The Big Doll House

1971

Action / Drama / Thriller

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 100% · 7 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.8/10 10 3325 3.3K

prison rape sadism exploitation women's prison torture

Plot summary

Female prisoners in a Philippine jail are being subjected to sadistic torture. Five of the women -- along with the help of two men -- plot an escape.

Director

Jack Hill Photo
Jack Hill

Top cast

Pat Woodell Photo
Pat Woodell as Bodine
Pam Grier Photo
Pam Grier as Grear
Sid Haig Photo
Sid Haig as Harry
Christiane Schmidtmer Photo
Christiane Schmidtmer as Miss Dietrich
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
871.3 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds 2
1.58 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 34 min
Seeds 13

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Infofreak

Enjoyable chicks'n'chains movie.

'The Big Doll House' may not be the first women in prison movie of the 1970s but it was one of the most influential, kicking off the short lived but legendary Made-in-the-Philippines-but-set-in-some-nameless-Banana-republic cycle. The tape I watched was part of "The Pam Grier Collection" but to say Grier is the STAR of this movie is an exaggeration. Judy Brown is the star and Roberta Collins is equally important as Grier. But Brown didn't do all that much after this, and Collins is only remembered by exploitation buffs (for 'Caged Heat', 'Death Race 200' and 'Eaten Alive'), while Grier became a blaxploitation icon. That's cool, but let's not fool ourselves here. As enjoyable as it is watching Pam in this one she really doesn't do all that much. Jack Hill regular Sid Haig ('Spider Baby') has some memorable and amusing schtick with her. He plays a horny guy who brings the female prisoners food and other treats for cash. Grier and Haig obviously made a great team, and Hill would exploit this in his even more enjoyable 'The Big Bird Cage', which isn't a sequel to this movie as many seem to think. 'Bird Cage' is the better movie, but 'Doll House' is still a pretty good movie that any fan of 1970s b-grade movies will get a kick out of.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by bensonmum2 6 / 10

Sid steals the show

  • A WIP film with Pam Grier and Sid Haig with Jack Hill directing – what could go wrong? The Big Doll House is not as over-the-top as it might have been. In fact, a lot of what happens is fairly tame for a WIP. The torture scenes aren't as graphic as you might expect. The fight scenes aren't as brutal as you would hope for. And some of the acting is terrible. Pam Grier may be one of my favorite actresses of all time, but it's easy to see that this was one of her first movies. There's a big difference between Pam Grier in The Big Doll House and Pam Grier in Jackie Brown.


  • So why rate it a 6/10 and not lower. Regardless of its problems and shortcomings, it's still an enjoyable movie. There's a lot of really fun 70s cheese on display. And Sid Haig is magnificent. Every scene he's in is a highlight of the movie. Watching Sid run through the woods in his tighty-whitey's had me laughing out loud.

Read more IMDb reviews

2 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment