Tropical Inferno (Frauen für Zellenblock 9) (Women in Cellblock 9) [Reg.2]

Also released as "Tropical Inferno" (1978), this is another Jess Franco collaboration with German producer Erwin Dietrich. The plot has to do with a group females imprisoned after being accused of conspiracy and having connections with the local guerrilla fighting some military or dictatorial government somewhere in tropical America. Of course, the prison is ran by a sadistic woman warden who is "helped" by the infamous Howard Vernon, a specialist in torture. Not really much about the plot itself. On an exploitation scale, I am giving it 3 stars, meaning this is not on the good WIP flicks. You get lots of women nudity (actually, the main prisoner characters spent nearly the entire movie naked. You will get several scenes of torture without gory close ups, and very few sex.Technically, the PAL release by Ascot Elite provides a very clear and sharp image. The feature comes in widescreen image format and ran beyond 77 minutes in my Sony PC. Thus, this is the original, uncut version of the film. By the way, and contrary to what is advertised here by Amazon, this PAL DVD comes as zone free, so it should run on any PC or other computer. Optional audios include German, English, and French. No subtitles are provided. The dubbed English may piss some I guess. Very few extras, so that's not a plus on this DVD.

The series of films that were helmed under the 'partnership' of (Producer) Erwin C. Dietrich and (director) Jess Franco have been released in a nice grouping marketed as "The Official Jess Franco Collection". The 1977 film "Women In Cellblock Nine" aka "Tropical Inferno" has been included in this offering and it is a solid representation of the duos numerous forays into plot lines that revolve around scenarios of 'incarcerated (naked) women' - a lucrative 'franchise' that they successfully 'milked' for all it was worth. Franco found many ways to offer subtle variations on the, seemingly, endlessly entrancing (to guys anyway) 'theme' - so: how do the gurlz in Cellblock 9 stack up to the competition?!Likely for both budgetary and 'censorship' reasons it appears that 'Tropical Inferno' was filmed in a jungle-ish country (perhaps the Phillipines?) where all of the 'extras' have a local 'native' appearance. The principle actors, however, are decidedly 'Germanic' looking and there is a hint in the plot that the two main 'bad-guys' might be x-Nazi types who are 'up to their old tricks' in some obscure 'tropical' country. A minimal back-story is provided as a truck carrying a group of women is stopped on a road by a bunch of para military soldiers under the command of the (previously noted) neo-Nazi 'couple' - a female 'Ilsa-esque' commandant and her 'old partner' a nefarious male 'doctor'. The 3 best looking girls in the truck are whisked off to the jungle 'prison' to be interrogated for their 'terrorist' associations by the evil team... and all are chained up naked until, one by one, they are led off to 'the basement' where they are tortured to force confessions. When the 'prisoners' have finally 'had enough' they manage to seduce one of their guards, escape their bonds, and off they go into the jungle where we are treated to many scenes of naked girls running through the dense foliage and fording alligator infested rivers until the film's rather shockingly abrupt and nihilistic ending.I would have to rate this as one of Franco's 'nastier' films in terms of it's premise - basically torturing and hunting down women. The 'brutality' in the scenes of the 'interrogations' are mostly 'alluded to' by close-ups of grimacing faces as the 'prisoners' are subjected to classic torments such as electric shock, riding the saw horse, and (horror of horrors) the 'hamster in the you know where'... scant micro-seconds of which are actually portrayed. Generally, the sexploitational elements are not particularly explicit - mostly just full female nudity as the girls are going through their paces. Franco's 'trademark' camera work and editing style are in evidence - delivering their usual 'flat' level of cinematic 'excitement' as the predictable plot slogs forward - as is often the case, the 'enjoyment' of the movie is largely based on the attractiveness of the actresses involved and what they 'get up to'. In this instance the girlz are very pleasing to look at (Karine Gambier especially!) and pretty much naked throughout, but the 'action' is not so hot.Technically, the film transfer is very nice - a pristine widescreen image - the english language dub is OK - the 'extras' are minimal... some print bio's & filmographies, posters, and 'original' trailers for the film. In the final analysis... Typical Franco fare with the requisite naked girl factor nicely covered, but nuthin' to get 'uber' excited about.

Excellent service (& film), but not the title I sought. Oh well, we all live & learn. Just hope someone else gives it a good home. (I'm after Erotic Inferno, from around the same time, but maybe from different country)