This pic alone should have sold your ass on the flick!

The Big Bird Cage

Chicks in Chains, my kind of party!

Released: 1972
Director: Jack Hill
Starring: Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Sid Haig, Teda Bracci, Candice Roman, and Andres Centenera
Website: Amazon
Buy this movie at Amazon

A small group of revolutionaries are ready for some action, but the kid of action I’m referring to pertains to the ladies at the women’s prison camp across the jungle. Along with their fearless leader Django (Haig) and the help of his main badass girl Blossom (Grier), the bandits devise a plan to free the women enslaved and to score as heroes.

While on the inside Blossom runs into a socialite named Terry (Ford), who got innocently locked up because of a heist Dijano and Blossom left her behind on. Already in trouble due to a scandal with a local politician, Terry was already in hot water and would easily not be missed getting put away.

The conditions inside the prison camp are horrendous and all of the women are ready to start a riot to break out of these slave type conditions. With the help of Django and Blossom these bitches are ready to burn this muthafucka down!

Dijano may be the leader of the new revolution, but you gather right away he is more interested in the occasional heist, drinking, fucking, and chilling out rather than to really start a revolution. But, to keep his crew happy, and his girl, he goes along with this prison break idea. Besides, having a bunch of sex deprived women hanging around their hide out isn’t such a bad idea.

The film has a serious action element throughout, but has just the right amount of humor built into it. It’s an exploitation film at its finest; girl on girl fist fights, women slavery, riots, burning buildings, gun fights, and a ton of tittes popping out everywhere. Most of the girls in the camp that are featured carry the typical stereotypes you would expect in women in prison film.

There is a sex deprived horny chick who dreams of “doing it” once again with a man (All the guards are queer so no dice!) and the hardcore tough girl who has to be chained to the bed because she is so violent. (The chicken fat scene is hilarious; you’ll know what I am talking about when you see this!) You also have the leader of the ladies, who is a loud and butch like character, and the scared new girl who befriends Terry (the soon to be heroine).

And Terry, played by Anitra Ford, is absolutely hands down one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Throughout the movie she is barefoot, dirty, and working in the muddy jungle, but somehow she remains one of the sexiest girls you will ever gaze upon in a movie. Trust me, she is phenomenal. I read online that she shows more skin in two other movies she followed up with a year after The Big Bird Cage called Invasion of the Bee Girls and Stacey. Both are not available on DVD yet, but I did find Invasion of the Bee Girls on VHS through Amazon. Honestly, whether the film is good or not is not the point, Anitra Ford is so hot it’s worth the few bucks used on VHS.

But before I get side tracked talking about all the things that ruled about this movie, I need to also add that there are not too many actors that share the same onscreen chemistry that Pam Grier and Sig Haig do in this - and the numerous films they did together.

Jack Hill had his shit together paring them up as much as he did in his movies; they were simply an amazing combination. Years later in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, the pair was reunited one again in a quick scene with Haig appearing as Grier’s judge in her trafficking trial. According to the Jackie Brown bonus features, Tarantino never told Grier about the cameo and she walked into Haig already sitting at the bench. That’s pretty fucking rad.

The movie is a classic, superior to all the chicks in chains films that Roger Corman so gracefully brought us. There are also a few other recommendations that Haig and Grier starred in together called The Big Doll House (1971), Foxy Brown (1974), Coffy (1973), and Black Mama, White Mama (1972). All of which are equally awesome.

Here is the trailer:

Fuck yea, time to bust out the hand lotion!