Leofwine_draca HOUSE OF WHIPCORD is a cheap and sleazy women-in-prison flick from that purveyor of low-budget '70s trash, Pete Walker. Amid the dodgy fashions, cheesy dialogue, and masses of big hair, this is actually a pretty effective and frightening shocker that makes fantastic use of its setting, a remote and decrepit old jail. Much of the horror is down to one woman, Sheila Keith, whose prison warder is undoubtedly the best character of her career. Cold, twisted and utterly evil, Keith is the kind of woman who reminds you of your old granny on the outside – but inside she's a twisted psychopath and far more chilling than stock horror villains like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.The plot pretty much follows the typical formula for a WIP flick. The young, innocent heroine – here sporting a rubbishy French accent – is betrayed and led to an institution presided over by a barmy judge who sees fit to uphold Britain's laws by incarcerating the people he feels have got away with their crimes. Said judge is played by Patrick Barr, and is obviously mad. Barr gives the film's most sympathetic performance, as his associates exploit both his blindness and weakness to trick him into committing atrocity after atrocity.Most of the film is set inside the jail as our heroine attempts to escape and is invariably recaptured. These scenes are dotted out with padding showing the investigation into her disappearance, and of course these two plot strands converge at the end. There are some very suspenseful scenes – the girl's escape is perhaps the best – which are combined with more predictable '70s vicious as we witness innocent girls being whipped and hanged by the cruel warders. This being an exploitation movie, there's plenty of nudity from the attractive female cast, although most of it is cast in an ever-so sleazy light. Heroine Penny Irving is the weak link when it comes to her acting, but she's nevertheless a very pretty lead.Despite the low budget, production values are pretty high and there's plenty of style on hand from director Walker, who delivers exactly what audiences are looking. Fine claustrophobic use is made of the genuine jail setting and effective lighting and camera-work adds to the experience. Most of the cast are very good, from Barbara Markham's dotty governess to Robert Tayman's trickster villain, whose silly name references the Marquis de Sade. Along with Partick Barr, supporting actress Dorothy Gordon is the most experienced of the cast, and her prison warder is an intriguing creation – especially the scene where we see her cuddling a child's toy! The hero is played by Walker staple Ray Brooks, better known today for his role as the killer Joe in EASTENDERS, and he's fun to watch in a dated way. Popular British actress Celia Imrie turns up in a tiny role as a fellow prisoner. All in all this film isn't bad at all, far better than you would expect from the title and genre, and a nice precursor to the (possibly even more terrifying) FRIGHTMARE.

jadavix I watched this back-to-back with Horror Hospital. It seems Brits in the '70s had a thing for movies in which young people are locked up and punished for the indulgent swinging hippie lifestyles the media loved to portray them all as having.The movie begins with a tongue in cheek dedication to those who wish for the return of capital and corporal punishment. The movie then gives you a bunch of such people as the bad guys - a retired judge and his underlings who believe the law has become too lax and as such seek to deliver their own brand of ultra-right wing justice, along the lines of flogging and death by hanging for crimes as slight as a model being photographed in the nude.For a Pete Walker-helmed exploitation shocker, there is actually a lack of nudity or full-on violence; most of the movie shows the plight of the young girl who is abducted and forced to live in the demented Judge's makeshift prison. We never really get to know or care about her or any of the other characters - this is an exploitation movie, after all. But then again, there's barely any exploitation either. The movie is therefore not entertaining and hard to sit through. The performances of the bad guys are certainly chillingly effective, but the same can't be said for those on the side of good. That doesn't leave us with much to work with. Perhaps those tired of the drivel in the '70s papers from moral crusaders like Mary Whitehouse (parodied in this movie as, who else? one of the bad guys) found there point of view nicely summed up in this simple tale, but modern viewers might wonder what the point is.

gavin6942 An old man that lives in an old house conducts a correctional institute for girls.Robert Firsching wrote, "Many viewers will be offended by the film's repressive right-wing tone, but its genuine scares and creepy atmosphere will outweigh its philosophical offenses for most horror fans." I guess I never noticed this right-wing tone at all. If anything, it seemed to be skewering that position. But what do I know?I have not seen many of Pete Walker's films, so I cannot put this one in context, and cannot rightly say if it is one of his better or worse films. I suppose I liked it in a general sense, though it did not hold my attention as well as I wish it would have.

Libretio HOUSE OF WHIPCORD Aspect ratio: 1.75:1Sound format: MonoA French exchange student (Penny Irving) is lured to an old house in the English countryside where she's incarcerated by a senile old judge (Patrick Barr) and his crazy wife (Barbara Markham), who seek to punish impure young women for 'crimes against morality'.This was British director Pete Walker's first collaboration with legendary exploitation scriptwriter David McGillivray (HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN, SATAN'S SLAVE, etc.), spawned from a pre-determined ad campaign showing a screaming, half-naked starlet framed by a hangman's noose. The result is a minor classic in which part-time nude model Irving is lured into captivity by her creepy new boyfriend (Robert Tayman, from VAMPIRE CIRCUS) and imprisoned by Barr and Markham. Unwilling to take her predicament lying down, Irving plots escape with her fellow inmates and suffers all manner of indignities at the hands of cruel warder Sheila Keith and her equally depraved second-in-command (Dorothy Gordon).Cleverly written and cheaply produced in response to an upsurge of activity by the UK's Christian Right in the wake of several controversial film releases - most notably A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, STRAW DOGS, THE DEVILS (all 1971) and LAST TANGO IN Paris (1972) - "Whipcord" opens with a now-famous dedication "...to those who are disturbed by today's lax moral codes and who eagerly await the return of corporal and capital punishment...." Though contemporary critics railed against the threadbare production values and softcore nudity, it's apparent that much of their outrage was prompted by Walker's brazen challenge to the Christian moralists, whose over-zealous rhetoric has always enjoyed a disproportionate measure of representation in the British media.The film is deliberately crude and confrontational, with a vulnerable heroine - played as an infuriating wimp by relative newcomer Irving, sporting one of the worst French accents in movie history ("'Ow did zey bring you 'ere?") - struggling to survive against all the odds, while Markham's brutal staff indulge their deepest puritan impulses. Keith is especially good in this regard ("I'm going to make you ashamed of your body, de Vernay. I'm going to see to that... personally!"), manifesting the corrupt zeal of a True Believer with little regard for pity or compassion. The sleaze quotient is high for a British shocker of this vintage, but neither McGillivray's script nor Walker's laidback direction comes close to matching the debauched atrocities which distinguished the 'prison camp' subgenre during the 1970's and early 80s, exemplified by the likes of ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1974) in America, BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1975) in mainland Europe, and Asian shockers like BAMBOO HOUSE OF DOLLS (1973), LOST SOULS (1980) and WAR VICTIMS (1983). Still, HOUSE OF WHIPCORD is an effective relic, and it led directly to Walker's next offering, FRIGHTMARE (1974), reuniting him with McGillivray and Keith for one of their finest collaborations to date.