First of all, I would like to say that I find Leonard Maltin's review of this film rather inaccurate. "Amusing SPOOF of prison films"? Calling "The Big Bird Cage" a spoof is like calling "Die Hard" a spoof of action films because it contains some wisecracks and comic-relief characters. That said, I found this film inferior to its predecessor in pretty much every aspect. It is more exploitative, the direction has no pace, the characters are not as strongly drawn and Roberta Collins is sorely missed (Candice Roman is a pretty blonde, but not as pretty as Roberta). Pam Grier's dominating presence (especially in the scene where she proclaims herself the leader of the prison camp) is not only the best, but one of the few things that this film has going for it. (**)

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.