This amusingly cheap exploitation film is mostly tasteless but often funny women's prison film which, while not a sequel to "The Big Doll House", is a fun companion film with it. It initially deals with a gang of thieves who set up a club robbery then hide out in the jungle where leaders Pam Grier and Sid Haig arrange four women prisoners at a nearby prison camp to be brought to their hideout as unwilling prostitutes, something that was already done with the prison warden and a bunch of government officials and VIP's. Eventually Greer and Haig set up a prison breakout which includes a scene of Haig supposedly exchanging sexual favors with a gay prison guard (Vic Diaz) who is obviously watching Haig urinate, complimenting him on the size of his "shoes".

Haig uses this ploy again to fool another guard, femming it up so he can subdue the other male guard and Diaz to plan the breakout. The female prisoners even use rape simply as a way of controlling Diaz through humiliation and his disgust with the opposite sex. Diaz greeted the women earlier with "Okay Sleeping Ugly!" in a very funny moment. The earlier scene of the women being used by the prison warden to entertain his guests is equally as repulsive as you hear the screams of the unwilling women being subjugated to these atrocities as others look on in horror, not in the sense of caring about the other women but because they know what awaits them.

While the film is violent throughout, it depicts the prison staff and later the women as complete animals in their efforts to either remain in control or take over control. It certainly isn't titillating in any way, but there are also moments where it becomes bizarrely funny. This definitely is much more camp than "The Big Doll House", simply because of the attitude it takes. A lush use a locations it's certainly exotic, but that doesn't mean that the horror surrounding it aren't ugly. It's a small step above in budget and tastelessness from an early John Waters film. The only difference is I can watch those over and over again while these I'll put aside for good after just one view.

A sequel of sorts to the previous year's THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, this is a cheesy slice of women-in-prison nonsense – filmed in the sweaty, jungle confines of the Philippines where the mad warden has constructed a huge wooden machine to help in sugar processing. The WIP genre is a notorious one amongst genre fans, who can frequently expect ample offerings of nudity and violence that go hand in hand with the tasteless plots and diabolical scripting. Yet THE BIG BIRD CAGE is something different, a film that actually focuses on the (surprisingly successful) comedy inherent in such a situation. Exploitation king Jack Hill knows exactly what he's doing and he makes this film with his tongue firmly in his cheek, offering laughs a-plenty as the unbelievable shenanigans play out.

Headlining the cast is '70s black starlet Pam Grier but her prominent role on the advertising is actually a misnomer as she isn't actually in it a lot, just taking part in a couple of machine-gun wielding action scenes. More prominent is the pretty-but-wooden Anitra Ford, a glamorous model best known to US audiences for her long-running appearance on TV gameshow THE PRICE IS RIGHT. A bunch of exploitation stalwarts fill out the cast, and a couple of the best turns come from a hilarious Sid Haig as the laidback revolutionary and the Filipino Peter Lorre, Vic Diaz, given a more prominent role than usual as a gay prison guard!

The plot twists and turns are predictable and there's the usual run of in-fighting, mad women, women in cages, unpleasant death and inevitable escape. There's a lighter tone than per usual for the genre and the sex and violence is definitely turned down for this one – it never gets anything near gritty. Things chance for the action-oriented climax where things take a downbeat turn at odds with the rest of the movie's playful atmosphere. At the end of the day, THE BIG BIRD CAGE is nothing new but it does manage to be fun – something that can't be said for a lot of these genre movies.

Just to put this to rest, because I read it in another review: the director himself says he made this as a spoof to all the female prison movies that spawned after his initial success Big Doll House ... so there you have it, from the maker himself. But I think it is quite evident, that the director wasn't being serious about many things. Then again, when it comes to putting people into prison - people will not be always amused. Not even by politically incorrect jokes about rape or homosexual wardens.

The director had plans for another one, but made Coffy instead. And there he used Pam Grier again! The man knew he had a gold mine with her. And with Sid Haig, who's used here more than in the previous movie. So while they are only losely connected, the vibe is similar, the tone here though is way funnier! Again, that doesn't mean it won't offend you! Nudity, violence and dirty jokes aplenty ... In my humble opinion this makes the movie even better than the first one ... and I kind of understand how some got hooked into these after seeing I would think the best of them ....