99 Women — Directed by Jesus Franco. Drama. Women lodged in a Devils’ Island-type prison are visited by a kindly woman. 99 minutes Color 1969.
*
Awful. The special features are more interesting by far than the film, and we learn it was made in ten minutes for ten cents, using footage left over from a Brazilian film with the same stars. The shrinking Mercedes McCambridge concedes to the director that she is a much greater actor than Maria Schell. With her voice like an exploding tank, McCambridge reduces every scene to shreds. Herbert Lom plays the heavy heavily. The women are the usual super-foils of the genre, but apparently they have been incarcerated in this ghastly prison with their hairdressers, for never is a lock out of place in this lock-up. And as for Maria Schell she holds the screen with her steady gaze and resolute heart and is the only one in the piece capable of acting at all – God love her. But how come this great international star was reduced to this! If you know, don’t answer.