Nightmare in Badham County (1976)

Thanks for the memories!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This TV movie borders thematically on rank sensationalism, but in fact it remains disturbing and effective. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody are very good as privileged middle-class California college girls who make the mistake of taking a driving vacation through the South, and a much worse mistake in ticking off corrupt smalltown sheriff Chuck Conners. They end up basically on a chain gang, with no chance to alert friends or family to their plight. The cast is starry but they really disappear into their roles--as a cruel prison wardress Tina Louise is so completely de-glammed, I didn't recognize her, while as a pederast politician "Mr. Brady Bunch" Robert Reed is convincingly sleazy. It's a notably grim, well-crafted TVM for the era that doesn't cop out. It was interesting to catch on YouTube the theatrical version that was shown abroad--it definitely has language and full-frontal nudity that wasn't in the American TV version, notably a crudely pasted-in lesbian scene between characters we haven't seen before or since. (But otherwise the film avoids a sleazy sexploitation feel.) While this is hardly a "ripped from headlines" movie, the issue of (mostly black) people being abducted and convicted of imaginary crimes in order to generate virtual "slave labor" really existed for many long decades to fill in the South's free-labor gap after the Emancipation Proclamation rendered official slavery illegal.

Whatever happened to Kim Wilson who played "Emiline?" She was the first victim of the evil Robert Reed. (Sorry for putting this in the review section, but there is no message board.) Want a review? Two cosmopolitan coeds from UCLA get arrested on trumped up charges in Mississippi. They can either put out for the sheriff, or risk a stint in the county work farm. These girls opt for the work farm, where they encounter sexual exploitation, physical violence, and even murder. Of course, every town in the south at this time was ruled over by corrupt law enforcement and had a county work farm to oppress women, African Americans, and other minorities. Unsuspecting, virtuous northerners were regularly imprisoned in such towns. Everyone knows this, right? Television icons Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) and Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island) play villains in a departure from type casting. Despite the clichés this movie can be fun to watch so long as your expectations remain check.But, the real question is, where is the lovely and talented Kim Wilson?

This movie forever left an impression on me. I watched it as a Freshman in High School and was home alone that night. I think I lost all respect for Robert Reed as an actor having been a huge fan of the "Brady Bunch". I also thought the role of Chuck Connor was horrendous and evil. However, this movie made such an impact on me that I am now a volunteer in the women's state prison doing bible studies and church services and trying to change womens lives, one at a time. What fascinates me is that so few people actually watched this movie. None of my friends watched it and my family is clueless to this day when I discuss this movie because they didn't see it.

Combining horror and women-in-chains elements, this little gem is quite scary indeed. The star-studded cast is in great form, with many effectively cast against type--Della Reese as a prisoner with an almost-broken spirit, Robert Reed as a perverted rapist, and especially Tina Louise as a sadistic trustee. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody--two highly underrated actresses--are very sympathetic, and the film has a cheap, seedy atmosphere reminscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left.Nightmare in Badham County was shown theatrically, in a much more explicit version, outside of the U.S. This version is available on videotape and is the one I've seen. It's memorably depraved, with brutality and full-frontal nudity abounding. One skin-crawling scene in this version has a naked, repulsive lesbian guard (Lana Wood, I think) exchanging food for sex with a terrified inmate. Another has Louise pawing and whipping a naked girl. Still another has a large group of women wrestling in a field until a hose is turned on them; clothes are ripped, and one woman's panties fall down as she stands up. This version could've been a big drive-in hit in the States, but alas, it was shown here only as an ABC movie of the week.Whichever version you get, this oppressively grim torture epic is worth watching if you're an exploitation fan. An obscure cult classic with a very powerful ending.