Nightmare in Badham County

Whatever happened to Kim Wilson who played "Emiline?" She was the first victim of the evil Robert Reed. (Sorry for putting this in the review section, but there is no message board.) Want a review? Two cosmopolitan coeds from UCLA get arrested on trumped up charges in Mississippi. They can either put out for the sheriff, or risk a stint in the county work farm. These girls opt for the work farm, where they encounter sexual exploitation, physical violence, and even murder. Of course, every town in the south at this time was ruled over by corrupt law enforcement and had a county work farm to oppress women, African Americans, and other minorities. Unsuspecting, virtuous northerners were regularly imprisoned in such towns. Everyone knows this, right? Television icons Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) and Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island) play villains in a departure from type casting. Despite the clichés this movie can be fun to watch so long as your expectations remain check. But, the real question is, where is the lovely and talented Kim Wilson?

UCLA coeds Cathy Phillips (Deborah Raffin) and Diane Emery (Lynne Moody) are driving around the country before the start of school. They get a flat tire. A black man is willing to help them but that gets the ire of Sheriff Danen (Chuck Connors). The Sheriff arrests the girls for trespassing and rapes Diane in jail. When Diane tries to raise the issue, the Judge adds prostitution to the charges and sends the girls to the prison farm in Badham County. The Judge turns out to be the Sheriff's cousin. The prison is a corrupt racist excuse to provide slave labor for the well-connected. It's run by Dancer (Robert Reed) and his sadistic prisoners-turned-guards. I can't believe that this was a TV movie. Obviously, the nudity would be cut but it's still a brutal viewing experience. This is a mix of 70's sexploitation and social justice. Parts of this are very hard to watch. It is grindhouse in its nature. The acting ranges from solid professional to amateurish. Sometimes, the sexploitation detracts from the seriousness of the work.

This delightfully sleazy and moving WiP film has a pair of co-eds traveling through a small town,where they are arrested by a sleazy sheriff and sent to a work-farm.The usual sadistic goings-on result including rape,murder,white slavery and forced lesbianism."Nightmare in Badham County" features a splendid cast for example Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody as the innocent college girls,Chuck Connors as a sadistic sheriff and Fionnula Flanagan as a prisoner.The TV-version is pretty tame without scenes of rape and full-frontal nudity shown in European theatrical version.So if you are into American grindhouse cinema of 70's "Nightmare in Badham County" is an obvious must-see.8 prisoners out of 10.

Nightmare in Badham County is a 'women in prison' film, but I wouldn't recommend going into it expecting something along the same lines as the sleazy Jess Franco women in prison films as you're liable to be disappointed. That being said, this is still an excellent seventies made for TV movie and while it may be lacking in the sleaze factor; it makes up for that in other areas and John Llewellyn Moxey's film is still well worth a look. Naturally, considering that the film is a TV movie; it's not too violent, but influence was still obviously taken from the 'hicksploitation' genre and we focus on a small town where the legal system doesn't exactly adhere to the national standard. Two young college girls are driving through Badham County when they get a flat tire. After finding someone to help them, they run across the local sheriff and come a cropper when he doesn't take too kindly to them brushing off his advances and making a fool out of him. He then sets up his revenge; by having the girls thrown in a backwater prison for a minor offence. This film will no doubt get plaudits for the acting, and it's certainly above average considering the type of film. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody give good turns in the lead roles, and really do manage to draw you into their characters. Lynne Moody is the standout for me for giving the more realistic performance; Deborah Raffin overacts to quite a large and noticeable extent on several occasions. The film draws in themes of the racial divide as the prison at the centre of the film separates the blacks from the whites. This is probably the most shocking element considering the lack of sleaze. The prison itself doesn't seem as imposing as some of the prisons shown in other films, and it actually never seemed all that difficult to escape from. However, John Llewellyn Moxey creates a great atmosphere of hopelessness that stems from the inmates and surrounds the central location, which ensures the film has the right feel to it. It all boils down to a well worked and memorable ending and while this film may not be one of the best in its field; it's very good and well worth seeing!

Women's prison films are a dime a dozen. Hollywood has been churning them out for years...and they continue to get made, proving there's a built-in audience for this low-brow genre, which inevitably includes catfights, rape behind bars, lesbian guards, women used for sex and that old standby, prisoner inspection time! Two mouthy-but-innocent college girls from UCLA, joyriding across America, get railroaded into a prison work farm in the south by a sadistic sheriff. TV-made potboiler (spiced up with nudity, an extra touch of sadism and clumsily dubbed-in foul language for its overseas release) benefits from a surprisingly decent cast, including Chuck Connors, Robert Reed, Tina Louise, Della Reese, as well as Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody as the central twosome who eventually plot their escape after being pawed at endlessly. Raffin is especially good begging a frightened waitress for help, but this is ungainly, unpleasant material, exploitation at its most sleazy.

I saw this awhile ago and if you're expecting Robert Reed to be the fatherly Brady type, then go watch the Brady Bunch. He really relishes his malevolent prison warden role big time where all the prisoners are female. Interestingly, when I revisited this movie in Wikipedia recently, I didn't realize the lead star Deborah Raffin passed away in 2012 at the young age of 59. There's a sense of foreboding in this movie and there are several deaths. I think there should be a remake/reboot. I think Michael Douglas would be amazing in the role of the prison warden, and maybe in an act of innovative casting have say Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, and Demi Moore, play the prisoners.

Being a fan of 1970's made-for-TV movies AND women-in-prison films, I just couldn't miss this 1970's made-for-TV woman-in-prison flick. And as bonus, unlike other made made-for-TV WIP films like "Jackson County Jail", this was released overseas in a much sleazier version than the one that appeared on American network TV. Thus you have fairly respectable American TV actors (at least if you consider "Mike Brady" from "The Brady Bunch"and "Ginger" from "Gilligan's Island" to be "respectable") appearing in a typically sleazy WIP flick. The plot is actually fairly serious--two UCLA co-eds, one white and one black, are traveling through the Deep South. They have car trouble and are arrested for vagrancy by a racist sheriff (Bo Hopkins) the black girl earlier insulted. After a brutal (off-screen) rape they are sentenced to a work farm where they are kept segregated and cut off from the outside world and brutalized by sadistic "honorees" (prisoners acting as guards), one of whom is Tina "Ginger" Louise. Robert "Mike Brady" Reed plays the warden who takes sexual advantage of the women (again, off-screen, thank god). There is brutality, suicide, homicide, multiple escape attempts, and--in the "European" version--graphic lesbianism and a * whipping. In typical 70's fashion the end is not unambiguously happy. The "respectable" actors stay out of the sleaze scenes (but Tina Louise does do some of her guarding in a halter top and hot pants). Former Bond girl (and the much less talented sister of Natalie) Lana Wood appears in a lesbian scene with a naked inmate. And fans of 70's sleaze cinema will be gratified to know the * whip-ee is Denise Dillaway from "The Cheerleaders".(Regrettably, her scenes probably didn't make the broadcast TV version). Nor is this quite the collision of Sherwood Schwartz sitcom actors and softcore * that myself and others might have fantasized about (i.e. there's no three-way lesbian shower scene with "Mary Ann", "Marcia Brady" and "Laurie Partridge"). Still, I would certainly recommend this (especially the uncut version) to fans of both 70's made-for-TV and WIP movies.

I remember seeing this film maybe 15-20 years ago and it scared me. Now I doubt that it would as I would see it as a film and the girls were at least released and by and large treated fairly. The USA seems to have a great store of anecdotes of real-life sheriffs who see their town as a private fiefdom, more so than here in Australia where the 'sheriff' , is a normal police officer appointed from a central State body as against 'popularly elected by the community. I think of say prison films like Cool Hand Luke & Brubaker also in the 60-70's. I imagine that was of a bygone era as now officials well behaved.

This movie forever left an impression on me. I watched it as a Freshman in High School and was home alone that night. I think I lost all respect for Robert Reed as an actor having been a huge fan of the "Brady Bunch". I also thought the role of Chuck Connor was horrendous and evil. However, this movie made such an impact on me that I am now a volunteer in the women's state prison doing bible studies and church services and trying to change womens lives, one at a time. What fascinates me is that so few people actually watched this movie. None of my friends watched it and my family is clueless to this day when I discuss this movie because they didn't see it.

I saw this so long ago I really cannot remember it scene by scene but would like to see it again. The plot has already been gone over but really quickly-this concerns two young girls traveling together unfairly thrown into the local woman's prison and the movie focuses on their plight. This I remember being as a low budget or relatively so type of movie but very well done and well acted. Not your typical "girls in prison" movie(meaning this doesn't play like a porno flcik). This movie actually focuses on these two girls as human beings and how they try to survive the brutality of their experience. It is Extremely well acted and the girls come across as so likable and so truly horrifed by their circumstances that you ache for them. I truly hope this wasn't based on a true story. In any event-the drama is in this movie despite the low budget and that is due primarily to the wonderful acting of all involved-I would recommend this movie quite a bit over the trash that's mostly out there about women in prison. Don't even know if the movie still plays anymore I saw it so long ago.