# The Big Doll House

The Big Doll House is a 1971 American women-in-prison film starring Pam Grier, Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Brooke Mills, and Pat Woodell. The film follows six female inmates through daily life in a gritty, unidentified tropical prison. Later the same year, the film Women in Cages featured a similar story and setting and much the same cast, and was shot in the same abandoned prison buildings. A nonsequel follow-up, titled The Big Bird Cage, was released in 1972.

## Plot

Collier (Brown) enters prison, having been found guilty of killing her husband. She is introduced to the beautiful occupants of her cell, doing time for crimes ranging from political insurgency to heroin addiction. The women often clash, which leads to their torture by sadistic guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder). The torture ceremonies are viewed by an impassive cloaked figure.
Collier's cellmates Alcott and Bodine (Collins and Woodell) plan to escape. Collier and another cellmate Ferina (Gina Stuart) agree to go along. Assisting is their other lesbian cellmate Grear (Pam Grier), though doubts exist Grear's heroin-addict girlfriend Harrad (Brooke Mills) will be equipped to escape.
Ferina, Alcott, and Bodine break from the solitary-confinement sauna and take their revenge on Lucian. The escapees wield guns, attitude, and sexuality to free themselves.
During their escape, they round up various personnel from the prison as hostages, taking elegant prison warden Miss Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer), sympathetic prison medic Dr Phillips (Jack Davis), and two local men regularly allowed access to the prison to sell market produce, Harry (Sid Haig) and Fred (Jerry Franks).

## Cast

* Pam Grier as Grear
* Judy Brown as Collier
* Roberta Collins as Alcott
* Sid Haig as Harry
* Brooke Mills as Harrad
* Pat Woodell as Bodine
* Christiane Schmidtmer as Miss Dietrich
* Kathryn Loder as Lucian

## Production
### Development

This was one of the first films made by B movie giant Roger Corman for his company New World Pictures. Jack Hill said Corman and Barney Woolner, who helped set up New World Pictures, were inspired to make a women in prison film by the success of 99 Women. Jack Hill knew James Gordon White had written a film in this genre and arranged for Corman to purchase it for Hill to direct. Corman then went off to Ireland to make Von Richtofen and Brown while Hill went to Switzerland to make Ich Bin Ein Groupie.
According to Stephanie Rothman, Corman asked for White's script to be rewritten. Rothman says her husband Charles S. Swartz, New World story editor Frances Doel, and Rothman pitched story proposals to Jack Hill, who did not like any of them. They then plotted a new storyline themselves and hired Don Spencer to write the screenplay. Hill said Rothman, Swartz, Woolner and Woolner's wife "basically steamrolled over eveyone" and Rothman "wanted to take over everything."
Rothman had a big success for New World with The Student Nurses and claims that Corman wanted her to direct the picture, but she turned it down, so Corman ended up going back to Jack Hill instead.
Hill says White's original script was not used but elements were re-used in other New World Pictures, notably Caged Heat. Hill says he disliked Spencer's script but he "needed the job very badly" and agreed to direct it, although he says he extensively rewrote the script. "I thought the story was utterly preposterious so I added a lot of humour to it."
John Ashley says Corman originally intended to make the film in Puerto Rico, but he persuaded them to make it in the Philippines. Ashley and his partners went on to put up the above-the-line part of the budget, with Corman providing the rest.

### Casting

The movie was Pam Grier's first notable acting performance. Jack Hill says he first saw Grier at a general "cattle call" for actresses recalled, "It was clear that Pam was one of these actresses who when they're onscreen, you're going to look at. She had 'authority'."
Roberta Collins was reluctant to make the film because of its nudity but eventually agreed because she "wanted to work."

### Shooting

Hill later estimated filming took around three months, with the crew arriving in the Philippines in November 1970. Interiors were shot in a studio, with exteriors filmed in an actual former prison. He says Barney Woolner insisted on a scene where women fight in mud. Hill added:
   We just took whatever time we needed to do it, because time was our cheapest item! Nothing was ever ready on time. There was a hurricane that blew the roof off the soundstage, and it was just one thing after another. And of course, people got sick. So I wouldn't call it a schedule. We just took the time we needed. It was fun for me and for the players, because we got to write new scenes and shoot them on the spot. We were waiting for a set to be built, so we had to do something with our time. I hated the script. I thought it was just horrible. I did as much rewriting on it as I could and tried to make more of a comedy out of it.
Roberta Collins recalled, "It was fun playing tough, taking over, being the ballsy woman."

## Reception

Corman later admitted the movie "actually turned out a little sexier and a little more raw than I wanted. So I was not that pleased with the film, I felt it was a little too rough, but it was a tremendous box office success and it helped establish my company."
The film earned $3 million in movie rentals in North America and an additional $4 million overseas.