This Fox Cinemascope feature bridges the gap between the women in prison flicks of the 1950s and the AIP Women In Cages cycle of the 70s. There's rape, torture, and large breasts straining against tight tops---but only in moderation. Seven women--most of them looking like refugees from, oh, 1961 rather than the wartime Philippines--find themselves at the mercy of the merciless Imperial Japanese Army and endeavour to escape the clutches of the fiendish Orientals, personified best by Richard Loo in the scenery-chewing role of the ruthless sergeant in charge of the prison camp. Cesar Romero shows up for the final reel in what turns out to be a most unsatisying ending. The film looks good thanks to Floyd Crosby's camera work but is let down by a weak script and incredibly poor costuming, make-up, and (in most cases) acting.
7 Reviews
Women went Through Hell
whpratt123 January 2009
A group of women from different walks of life were captured by the Janpanese army during WW II and separated from their husbands and boyfriends.
All these women soon learned that the Japanese army was very cruel in their treatment of women and expected the gals to bow upon greeting and leaving their presences.
All the women tried to escape on many occasions and failed and were punished by beatings and torture methods. There was plenty of action and even some romance was created by veteran actor Cesar Romero who had a great way of charming the ladies.
There was even time for humor and you will never guess how this film ends. Enjoy.
All these women soon learned that the Japanese army was very cruel in their treatment of women and expected the gals to bow upon greeting and leaving their presences.
All the women tried to escape on many occasions and failed and were punished by beatings and torture methods. There was plenty of action and even some romance was created by veteran actor Cesar Romero who had a great way of charming the ladies.
There was even time for humor and you will never guess how this film ends. Enjoy.
Mediocre
Uriah4321 November 2013
This movie starts off with women of different nationalities being captured by the Japanese in New Guinea at the start of World War 2 and sent to a concentration camp in the jungle. While there they are forced to do manual labor and are given very little to eat. When an allied air patrol strafes the compound their rations are cut even further. Then, after a guard tries to rape one of them, six of them escape into the jungle. One woman named "Mara Shepherd" (Margia Dean) is caught almost immediately afterward and is crucified in front of the remaining prisoners as a lesson. The remaining five face imminent danger and possible recapture by the Japanese as they try to find safety. Anyway, rather than disclose what happens next and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this is a mediocre film in the "Women in Prison" genre which is watchable enough but isn't quite able to convey the horror and brutality women in this situation surely had to endure. There is no sex, nudity or graphic language and even the violence is toned down to a certain degree. But the acting is sufficient and there are a few attractive women, specifically Patricia Owens (as "Grace Ingram"), Yvonne Craig ("Janet Cook") and Pilar Seurat ("Mai-Lu Ferguson") to brighten the screen. All things considered then I give this movie a rating of average.
Ladies on the lamb
oscar-3528 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I found this film on a late night Memorial Day WW2 movies marathon. It was vintage female cast film commemorating the atrocities of the Japanese Philipino occupation. The curvy ladies in this film demonstrate all the layers of American society trying to stay free. Richard Loo turns into another villain role. It was fun to see an early Yvonne Craig, TV's Batgirl in a meatier role filled with drama. The other female cast consists of seasoned stage actresses who do well in portraying worried characters. Cesar Romero is a nice treat to this film in his contribution to move the plot along. The film's surprise ending is a nice treat, but somewhat old and tired.
Lousy copy of 'Three Came Home'
HotToastyRag26 April 2021
Patricia Owens is a fine actress and very pretty, but after the late 1950s, she either made bad choices or was given the lousy movies nobody else wanted. I sat through 7 Women from Hell because I thought her acting chops would be utilized, but it felt like a college production.
Patricia and a group of women are captured in New Guinea at the start of WWII and sent to a Japanese prison camp. The guards aren't nice to them, the men are separated and sent to a different camp, the food is inedible, and there's an attempted rape that involves and intense physical struggle. It's a total copy of Three Came Home, even down to the "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" song that isn't nearly as effective in this movie as in the original. This version is really cheap, so you're better off sticking with the original. You don't believe for a minute Patricia or her friends are in a prison camp, from their endless attitude towards their captors that would undoubtedly earn them beatings or death in real life, to their salon-style hairdos that never get disheveled. And if you're waiting for Cesar Romero or John Kerr to show up, you're bound to be disappointed. John only has about five minutes of screen time, and Cesar doesn't show up until the last ten minutes.
Patricia and a group of women are captured in New Guinea at the start of WWII and sent to a Japanese prison camp. The guards aren't nice to them, the men are separated and sent to a different camp, the food is inedible, and there's an attempted rape that involves and intense physical struggle. It's a total copy of Three Came Home, even down to the "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" song that isn't nearly as effective in this movie as in the original. This version is really cheap, so you're better off sticking with the original. You don't believe for a minute Patricia or her friends are in a prison camp, from their endless attitude towards their captors that would undoubtedly earn them beatings or death in real life, to their salon-style hairdos that never get disheveled. And if you're waiting for Cesar Romero or John Kerr to show up, you're bound to be disappointed. John only has about five minutes of screen time, and Cesar doesn't show up until the last ten minutes.
I never bothered to pick up any Japanese...the language I mean.
mark.waltz5 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
When the Japanese doctor (Yuki Shimoda) taking care of one of the women wounded by a brute of a guard in this Japanese women's internment camp, she compliments him on his gentility with her compared to the other staff. "That is a matter of occupation, not nationality", he says, indicating that Japanese men are quite different at home, when there's no war. "Made in Japan! No good!" another guard bellows when given a pen by another woman, indicating that the pen used to write the script for this was stuck to the tongue in the author's cheek when they put it on paper.
I didn't recognize Shimoda ("Auntie Mame's giggling man servant "Ito"), and he's the only Asian actor among the cast to play a character with any kind of compassion, although he's completely decent in every way, so he's totally loveable, and this the hero of the film as he does everything he can to help the prisoners, making him a traitor to the villains. Richard Loo, the most familiar actor of these characters isn't allowed to deliver a line without a sneer or menacing smirk. No layers between good and evil for any of them, and the female characters are pretty cliched as well, all the archetypes you see in women in prison films.
There's the requisite number of women cat fights, giving proof to the industry's belief that women confined are not civilized, although there are a few who work with each other to try to pull them together. The attempt escape sees completely ridiculous. The performances are barely serviceable, adding to the exploitation feel of the film. Denise Darcel, Patricia Owens, Yvonne Craig and Margia Dean are among them, and unless you have a good eye for faces, couldn't pick out which character they actually play. Caesar Romero and John Kerr also appear in minor parts, completely wasted. This is the type of film that you feel you shouldn't be laughing at because it's a serious subject, but if they wanted a serious subject to be taken seriously, they wouldn't have written it as ridiculously as it is and directed it that way.
I didn't recognize Shimoda ("Auntie Mame's giggling man servant "Ito"), and he's the only Asian actor among the cast to play a character with any kind of compassion, although he's completely decent in every way, so he's totally loveable, and this the hero of the film as he does everything he can to help the prisoners, making him a traitor to the villains. Richard Loo, the most familiar actor of these characters isn't allowed to deliver a line without a sneer or menacing smirk. No layers between good and evil for any of them, and the female characters are pretty cliched as well, all the archetypes you see in women in prison films.
There's the requisite number of women cat fights, giving proof to the industry's belief that women confined are not civilized, although there are a few who work with each other to try to pull them together. The attempt escape sees completely ridiculous. The performances are barely serviceable, adding to the exploitation feel of the film. Denise Darcel, Patricia Owens, Yvonne Craig and Margia Dean are among them, and unless you have a good eye for faces, couldn't pick out which character they actually play. Caesar Romero and John Kerr also appear in minor parts, completely wasted. This is the type of film that you feel you shouldn't be laughing at because it's a serious subject, but if they wanted a serious subject to be taken seriously, they wouldn't have written it as ridiculously as it is and directed it that way.
"Some of the funniest dialogue of the year!"
JohnHowardReid23 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Copyright 27 September 1961 by Associated Producers, Inc. Released through 20th Century-Fox. New York opening at neighborhood cinemas: 31 January 1962. U.S. release: October 1961. U.K. release: March 1962. Australian release: 23 February 1962. 88 minutes. Censored to 85 minutes in Britain and Australia. Location scenes filmed in Hawaii.
SYNOPSIS: Grace Ingram (Patricia Owens) is an American member of an Australian scientific expedition in New Guinea in 1942 when the Japanese invade the island. She is captured and imprisoned in a temporary women's compound. A converted missionary school, it serves as a detention center from which the prisoners will be shipped to the permanent Northern camps. Grace is placed in a cell with six other women; Janet Cook (Yvonne Craig), a pregnant American girl whose husband is in the Men's compound nearby; Ann Van Lee (Sylvia Daneel), a young German woman; Mara Shepherd (Margia Dean), a tough American girl of dubious background; Claire Oudry (Denise Darcel), a French waitress; Mai-Lu Ferguson (Pilar Suerat), an oriental nurse; and Regan (Evadne Baker), an American.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: An obvious rip-off of "A Town Like Alice", this episodic women POW film is a turgid melange of ludicrous clichés for the distaff market. Webb's direction is nondescript, despite surprisingly high production values, including Floyd Crosby's fine photography. Miss Owens makes a poor fist of the heroine, but the support cast is not without interest. Some exciting action sequences staged by Lee Zavitz give the film much-needed punch. Pacing throughout is very uneven. Choppy film editing occasioned by numerous censor cuts doesn't help either.
OTHER VIEWS:Completely strangled by a potty plot. Cesar Romero's impression of a treacherous planter is only one example of the film's wilder fantasies. The dialogue is memorably absurd, the level of technical accomplishment very low. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
Some of the funniest dialogue of the year. — Variety.
SYNOPSIS: Grace Ingram (Patricia Owens) is an American member of an Australian scientific expedition in New Guinea in 1942 when the Japanese invade the island. She is captured and imprisoned in a temporary women's compound. A converted missionary school, it serves as a detention center from which the prisoners will be shipped to the permanent Northern camps. Grace is placed in a cell with six other women; Janet Cook (Yvonne Craig), a pregnant American girl whose husband is in the Men's compound nearby; Ann Van Lee (Sylvia Daneel), a young German woman; Mara Shepherd (Margia Dean), a tough American girl of dubious background; Claire Oudry (Denise Darcel), a French waitress; Mai-Lu Ferguson (Pilar Suerat), an oriental nurse; and Regan (Evadne Baker), an American.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: An obvious rip-off of "A Town Like Alice", this episodic women POW film is a turgid melange of ludicrous clichés for the distaff market. Webb's direction is nondescript, despite surprisingly high production values, including Floyd Crosby's fine photography. Miss Owens makes a poor fist of the heroine, but the support cast is not without interest. Some exciting action sequences staged by Lee Zavitz give the film much-needed punch. Pacing throughout is very uneven. Choppy film editing occasioned by numerous censor cuts doesn't help either.
OTHER VIEWS:Completely strangled by a potty plot. Cesar Romero's impression of a treacherous planter is only one example of the film's wilder fantasies. The dialogue is memorably absurd, the level of technical accomplishment very low. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
Some of the funniest dialogue of the year. — Variety.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
