle (Ultra Flesh) stars as Lolita Wanamaker, a young and attractive woman recently sentenced to a few years in prison. She immediately makes a good first impression. Neither the prison guards or her fellow inmates can't take their hands off her. The inmates are a close-knit group who go by the name of 'The Beavers'. When they aren't getting it on with each other, they're having their own fun with the prison staff. Seems like it's more of a holiday camp than a prison right? Wrong! You see, the girls have to live in squalid conditions and they've had enough! They do what all disgruntled prisoners usually do and sign a petition? Unfortunately for them, Warden Blowhard, played by Ian McGregor (Undercovers) is a tight-fisted and selfish chap. When he isn't being an arrogant prick, he's getting some extra service off his lovely secretary Miss Cole, played by Lisa De Leeuw (Center Spread Girls). After having a small riot, the inmates get a chance to have their voices heard properly, by having a baseball match with the prison guards who call themselves 'The Dicks'. Will the girls get their own way? Will the warden have a change of heart? You'll have to find out for yourself!

Overall, 6 Schwedinnen hinter Gittern (known to most as Ballgame) is light-hearted Women in Prison flick with a simple premise. Aside from some of the talent on show, this is a pretty uneventful film. The comedy is hokey and feels dated for even for when the film was produced. The likes of Candid Royalle, Herschel Savage (Debbie Does Dallas) and Tawny Pearl (Taboo) are really the only memorable aspects of the film. Not even the sex really held my interest. That being said, this film does have quite possibly the hottest training montage sequences I have seen in a long time (combining squat exercises with face sitting is something I want to see more!). I do also have to give props to the selection of library music used throughout. There are some fun and genuinely great songs for those who like that sort of thing (I certainly do!). Yeah, in terms of a Women in Prison film, it doesn't really deliver. As a piece of pornography, it's pretty hit and miss. Aside from the typical lesbian scenes, you may find yourself fast forwarding a few times. The film could have been trimmed down about 10 minutes to make it a 60 minute feature. Some may appreciate the film more than I did and I certainly know a lot of people who will love this.
Unfortunately, the Blu-ray transfer isn't fantastic. The picture is quite grainy and doesn't actually look like it's a Blu-Ray you are watching. To go with that, the English language track (the version I watched) is very muddy in places and a buzzing sound can be heard quite a lot throughout. That being said, the film also comes with a much superior German language track and English subtitles so that's not a problem. This is however a much better presentation than the Caballero disc so get rid of that one and buy this if you want to see this film. In terms of special features you get a trailer for the film, a photo gallery and a selection of other trailers (some great viewing there). Overall, it's a pretty standard release, but definitely worth looking in to if you are a fan of the genre. Just take in to account that you may be better off buying the DVD version of the film. Either way, hats off to Illusions UNTLD for presenting this film in an affordable way.

6 Schwedinnen hinter Gittern is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Illusions UNLTD.

3 comments:

  1. Can you confirm if this is an edited version? The 77 minute running time is a bit of a concern. I know one of the other Franco releases had the hardcore cut as a hidden extra. Just wondering about this release.

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  2. I have this. Unfortunately, this is the CUT version. No hardcore scenes here. I was hoping the hardcore cut would be included as an extra but no such luck. Definitely not recommending this especially after seeing the hardcore version that you can still watch in the internet.

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  3. There were definitely hardcore shots on the disc I watched. It wasn't crammed full, but I remember hardcore scenes in this version. Unfortunately I don't have access to a Blu-Ray player at the moment to rewatch (I did watch the Ascot / Illusions Blu-Ray when reviewing, just to clear that up).

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