Fun and Games (1971)

Too much of everything

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Playing games is always fun. You just have to be a good sport about it. In "1000 Convicts and a Woman", the stakes are high. Alexandra Hay, (Skidoo) plays Angela Thorn, an American student whose father runs a prison in London. Little does he know about her daughter that she's a nympho maniac(an oversexed individual). While arriving in London, she undresses in the car while the driver nearly has a wreck. Her promiscuity causes quite a stir in the prison. You have many prisoners break their sense of concentration of their duties, and the guards aren't immune either. Even outside the prison, she turned a lot of heads. After dropping a handkerchief on the floor, that prisoner keeps its in a box. So when she went to his cell to get it back, he wants her panties in return. But he gets a tease instead. Head games is what Angela is doing there. Everyone in the prison is the pawn, and the results are a checkmate. This movie puts "The Crush" to shame. It's a great British film with a touch of American flare. And it's a cult classic. If you thought that "Skidoo" was something, this movie tops it! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For those of you who believe that all British cinema is prudish and stuffy, here's the movie to prove you wrong! Well, okay, this is just one of many fine examples. Alongside ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, any MONTY PYTHON flicks, and 28 DAYS LATER, to name a few. Honestly, I don't know why I'd never heard of this movie before. This should definitely be a cult classic. The wacky story: A 17-year-old nymphomaniac has returned from studying abroad. She's visiting her father, who just happens to be the governor at a prison housing... you guessed it, a thousand convicts! Before you know it, she's flirting with every man and getting into all sorts of havoc. There's just so many fun little moments that I wouldn't think of revealing them all... no pun intended. The ending is a little contrived, but other than that, it's an awesome little exploitation film from the UK!

American actress Alexandra Hay plays a spoiled, nymphomaniacal British girl, ironically named "Angela", who returns from four years of boarding school in Boston (which might explain why her accent keeps shifting from British to American)to stay with father at progressive prison at which he is the warden. She mercilessly teases both the inmates and prison employees by flouncing around in short miniskirts and tight pants until one of the sex offenders attacks her. Even then though she doesn't learn her lesson, but actually seduces a guard and a black convict and becomes involved in an attempted prison break.This British movie, originally called "Fun and Games", was released in America under the the misleading title "1000 Convicts and a Woman" and with tagline "Black men! White men! Every man!". Actually though, there are nowhere near 1,000 inmates at this prison and only one of them is actually black. The convicts also don't seem very hardened (at least until Angela shows up!). They all wander freely around the prison, and one even works as a chauffeur for Angela's father. Although her character is completely ridiculous, this is Hay's show all the way (her dodgy accent notwithstanding). She plays a kind of malicious, teasing minx, reminiscent of the ones British actress Linda Hayden played in movies like "Satan's Skin" and "Baby Love". She's not nearly as talented as Hayden, but she makes up for it somewhat by going way over the top, laughing maniacally or bringing herself to an apparent orgasm while riding her bicycle. She even looks a little like Hayden (but perhaps more of a cross between Mena Suvari and Italian sex bomb Gloria Guida).This movie has very little violence and only occasional nudity from Hay (most of the sexiness is in her performance). The interracial sex scene was risqué perhaps for the time in Britain, but it's still pretty tame as sex scenes go. American audiences were probably disappointed by this given the highly exploitative promotional campaign. But if you know what to expect, it's pretty OK I guess.

The gorgeous Alexandra Hay, who sadly died only 49 years old, convincingly plays a nymphet terrorising the warders and inmates of a peculiarly liberal prison. It's an inviting set up and there could be few more enticing exploitation subjects, and until it rather runs out of steam, this movie is quite fun. Hay, who shows a bit of flesh but not lots, plays her character to the max and there's one speech from her in which she succinctly describes herself, the best lines of the movie. Pleasingly sleazy and very 1971, 1,000 Convicts (aka Fun And Games) passes the time. The film has some resemblance to the director's Virgin Witch, although it's not as sexy as that movie.