A sequel of sorts to the previous year's THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, this is a cheesy slice of women-in-prison nonsense – filmed in the sweaty, jungle confines of the Philippines where the mad warden has constructed a huge wooden machine to help in sugar processing. The WIP genre is a notorious one amongst genre fans, who can frequently expect ample offerings of nudity and violence that go hand in hand with the tasteless plots and diabolical scripting. Yet THE BIG BIRD CAGE is something different, a film that actually focuses on the (surprisingly successful) comedy inherent in such a situation. Exploitation king Jack Hill knows exactly what he's doing and he makes this film with his tongue firmly in his cheek, offering laughs a-plenty as the unbelievable shenanigans play out.
Headlining the cast is '70s black starlet Pam Grier but her prominent role on the advertising is actually a misnomer as she isn't actually in it a lot, just taking part in a couple of machine-gun wielding action scenes. More prominent is the pretty-but-wooden Anitra Ford, a glamorous model best known to US audiences for her long-running appearance on TV gameshow THE PRICE IS RIGHT. A bunch of exploitation stalwarts fill out the cast, and a couple of the best turns come from a hilarious Sid Haig as the laidback revolutionary and the Filipino Peter Lorre, Vic Diaz, given a more prominent role than usual as a gay prison guard!
The plot twists and turns are predictable and there's the usual run of in-fighting, mad women, women in cages, unpleasant death and inevitable escape. There's a lighter tone than per usual for the genre and the sex and violence is definitely turned down for this one – it never gets anything near gritty. Things chance for the action-oriented climax where things take a downbeat turn at odds with the rest of the movie's playful atmosphere. At the end of the day, THE BIG BIRD CAGE is nothing new but it does manage to be fun – something that can't be said for a lot of these genre movies.
Headlining the cast is '70s black starlet Pam Grier but her prominent role on the advertising is actually a misnomer as she isn't actually in it a lot, just taking part in a couple of machine-gun wielding action scenes. More prominent is the pretty-but-wooden Anitra Ford, a glamorous model best known to US audiences for her long-running appearance on TV gameshow THE PRICE IS RIGHT. A bunch of exploitation stalwarts fill out the cast, and a couple of the best turns come from a hilarious Sid Haig as the laidback revolutionary and the Filipino Peter Lorre, Vic Diaz, given a more prominent role than usual as a gay prison guard!
The plot twists and turns are predictable and there's the usual run of in-fighting, mad women, women in cages, unpleasant death and inevitable escape. There's a lighter tone than per usual for the genre and the sex and violence is definitely turned down for this one – it never gets anything near gritty. Things chance for the action-oriented climax where things take a downbeat turn at odds with the rest of the movie's playful atmosphere. At the end of the day, THE BIG BIRD CAGE is nothing new but it does manage to be fun – something that can't be said for a lot of these genre movies.