''Nightmare in Badham County'' is a 1976 American women-in-prison

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

directed by

John Llewellyn Moxey John Llewellyn Moxey (26 February 1925 – 29 April 2019) was an Argentinian-born British film director, film and television director. He was known for directing the horror film ''The City of the Dead (film), The City of the Dead'' (also known as ...

and starring

Chuck Connors Kevin Joseph Aloysius "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have p ...

Deborah Raffin Deborah Iona Raffin (March 13, 1953 – November 21, 2012) was an American actress, model and audiobook publisher. Early life Raffin was born in Los Angeles, California, to actress Trudy Marshall and Phillip Jordan Raffin, a restaurateur and b ...

, and

Lynne Moody Emmalyn Paulette Moody (born February 17, 1950), known professionally as Lynne Moody, is an American film and television actress. Beginning her career in the early 1970s, Moody is best known her roles as Tracy Curtis–Taylor in the ABC televisi ...

.The Independent—ABC to air controversial rape-violence film
/ref> Its plot follows two female college students from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

who, while traveling cross-country, are remanded to a women's

prison farm A prison farm (also known as a penal farm) is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are forced to work on a farm legally and illegally (in the wide sense of a productive unit), usually for manual labor, largely in the open air ...

in a corrupt Southern town. The film was so popular in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

that it was released in cinemas and Raffin became the first Western actress to make a promotional tour of the country, after which she became an unofficial ambassador helping China make deals with

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

.The Independent—Obituary: Deborah Raffin: Actress and businesswoman
/ref>

Plot

Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody in Nightmare in Badham County

While driving on a cross-country summer trip, two

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

students, Cathy and Diane, get a flat tire in a rural Southern community. A local, George, helps the women put on the spare tire, during which they are confronted by the local sheriff, Slim Danen, who is standoffish toward the women. The women again rebuff Danen at a diner while getting their car fixed. After being told their car's water pump needs to be replaced, the women leave the car at the shop overnight and camp in the woods. In the middle of the night, Danen arrives and arrests the women for trespassing, and remands them to the county jail. That night, Danen sexually assaults Diane while Cathy witnesses the attack from a separate cell. At their hearing the next day, the corrupt local judge informs Cathy and Diane that they owe a significant amount of money for their car repairs, which both contest. During the hearing, Diane tells the judge that Danen raped her. The women are subsequently sent to Badham County Farm, a working

, to serve a 30-day sentence. There they are overseen by Superintendent Dancer and three female guards, Dulcie, Smitty, and Greer. Cathy is horrified when she learns that the women's residence halls are

racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

, resulting in Cathy being housed with all white women, and Diane placed in an all-black ward. Cathy and Diana witness a number of atrocities committed at the farm, including the guards humiliating and abusing the inmates, and using racial epithets. Diane is taken under the wing of Sara, a longtime inmate at the farm. Cathy's sentence is extended by sixty days after she is implicated in a fight while working in the fields. A short time later, Cathy and several other inmates are allowed to leave for the day to serve drinks and wait on members of the local high society at an elite party, under the supervision of Dancer. Cathy attempts to ask for help from numerous attendees, but they all ignore her pleas. In the house, Cathy surreptitiously attempts to phone her parents in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, but is caught by Dulcie. Dulcie, who is sympathetic to Cathy, only gives a mere warning, but after Smitty and Greer hear of the attempt, they bind Cathy's arms in the middle of the night and

flagellate A flagellate is a cell or organism with one or more whip-like appendages called flagella. The word ''flagellate'' also describes a particular construction (or level of organization) characteristic of many prokaryotes and eukaryotes and their ...

her. Diane attempts to flee the prison by hiding on a bus transferring visitors back to town, but is caught and placed in solitary confinement. While delivering produce from the farm to the local diner, Cathy pleads with a waitress there to contact her parents, and writes down their contact information. The waitress, who remembers Cathy and Diane eating at the diner, is sympathetic to her. When leaving town in the prison truck, Cathy watches as the gas station proprietor passes by in her car. Later that night, Smitty confronts Cathy with the note she wrote to the waitress, and threatens Cathy with an extended sentence if she attempts to escape again. Together, Cathy and Diane manage to devise an escape attempt together, planning to retrieve Cathy's car in town, which has a spare key hidden beneath the bumper. Diane distracts Danen by speeding with Cathy's car, allowing Cathy enough time to call her parents from a phone booth. The plan works as Cathy is able to reach her family, but Diane subsequently goes missing. Cathy's father arrives the next day to pick her up, and Cathy demands that Diane be freed, but Danen and Dancer refute having any knowledge of her whereabouts, insisting she escaped. After she is freed from the farm, Cathy visits Sara in the working fields, and asks her if she has seen Diane. Sara tearfully informs Cathy that she witnessed the workers burying Diane's body in an unmarked grave, among various others belonging to inmates who attempted to escape.

Cast

Release

The film was released in the United States as an

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

movie-of-the-week in 1976, while an extended theatrical cut, running 100 minutes, was released internationally.

References

Sources

External links

* * - Review/Discussion of the film and its place in the 1970s 'Women in Prison' fad. * - Video review of the film. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nightmare in Badham County 1976 films 1976 television films ABC network original films American LGBT-related films 1970s English-language films Films about miscarriage of justice Films about race and ethnicity Films about racism Films directed by John Llewellyn Moxey Films with screenplays by Jo Heims Films about rape in the United States Women in prison films American drama television films 1970s American films