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Welcome to BIGBUSTOUT.COM.
This is a work in progress attempting to catalog & review every Women in Prison film ever made. The website is finished! The index of alternate titles is now complete and I've added a few more classic Radio Spots for your listening pleasure. Now I just need to review about 300 films!

The WIP film isn't dead! YAY! Bruce McDonald is starting production on a brand new genre film called LUCKY HO. Here is the press release:

Tough, sexy, smart.  A young Kung Fu prodigy.  Meet LUCKY HO, the eighteen year-old schoolgirl who will break your heart with a smile and break your neck with a flick of her wrist.When her mother passes away suddenly, Lucky is left alone to fend for her younger sister, TRACEY, in a world of male predators and female competitors.  As a defender of the underdog set, Lucky tries to stay cool, but her explosive temper keeps the stakes hot and attracts plenty of trouble.  Lucky watches her dreams of getting into Harvard go up in smoke as she is expelled, and the day only gets worse when she comes home to find a drunken Tracey in the hands of their disgusting stepfather and his friends.  The tension escalates into the night as threats and anger turn ugly and result in Lucky being unfairly charged for murder.

"Life on death row is no day at the prom. Lucky finds herself being thrown into a bizarre underworld filled with transvestites, bull dykes and a corrupt warden with a "passion" for his female prisoners - especially newcomer Lucky. The evil warden proffers an after hours fight club where the female inmates are pitted against each other in a gruesome battle to the death. Lucky will have to fight like never before because among these crazy inhabitants, fighting is more than survival, it's pure entertainment. As Lucky trains to combat some of the meanest inmates in prison history, only one thing keeps her going: escaping and saving Tracey from their corrupt step father. Lucky's steel will and exceptional skill will help her to overcome the dark forces that conspire against her in a world that doesn't seem to want to give her a chance. Heads will roll. High kicks will fly. Cross-dressing fashionistas will serenade bloody victories and shower brawls. From knee socks and numchucks to shakedowns and chop-ups, every fight brings Lucky one step closer to freedom."

BIG BUST OUT wishes them well on their upcoming shoot and looks forward to an advanced screener. wink wink.

LATEST REVIEW

★★★½ LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE (1931)
Directed by Marion Gering
cast: Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond,
Wynne Gibson

Poor little flower girl Kathleen Storm (Sylvia Sidney) has just married the man of her dreams, fancy-lad Standish McNeil (Gene Raymond). Before the couple can fly to Russia and start a new life that will most likely have him killed on the front lines, Kathleen's gangster ex-boyfriend, Kid Athens, shows up to rub em' out, see. Seems the old thug never got over this dame and vowed to kill anyone who took dem' gams away. A copper shows up to get Kathleen as a witness in a case against Kid just as the thug is breaking into her apartment. He fills the flatfoot full of lead, leaving the couple to take the wrap. Hotshot Assistant Attorney, John Hartman, who works for Kid Athens, manipulates the jury to a guilty verdict. Standish is sent to death row and Kathleen to tuna town. Thus begins the mucho melodrama of failed appeals, publicity stunts, undying love, stoolies, riots, bust outs and the hangman's noose.

Writer Ernest Booth was serving a life sentence in Folsom Penitentiary for bank robbery when he wrote
this script with Louis Weitzenkorn. After his early parole, due to health reasons, in 1937, Booth would write the prison flicks WOMEN WITHOUT NAMES (1940) and MEN OF SAN QUENTIN (1942). His script steers clear of some overly dramatic pitfalls common with these pictures. Unfortunately for Ernest Booth, he didn't steer clear of the law. In 1941 he was arrested and questioned in a case involving the death of wealthy socialite Florence Stricker. As a result of the arrest, he was jailed on a weapons violation charge. Several years later Booth was found guilty of a string of armed robberies and sentenced to life in San Quentin where he died from tuberculosis. Paramount really packs in the production values with some impressive action sequences and more extras than I have ever seen in a Women In Prison Film! Gloomy and fast paced, LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE is solid precode trash that should be sought out by ol' timey exploitation lovers.