Fugitive Girls

After having to sit through disappointing DVD edition after edition of the film since the VHS era, we finally get the "adult" version! This is easily the most fun of the Ed Wood/A.C. Stephens films and Wood even shows up as TWO characters! The picture quality is as good as you are going to get, and Frank Henenlotter and Rudolph Grey provide a commentary track, but Grey sounds so grumpy and bored that it makes you wonder why he is even there. He sounds like he is having no fun whatsoever. If you combine this with the commentary track from "Big Box Of Wood' you get a lot of nifty info on this movie. An essential buy if you are an Ed Wood fan. As for the Ed Wood/AC Stephens collaborations, get this and "Orgy Of The Dead" and you will pretty much have that era covered. You are not missing much beyond that.

I saw the original movie on VHS and thought it was really hot. Great scenes with lots-o-nudity. Got the DVD. WHERE ARE THOSE SCENES? Rip off. Don't get this DVD if you liked the scenes from the original VHS, because THEY AREN'T THERE! :(

I never heard of this until this release. After watching it - I knew why I had never heard of it - where could they show this? This is really soft (almost hard) lesbian porn with a prison setting for an excuse for the lesbianism. The women are sexy, but in truth, this is actually a pretty good stand-alone film without the porn scenes! They clearly hired some of the filthiest people around to do this film and the lesbianism was REAL! There was a scene when one female does things with a man, and that seemed to real to be faked - at least for the woman! I still never know the filthy minds that come up with such things, but like I wrote, the main theme of the film (the prison break) was actually compelling enough without the gay stuff. All it did was show gays to be ruthless, sex-crazed and terrorists to normal people. It WAS 1974, so maybe that was the difference? Then again, I did not know they did this in 1974. I had to read up on the cast and it seems as if they were porn 'performers,' so that explains the type of filthy person who would stoop so low for a role in a film like this. Ah well.

As far as Exploitation goes, I’ve seen better and seen worse. This isn’t as entertaining as the Women-in-Prison flicks that Roger Corman made in the ‘70s. I like my Exploitation a little more scuzzy and disturbing. There are a couple of long, drawn-out sex scenes that make this soft-core porn. Talie Cochrane steals the movie, though. She plays the lesbian leader of the five girls who break out of a prison farm and every time she’s on-screen, she commands your attention. She needed stronger characters to play off. Dona Desmond was also good but her character wasn’t as strong as Talie’s. Although this was released in 1974, I wonder if it was shelved for a few years. The cars, clothes, psychedelic opening credits all seem to scream “1971” more than 1974, but I could be wrong. The print looks terrific, except for a few burn marks that pop up a few times. The commentary was boring, though. I didn’t make it past the first 20 minutes as the guys sound disorganized and basically read credits from IMDB. Worth seeing at least once for Talie Cochrane’s performance. Imagine Ellen Degeneres playing a tough bitch in an old drive-in movie and you have an idea what you’re in for.

I'm a huge fan of "Fugitive Girls" (aka "Five Loose Women") and have anxiously awaited the DVD release for ten years or more. While this DVD is superior in audio and video quality to the multiple VHS versions I own, it is missing a total of five minutes! The sex scenes are cut down to nothing, which is a real shame because they contain some magnificently cheesy dialog and acting, and their absence really takes away from the powerfully trashy experience that is "Fugitive Girls". It is likely that the best-looking source print this company was able to find was missing these scenes, but I would have liked them to say so somewhere on the DVD. It's a rip-off.

As far as Exploitation goes, I’ve seen better and seen worse. This isn’t as entertaining as the Women-in-Prison flicks that Roger Corman made in the ‘70s. I like my Exploitation a little more scuzzy and disturbing. There are a couple of long, drawn-out sex scenes that make this soft-core porn. Talie Cochrane steals the movie, though. She plays the lesbian leader of the five girls who break out of a prison farm and every time she’s on-screen, she commands your attention. She needed stronger characters to play off. Dona Desmond was also good but her character wasn’t as strong as Talie’s. Although this was released in 1974, I wonder if it was shelved for a few years. The cars, clothes, psychedelic opening credits all seem to scream “1971” more than 1974, but I could be wrong. The print looks terrific, except for a few burn marks that pop up a few times. The commentary was boring, though. I didn’t make it past the first 20 minutes as the guys sound disorganized and basically read credits from IMDB. Worth seeing at least once for Talie Cochrane’s performance. Imagine Ellen Degeneres playing a tough bitch in an old drive-in movie and you have an idea what you’re in for.