|
|
'Nightmare in Badham County' is quite serious stuff that exposes abuses in a Southern prison system. By the very nature of the television medium, it's never as exploitative as some trash lovers would like (although there IS a more explicit international version out there). Still, it's pleasingly sleazy, played for drama with little to nothing in the way of humour. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody star as Cathy and Diane, who lovely young UCLA co-oeds driving through the country who make the acquaintance of a smarmy, bigoted sheriff named Danen (Chuck Connors). When Diane spurs his advances, he gets his revenge by having them thrown in jail on trumped up charges. From then on, it becomes a fairly typical Women In Prison story, with Cathy and Diane having to adjust to the harsh reality of being forced to become slave labour. An all star main cast is no less than convincing. Tina Louise and Lana Wood are among the trustees (veteran prisoners who've been given some degree of authority) and look quite delectable; also playing a trustee is the wonderful Fionnula Flanagan as Dulcie, the one woman in the bunch who treats Cathy with anything approaching sympathy or dignity. Della Reese is Sarah, the habitual jailbird who's grown cynical and who takes Diane under her wing. Ralph Bellamy is the judge who refuses to believe the girls' story. And Robert Reed may colour your future viewings of his Mike Brady performances with a vivid turn as a monumentally creepy superintendent. Exploitation aficionados will note the presence of Denise Dillaway from "The Cheerleaders" (1973). With an effective country style music score by Charles Bernstein, this features such staples of the genre as violence (a girl is whipped, although if you're watching the edited-for-TV version, there's a cut to commercials before it really gets started) and lesbian overtures (although as you can imagine, this is done pretty subtly. Overall, this is a reasonably compelling and consistently entertaining story that gets most of its juice from Moodys' endearing portrayal; Raffin is okay but Moody has more natural appeal and presence on screen. If you enjoy this genre or any of the actors involved, you may find this agreeable enough. The ending is a truly bittersweet one, but at least the film offers some hope that things can get better. Eight out of 10.
score 8/10
Hey_Sweden 17 November 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2705890/ |
|
26-1-2020 01:05:10
