Barbed Wire Dolls (aka Frauengefängnis) was directed & co-written in 1976 by Franco.  It takes the typical WIP tropes and adds in an often hauntingly bleak tone, fairly creative sleaze,  & mostly fairly competent acting. The film’s set in & around a sun-beaten Mediterranean fort- and you get an effective contrast between the yellowed weed overgrown exteriors, and the stark & sparse bare light bulb lit interiors. In the lead role, we get Franco's muse Lina Romay- playing a young women sent to prison for killing her father. She is joined in support roles by Franco regulars Paul Muller- playing the weak, twitchy, yet perverse prison doctor. As well as other 70’s Franco regular Eric Falk- playing the square-jawed hence-man & torturer. We also get a great memorable performance from sexploitation regular Monica Swinn, as the monocle-wearing, black greased back hair, and Nazi literature reading prison Wardress.

Unlike some of Franco’s work- there’s a real sense of both pace, story, and point through-out Barbed Wire Dolls. Sure we get the normal leering female close-ups, torture, & soft-core interplay you’d expect, but it all has a purpose, and Franco never overdoes it. We get a host of memorable set pieces/ scenes-  moving from the bleakly grueling electro torture room, where the women are tired to a bare bed frame & electrocuted. Onto the wonderful surreal & slightly comic- with a flashback scene, where we see Romay & her father (played by Franco) acting out a nude mauling & fight in real time slow-mo acting. Onto the creatively sleazy- for example a prisoner pleasuring herself with a cigarette butt. Throughout the film, you kept held by what’s going on, and unlike many of Franco’s films, there’s never any moments of dullness or lulling overlong shots- yet it still very much manages to capture that distinctive Franco essence.

This new print runs at eight one minutes, which is five or six minutes longer than the old Anchor Bay version I had. This extra time seems mainly to be taken up by more close-ups, which at times wonder towards more hardcore-ness. Yet even in this longer/ more sleaze bound cut, it still managers (to just) remain coherent & focused. The film features German credits, but an English language track- I’m guessing there must be an original German dub somewhere still, but it’s not an option here.

Like the other Full Moon Production releases of Franco films I’ve seen, the extras are once again sparse. We get an original German trailer, around six minutes of other Franco trailers, and lastly an interview with English director Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy & Berberian Sound Studio). The interview is audio only, and runs for twenty-four minutes- he touches on Franco’s work, but the whole interview isn’t fully focused on Mr. Franco’s work- I guess it will be of interest to fans of Strickland’s work, but I can’t see the Franco fan getting much from it.

So in summing up, it’s great to have this classic slice of Franco prison sleaze in Blu Ray, and the look/ sound of the new remastering is good. It’s just a pity they weren’t more on the extras side of things. So if you already have this in another format, above & beyond the extra footage/ remastering you’re not getting much. But if you’ve not got this, or are new to Franco’s work- I’d say snap this up, as it’s a great entry point to his huge filmography, and one of the great  & re-watchable WIP films.