From the legendary Jess Franco, who amazingly is still alive at 80+ and steadily adding to his dossier of close to two hundred films of suspect value, we have my man’s take on the Women in Prison genre of films… at least one of his takes since he’s made quite a few, in ‘Love Camp’. Not to be confused with the Laura Gemser joint also calling itself ‘Love Camp’ which was more of a Love Compound than a Love Camp. Like this place here is more of a Rape Concentration Camp as opposed to a ‘Love Camp’, but I imagine we’re just splitting hairs here.

So some women in this unknown Latin country are minding their own business not bothering anybody, doing stuff like waiting for customers at the brothel, sleeping peacefully, or preparing for a night of wedded bliss with their true love, when a bunch of soldiers abduct these women and drag them through the woods. Forever. I must have watched these poor women walk in the woods for a good ten minutes. Come on Jess, work with me here!

These women have been handpicked, because of their beauty, to service the Guerilla Soldiers of Freedom who are striving to bring Capitalism to its knees, and since these cats are risking their lives, a little loving should keep morale sky high. At least that’s the way Comrade Gino sees it (Val Davis), and to facilitate this recreation plan of his, he has elevated his top lady, whose name I don’t know (Muriel Montosse), as the Commander in Charge of the Female Satisfaction Unit. Or something like that. The newly christened Warden also has a group of female soldiers as her armed minions, who for whatever reason, go topless throughout the entire movie.

It’s WIP flick so first things first, it’s time to take some showers to wash off their ‘proletariat stink’ and while the conditions may be poor here in this jungle brothel of rape, the food distasteful, and the living accommodations below the poverty level, they have plenty of hot water for these showers they take and believe me when I tell you, the proletariat stink will not stick to these ladies, considering how often they shower.

The plot of this film, if there is one which is certainly debatable, concerns one prisoner in Angela (Ada Tauler), the bride. Angela loves her husband but Comrade Gino has chosen Angela to be his personal love thing. At first Angela was just lying their glassy eyed while Gino was hammering away, but then it started to feel good to her, so much so that Angela just might be in love with her rapist. Crazy, right? The thing is the Warden wants Angela too. While we have nothing but mad love for Angela, she is nowhere near the hottest naked women in this movie. In fact she might be the least hottest naked woman in this movie, though she does have nipples that stay erect, and if you’ve seen a Jess Franco flick, you know that’s one of his things. Time to shower again!

Angela is torn. She loves her husband that has been left behind, but her body yells for Comrade Gino. Gino loves having Angela’s body, but he wants her heart and mind. The Warden hates them both because Gino is standing in the way to her possessing Angela, and if she can’t have Angela… and there are a couple of prostitutes in our group who probably didn’t need to be kidnapped to be a part of this whole jungle brothel thing, since they have adjusted quite well. An escape attempt is imminent, the plans for this escape being jammed into Angela’s private parts by a weird doctor, and the Stockholm Syndrome will once again rear its ugly head.

There’s really not much here in this slice of sleaze calling itself ‘Love Camp’ that separates itself from any other sleazy film you’ve seen from the other European or American sleaze masters. As a Women in Prison flick it follows the perquisite WIP checklist. Do the women take at least one group shower? Check. Is there lesbian love? Check. Is there at least one scene of evil warden coochie violation? Check. Rape? Psycho guards? Check. Escape attempt? Check. Bondage? Check. Terrible acting? Check. Banal dialog? Check.

Franco does toss in a few fresh nuggets into the mix, such as the profane and completely obnoxious talking parrot gag. The parrot screeches out insults at whomever enters the warden’s quarters by calling them Filthy Whores and the like. That’s pretty damned unique. However if someone were to have shot that parrot at any time during this film, I wouldn’t have been mad at them.

The only exploitation oversight was that Muriel Montosse never really got naked in this movie, at least until the end and then she was shielded by silk sheets so we couldn’t see anything. What’s up with that Franco? Not that this movie really needed more naked women, but I’m just saying is all. I guess I need to track down a copy of ‘Mandingo Manhunter’ to see Muriel Montosse in full frontal action.

It’s a Jess Franco Women in Prison flick which means it’s sleazy, it’s erratic, it features women that value cleanliness above everything else and if you’ve never seen a Jess Franco movie or a 70’s WIP flick, it will boggle your mind. If you have seen these before, and I know you have, there’s not a lot more to see here outside of the fact that the breasts might be attached to ‘actresses’ you may not have seen before.