Fugitive Girls

Director - Stephen C. Apostolof (Orgy of the Dead, Hot Ice)
Starring - Jabie Abercrombe (Firewalker), Rene Bond (Flesh Gordon, Invasion of the Be Girls), and Tallie Cochrane (Frightmare, The Candy Tangerine Man)
Release Date - 1974
Genre - Crime/Drama
Tagline - "No prison bars could home them!"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I had to take a break from the Puppet Master series.  There is only so many puppet and Nazi movies I can take before I kick a puppy and I seemed to be approaching my limit.  After checking out the unique slasher Blood Beat I wanted to see something trashy.  There is only one company I look at when I want filth and that is Vinegar Syndrome.  When I looked over my most recent films for review from Vin Syn I was drawn to the artwork on Fugitive Girls aka 5 Loose Women.  This looked like the perfect flick to toss in for my sexploitation fix.  Thanks Vin Syn for allowing me the opportunity to check out this underrated classic.
     The film follows 5 women who are incarcerated for various women.  One of the women has a large sum of cash stashed and promises the others a cut of it if they help her escape.  The five are able to escape and make their way through the swamp where they come across a group of free loving drifters.  They eventually rub them wrong and forced to leave before they find a lone motorist, rape him, and steal his car.  With the police hot on their tails they find a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere where they hope to find guns and food but one of their own is tired of running and the way she is being treated and turns on the others forcing the group to split up.  It is only a matter of time before the law dogs get them.
     Fugitive Girls is one of those rare movies that mixes several exploitation sub-genres together to create something that gives the viewer what they are after without beating a dead horse.  I was expecting the film to go one way and it doesn't.  I love films like that.  The acting in this one is typical of most 70s exploitation and "grindhouse" style flicks.  The cast has little to no experience in front of the camera but they work hard for their character.  They did a solid job and worked well together.  I actually really liked the characters and how they were not your typical "women in prison" type characters for the most part.  The story for this one mashes together women in prison, the southern police chase films like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and just a little hixploitation tossed in for good measure.  The film does drag on for a bit through each act but makes up for it by offering the viewer a different change in scenery.  Most women in prison films feel claustrophobic and the story has very little room to grow.  This film offered up more than just tits and torture.  We get an actual story that we want to watch to see where it takes us.  Finally, no blood and guts in this one.  Instead, you get plenty of woman on woman with plenty of racial tension and 70s slurs.  Overall, Fugitive Girls is a must for sleaze and exploitation fans.  The Vin Syn release is fantastic.  Add this to your collection.