6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Five inmates break out of a women's prison. Four of them are hardened convicts, but one is a girl who was convicted for a crime she didn't commit. As the authorities chase them down, the cons terrorize or kill anyone who gets in their way.
Starring: Jabie Abercrombe, Rene Bond, Tallie Cochrane, Donna Young, Margie LanierCrime | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Director Stephen C. Apostolof (credited here as A.C. Stephen) and screenwriter Ed Wood collaborated on multiple occasions, with the “Plan 9 from Outer Space” helmer churning out scripts that embraced low-budget possibilities, with exploitation highlights employed to create marketplace demand for the pictures. Their partnership began with 1965’s “Orgy of the Dead” and eventually made its way to 1974’s “Fugitive Girls” (a.k.a. “Five Loose Women”), and, much like “Dead,” the feature does away with most dramatic necessities to charge ahead as a women-on-the-run endeavor, complete with broad characterizations and frequent nudity. It’s nonsense, but as B-movie entertainment, Apostolof and Wood rarely pretend that they have anything but sleazy weirdness to share, and the filmmaking honesty is refreshing.
The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is billed as "Newly scanned and restored in 2K from the 35mm original negative." After decades of strange VHS and DVD releases (issued under titles such as "Women's Penitentiary VIII"), "Fugitive Girls" arrives on Blu-ray with strong clarity at times, offering a look at the multiple stars of the movie as they maneuver in and out of clothes, and the rural locations supply dimensional distances. Cinematographic limitations remain (focus has issues), but textures are easy to study on costuming and outdoor adventures. Colors are tastefully refreshed, showcasing hearty primaries on period costuming and stylized lighting during car rides, and greenery retains richness. Skintones are accurate. Grain is fine and filmic. Delineation is secure. Source holds together, with a few cigarette burns detected, and some mild speckling.
The 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix delivers a very active musical presence for the film, with varied scoring and soundtrack cuts generating a proper exploitation mood. Instrumentation isn't precise, but bigness is welcome. Dialogue exchanges offer some crispy highs but remain authoritative, battling inherent sound issues to emerge with dramatic power.
"Fugitive Girls" bears all the marks of a Wood production, with the crew having trouble maintaining focus and staying out of shots, and dialogue isn't handled by season veterans of acting, with shouted exchanges the norm with this cast (Wood joins the fun in a dual role as a cop and a gas station attendant). It's not strong work on a technical level, just barely getting by at times, but expectations for something more substantial seem ridiculous with this filmmaking pair -- a partnership that once built an entire movie around long striptease sequences. "Fugitive Girls" is ugly but harmless, obviously straining to be sleazy enough to appeal to the target audience, and its goofiness is easily appreciable, remaining in line with previous Wood/Apostolof endeavors, with this effort slightly more interested in X-rated-style action to compete in a porno chic era.
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