''Violence in a Women's Prison'' ( it, Violenza in un carcere femminile) is a

women in prison film The women in prison film (or WiP film) is a subgenre of exploitation film that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present day. Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual and physical abuse, typically by ...

directed by

Bruno Mattei Bruno Mattei (30 July 1931 – 21 May 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor who directed exploitation films in many genres, including women in prison, nunsploitation, zombie, mondo, cannibal, and Nazisploitation films. Ma ...

. The film stars

Laura Gemser Laurette Marcia Gemser (born 5 October 1950) is an Indonesian-Dutch retired actress, model and costume designer. She is primarily known for her work in Italian erotic cinema, most notably the ''Emanuelle'' series. Many of her films were collabo ...

and Gabriele Tinti. It tells the story of Emanuelle, who is sent to Santa Catarina Women's Penitentiary for drugs and prostitution, where she meets the warden and the other inmates. Her actual reason is undercover reporting for

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. It is the seventh film in the '' Emanuelle nera'' film series and the first one directed by Mattei.

Plot

Under a false identity,

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Emanuelle (

) pretends to be a

drug dealer A drug is any chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by ...

to get herself sent to

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

in order to investigate and document the brutality and abuses that inmates are subjected to. While there she is attacked, locked in solitary confinement, and injured. Emanuelle is helped by Dr. Moran ( Gabriele Tinti) and some prisoners, and is able to report her findings, after which the

perpetrators In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...

are arrested.

Cast

as Emanuelle / Laura Kendall * Gabriele Tinti as Dr. Moran * Maria Romano as Kitty * Ursula Flores as Consuelo * Antonella Giacomini as Malone * Franco Caracciolo as Leander * Françoise Perrot as Hertha *

Lorraine De Selle Lorraine de Selle is an Italian-born former actress noted for her work in Italian genre cinema during the 1970s and 1980s. Having worked with directors such as Joe D'Amato, Fernando di Leo, Ruggero Deodato and Umberto Lenzi, she remains best ...

as Head Warden * Jacques Stany as Chief Inspector * Leila Durante as Pilar * Franca Stoppi as Rescaut * Raul Cabrera as Miguel

Production

''Violence in a Women's Prison'' was directed by Bruno Mattei who is credited as Vincent Dawn or Gilbert Roussel in some prints.

Release

''Violence in a Women's Prison'' was released in 1982. It was released as ''Caged Women'' in the United States in April 1984. The film also has the alternative title ''Women's Penitentiary 4''.

Critical response

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

gave the film a rating of one star out of five, noting that "Mattei doesn't skimp on the nastiness, presenting a three-way catfight on a floor full of feces, Gemser nibbled by rats in solitary confinement, a homosexual who is sodomized to death after his straight cellmates are aroused by a striptease, and various rapes, tortures, and vomit scenes."

Home media

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

was first released by

Shriek Show Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

for Region 1 in December 2002. The all-region

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

was released by

Severin Films Severin Films is an American film production and distribution company known for restoring and releasing cult films on DVD and Blu-ray. History The label was created in 2006 in Los Angeles, and other offices were founded in New York City and Londo ...

in May 2018.

References

Parenthetical sources

* *

External links

* * 1980s exploitation films 1980s prison films Lesbian-related films Italian sexploitation films Women in prison films Emanuelle Films directed by Bruno Mattei Films scored by Luigi Ceccarelli 1980s Italian films 1980s French films {{Exploitation-film-stub