Chain Gang Women (1971)

Even by the low standards of Crown International Pictures, the marketing for Chain Gang Women is shameless, suggesting that the movie belongs to the lurid women-in-prison genre that, at the time of this film’s release, was generating big returns for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Instead, Chain Gang Women is about two male convicts on a chain gang. Weed (Michael Stearns) is an aggressive career criminal, while Harris (Robert Lott) is a pothead imprisoned for a minor drug offense. Following the usual routine for these types of stories, Weed breaks out while shackled to Harris, thus dragging an “innocent” guy into a crime spree. As for the women of the title, they’re Weed’s victims. First he cajoles Harris into going home, where Harris’ girlfriend acquires a hacksaw for removing the escaped convicts’ chains. Then Harris stupidly agrees to runs an errand, giving Weed an opportunity to rape Harris’ girlfriend. Later, Weed drags Harris (and the girlfriend) along to a rural house, where Weed lays siege to an old guy and his young wife. That occasions another rape. Slow-moving dreck populated by interchangeable characters, Chain Gang Women makes Corman’s various women-in-prison flicks seem zesty and imaginative by comparison. Even the use of potent blues-rock songs on the soundtrack and some zippy split-screen imagery aren’t enough to make Chain Gang Women interesting.

Chain Gang Women: LAME