Although advertised as a women-in-prison flick this is more of an attack on the absurdity of capital punishment but the film can also be read as a comment on the generation gap taken to absurd extremes. The people in charge of the prison are all old crones who punish young women who defy their rigid and outdated moral codes. The British are notoriously prudish about sex in their cinema and this film is no different as they cast a French actress to play the one who is imprisoned for being a sexual libertine. Sheila Keith is effective as always as the stern disciplinarian and the prison interiors are palpably dark and dank with a sickly green tint that emits feelings of the sickness within the walls. Unfortunately the pace is slow, much of the film is bogged down by the search for the missing girl, and some dialog scenes go on much too long.
Review of House of Whipcord
