Here’s a sequel of sorts to last year’s Concrete Jungle (RCA/Columbia).  That one, a tightly made low-budget picture, was a pleasant surprise on the exploitation circuit.  The acting wasn’t bad, the story almost believable, and an exciting prison riot filled the film’s conclusion.  So why do we have this alleged sequel, that’s really more of a rip-off remake?  Because Concrete Jungle made a bundle of money, that’s why.

As in Concrete Jungle, the film opens with a wide-eyed innocent, Carol (Linda Blair), entering a prison that’s full of corruption and violence.  The prison also seems to be hit by budget cutbacks, since it can’t afford to issue the inmates underwear.  The warden (John Vernon) deals in drugs and tapes porn films in his office.  Captain Taylor (the still attractive Stella Stevens) is also corrupt and she manages to put black and white inmates against each other so they don’t know what’s happening with the top brass.  And let’s not forget those other lovable characters: Erica (Sybil Danning) plays the tough, lesbian ruler of the white inmates and Duchess (Tamara Dobson, of Cleopatra Jones fame) portrays the leader of the black inmates.

The action never leaves the prison, except for one ludicrous scene where some of the inmates are smuggled out to entertain at a party.  Another curiosity is the lack of supervision in the cell blocks.  But then again, this isn’t prison documentary.

The cast is full of familiar names and faces. Cherubic Linda Blair seems lost in her role. She appears a bit too complacent, considering all the abuse she receives. She has also developed physically a great deal since The Exorcist as her recent spread in Oui Magazine proves.  Statuesque Sybil Danning lacks the conviction to qualify as the right choice for Erica.  What this super looking lady needs is exposure in a class production, like a James Bond film. If you’d like to see more of her, check out a recent issue of Playboy magazine.  Russ Meyer’s ex-compadre Edy Williams and The Pom-Pom Girls’ Jennifer Ashley are other beautiful bodies worth viewing.

But to give this one some credit, it’s a notch above some of the sleazier Women in Prison pictures.  At least it doesn’t have all those crude zoom shots and that atrocious dubbing.  Still it’s a very slight notch at that.