99 Women

99 Women (1969) is a Jess Franco "women in prison" film, and mostly follows the formula. It opens with the arrival of several new prisoners, one of whom is innocent. Inside the walls they encounter the requisite fiendish lesbian warden (Mercedes McCambridge!!) and have the mandatory cat fights and sexual encounters with the other inmates. A more humane warden is eventually assigned to the prison, but her influence is in doubt. Eventually, all of the harsh conditions lead to the obligatory escape attempt through the jungle.

Surprisingly, it lacks a shower scene.

In fact, there is limited nudity for the genre, and especially for a Jess Franco film. It was partially shot in Spain, which in 1969 was not yet liberal in terms of censorship. After the film was completed, they did shoot two additional nude scenes for distribution in other countries.

Except for the limited nudity, the only major deviation from the formula is in the ending.

Many versions of this film exist:

one that was cut by 20 minutes in Spain
one that was chopped 30 minutes by the censors in the U.K.
a German release which is the most complete version, in which someone else added hard core inserts. (Franco had nothing to do with the hard core version, and is not very happy that it was even made.)
the US release, which had less nudity and some different sequences from the German release.

DVD INFO

The Blue Underground release sports a very nice transfer, and also includes alternate version material and an interview with Jess Franco

NUDITY REPORT

We have breasts and buns from Rosalba Neri, Maria Rohm and Valentina Godoy, as the three women who escape.

The Critics Vote ...

No major reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 5.8/10

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, as a WIP film, this is a C-, since it is lacking sufficient nudity to meet genre standards. On the other hand, if the genre is "Jess Franco films," this is very good by his standards, therefore a C+.