The Big Bust-Out (1972) User Reviews

A fan

[welambert01 · 4/10 · 28 September 2023]

To write I am a fan of Italian movies from the 70s is an understatement. The women are beautiful and the T&A is plentiful. This movie did not disappoint in these areas. What drew me was the runtime, a little over 70 minutes. The actress Vonette McGee. A fan since the 70s. A prison break turned into sex trafficking to a heist. It misses the mark. The movie meander from one set piece to another with no clear objective. The finale is laughable and predictable. The location is beautiful. I can't fault the cinematography. The movie does have it moments. It doesn't have focus. All in all, 70 minutes to spare, nothing else of interests? You could do worse.

Badly Edited

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 2 March 2014]

At a women's prison (presumably in either Algeria or Morocco) seven female convicts decide to escape due to the abusive treatment they receive at the hands of their jailers. So they eagerly accept an offer from a nun named "Sister Maria" (Monica Teuber) to work at the local convent. Once at the convent they overpower the guards and take the nun with them to a local house where one of their friends named "Nada" (Vonetta McGee) has agreed to house them temporarily. Unfortunately, Nada's boyfriend betrays them and sells all of them (including Nada) into slavery. However, once they are transported to the coast the pilot of the ship "Jeff" (Tony Kendall) refuses to have anything to do with it and after a gunfight he and the eight women escape by truck into the desert. From here on out they are hunted by the police, the nearby French army garrison, slave traders and Arab bandits who all want the women for one reason or another. So much for the plot. As far as the movie is concerned I liked the overall premise and I thought Margaret Rose Keil (as "Gail"), Nuccia Cardinali (as "Inga") and the aforementioned Monica Teuber and Vonetta McGee, were quite attractive. However, I must admit that the film was badly edited and the action scenes could have used more attention to detail. I should also add that there is quite a bit of violence and nudity in this movie in case anybody might need to know. In any case, while this certainly isn't the best "women-in-prison" movie ever made it managed to pass the time and I rate it as about average.

Italian film that comes to US drive-in screens

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 8 March 2023]

Io Monaca... per tre Carogne e Sette Peccatrici (The Crucified Girls of San Ramon) was an Italian women in prison movie directed by Ernst Ritter von Theumer (Jungle Warriors, Island of the Doomed), who co-wrote it with Sergio Garrone (SS Experiment Camp, The Hand That Feeds the Dead, Django the Bastard).

Roger Corman brought it to the U. S., cut out twenty minutes and renamed it The Big Bust-Out.

A bunch of female prisoners get a work release in a convent and easily overpower their guards and go on the run. To make sure that God stays with them, Sister Maria (Monica Teuber) follows along. This entails them all being sold into white slavery - Gordon Mitchell being the villainous El Kadir who buys them and William Berger being the one who sells them - and saved by Jeff (Tony Kendall), a boat captain.

But El Kadir and his men won't give up, chasing the women for the entire film. One of his men, a small man with a whip, lashes Vonetta McGee from The Great Silence at one point. It's certainly wild, but at best you can say it's all over the place. The North Africa - I believe - shooting locations look great and this movie has the kind of cast and material that makes me think Jess Franco should have been involved.

one big punch up

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 2 September 2013]

Also known as, Crucified Girls of San Ramon, although I don't know why and 3 bastards and 7 Sinners on my copy, this had great trash potential but was ultimately just too much for director, Ernest R von Theumer, who was more used to producing. Much is seemingly filmed on exotic locations which are presumably Middle Eastern but certainly a mix of beautiful and bleak and with numerous extras and a pack of horses to deal with this must have become quite an enterprise. Anyway, apart from the arduous scenes as an excellent, Tony Kendall leads his ladies across the inhospitable landscape, there is time for naked frolics, rape, torture and flogging - so its not all boring stuff! Gordon Mitchell is effective, though somewhat over the top, as his arch opponent and there is much fighting and shooting. The girls get a go with the guns too so plenty of variety as the story which had begun in a prison, pops into a nunnery skirts the spaghetti western genre and toys with the white slave trade, really just ends up one big punch up.

Three Bastards and Seven Sinners.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 21 May 2009]

I am not a great user of this kind of European crap. But, honestly, I have already seen worse. There is no real length in this fast paced and action packed yarn. But it's senseless and totally unbelievable. You can find, in this one, nudity, sadism, brutality; all gratuitous, of course.

I like girls with guns stories, and this one is rather effective. Even if I may prefer A GUN FOR JENNIFER or SET IT OFF.

Don't forget it's a film made in 1972, and produced between Italy and Germany. This kind of features, there were hundreds of them.

You've understood that it's not my cup of tea to talk about movies like this. I just do it because I had it in my hands and it seems no user had commented it yet. So, it's done.

But if you may like this kind of films, don't hesitate. Get it.