House of Whipcord.
A young french model heads off for a weekend away with a bloke she's just met. He seems nice and the name Mark E. Desade is just a coincidence surely!?
Nope.
He's working for his mum, a messed up moralist who has set up her own prison to deal with 'fallen women' who have been through the justice system and not properly punished in her eyes. She's working with her ex-judge husband, a blind ineffectual figure there to add some level of legitimacy to proceedings. Also she has two female wardens there to keep the girls in check, including an incredibly butch looking Shelia Keith who would go on to work with Director Pete Walker again on FRIGHTMARE.
This is essentially a women in prison movie. Unlike the gritty urban sexploitation of the AIP films or the softcore efforts of the Euro-crowd (in some cases a lot more hardcore) whipcord does not seem to be set up to titillate. Walker delivers a stark, bleak, cold and brutal film that is uncomfortable to watch and leaves you feeling rather grotty. Its a very well crafted swipe at puritanical 'victorian values' moralists like Mary Whitehouse that for me stands as one of the very best women in prison movies i've seen.
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