The Naked Cage (1986) Cannon/Action-Drama RT: 97 minutes Rated R (nudity, sex, violence, language, drugs) Director: Paul Nicholas Screenplay: Paul Nicholas Music: Christopher L. Stone Cinematography: Hal Trussell Release date: March 7, 1986 (US) Cast: Shari Shattuck, Angel Tompkins, Lucinda Crosby, Christina Whitaker, Stacey Shaffer, Nick Benedict, John Terlesky, Faith Minton, Aude Charles, Angela Elayne Gibbs, Carole Ita White, Lisa London, Leslie Scarborough, Valerie McIntosh, Larry Gelman, Susie London, Flo Gerrish, James Ingersoll, Seth Kaufman, William Bassett, Nora Niesen. Box Office: $3.1M (US)
Rating: ***
I knew what I was in for when I went to see The Naked Cage late one Sunday afternoon at the City Line Theater. I had previous experience with the women-in-prison subgenre courtesy of Chained Heat (a genre classic!) and The Concrete Jungle, but it wasn’t just that. You might say a little birdie told me if you like clichés. When I got there my friend and classmate JW was hard at work as an usher. When he saw me, he said “Hey George, where’s your raincoat?” I knew then I was in the right place.
Directed by Paul Nicholas of Chained Heat infamy, The Naked Cage marks the end of an era in exploitation cinema. It’s an ebulliently trashy coda to the cycle of WIP movies that played theatrically. The subgenre had a good run in the 70s and early 80s, but it was time for it to move onto the next frontier, home video. With smaller studios like Cannon and New World closing up shop in the late 80s, titles like The Naked Cage would no longer appear on theater marquees instead lining the shelves of video stores everywhere including one near you.
Surprisingly, The Naked Cage doesn’t have its warden running a prostitution ring out of the prison. I mean, isn’t that a mainstay of the genre? Oh well, at least it has everything else starting with a main character who shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Meet Michelle (Shattuck, Hot Child in the City), a sweet country girl trying to get her life together after ending her marriage to drug addict/car thief Willy (Terlesky, Deathstalker II). He hooks up with escaped con Rita (Whitaker, Assault of the Killer Bimbos) after he picks her up hitchhiking while driving a stolen car. After blowing away a cop and diner owner, they decide to up their game to bank robbery; specifically, the bank where Michelle works as a teller. Of course, it goes horribly wrong and Michelle gets mixed up in it. She gets sent up for a three-year stretch based on Rita’s false testimony.
Once inside, Michelle catches the attention of the warden Diane (Tompkins, Murphy’s Law), a kinky lesbian who uses attractive inmates as her personal sex toys. Diane promises Michelle “privileges” if she does what she’s told. This includes spying on fellow inmate Sheila (Minton, Smokey and the Bandit Part 3), a top dog who deals in drugs and protection for money. Michelle refuses the warden’s deal and is subsequently made fair game to the prisoners and guards including slimy serial rapist Smiley (Benedict, Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off). As if that wasn’t enough, she must also deal with Rita who turns up looking to kill her for putting her back in the slammer.
It goes without saying that The Naked Cage does NOT offer an accurate portrayal of life behind bars. It’s a girls’ penitentiary that only exists in the realm of exploitation cinema. Where else will you find a warden’s office that looks like a luxury suite at an adult motel? I’d posit it’s designed by the same decorator who put a hot tub in John Vernon’s office in Chained Heat. Also, show me a prison system that allows an inmate to transfer so she can settle an old score. There has to be at least one higher-up that isn’t corrupt. Then there’s the literal racial divide in the prison. To look at the place, you’d think that segregation was still a thing in ’86 with the white girls dressed in blue and the black girls in pink. Either that or the warden is unusually fashion-conscious. Speaking of fashion, how awesome is it that the prison keeps up with the times with its dress code. With her punk hairstyle and torn Flashdance-style uniform, Rita looks like a Go-Go turned bad. There’s more feathered hair in this joint than in my entire high school. How very 80s! This is the kind of thing that makes these movies so cool.
Like all WIP movies, The Naked Cage is totally awash in sleaze. It features plenty of girl-on-girl action in terms of both sex and violence. It has plenty of nudity, T, A & B. There are a few good catfights including one between Rita and Sheila. There’s also an electrocution, an inmate being force-fed broken glass and a climactic riot. It has slimeball guards except for one (Crosby, Pretty Woman) who appears to have a moral compass. It even has a dance scene where the black girls get to strut their stuff in the yard.
The movie has a great cast that also includes WIP vet Carole Ita White (I LOVE her!) as one of Sheila’s flunkies. The performances consist mainly of overacting; this is especially true of Whitaker, apparently a master of the art of nostril flaring. Her character borders on parody most of the time. Shattuck is believable as a naïve country girl out of her element, WAY OUT. Stacey Shaffer, who plays gamine heroin addict Amy, is actually very good. Dare I say she lends a note of pathos?
Don’t you just love the title The Naked Cage? It’s perfect for a sleazy, silly WIP flick. It tells you all you need to know. While it hardly represents cinema at its finest, it’s definitely one of the better ones of its ilk. It’s surprisingly well made on a technical level. The POV shot of Rita’s return is especially cool. It’s like something out of a slasher movie. Sure, it’s completely predictable right to the end, but it’s fun getting there.
