House of Whipcord
1974Dir. Pete Walker
House of Whipcord follows French model Ann-Marie Di Verney (Penny Irving) as she is forcibly imprisoned in a privately owned facility masquerading as a country clinic. She joins a number of other women detained there because of their ‘loose’ morals. The prison is domineered by sadistic, self-appointed wardens and a senile judge who deal out torturous lessons in conservative morality.
Pete Walker is notorious for his exploitative, sordid films which brandish scathing social commentaries on British class, authority figures and generational conflict. Shockingly violent and anti-establishment, his work was always controversial. On one hand, House of Whipcord can arguably be seen as exploitative, sleazy, misogynistic trash, while on the other, it can be seen as a brutal critique of hypocritical, right-wing moralising. Either way, its themes are still relevant today, especially when it comes to human rights, prisoners welfare and free will. Assuming a ‘Women in Prison’ narrative – complete with all the sadistic violence and ‘titillation’ of that particular subgenre - it is one of the director’s most political films. Indeed, he dedicated it to “those who are disturbed by today's lax moral codes and who eagerly await the return of corporal and capital punishment" - an ironic statement of course, as it is these very people and their extreme views Walker is satirising.
Tension is mustered as the tyrannical guards deal out their idea of 'appropriate punishment', impervious to the fact that they're breaking both moral and penal laws themselves. As soon as the women enter the prison, they are stripped of their clothes, dignity and human rights. When we are introduced to her, Anne-Marie is a carefree and good natured individual. She initially stands up to the wardens, protesting her unlawful incarceration. However as the story develops we watch in horror as she is systematically broken down to become a shadow of her former self. Notions of fascism and oppression infest every scene as the director condemns those who see themselves as purveyors of justice. Nihilistic and bleak, House of Whipcord is one of the director’s most dank and gruelling films to endure. At times the tension is suffocating, particularly in the scenes when Anne-Marie attempts her escape. The various torture scenes also strike a gut-wrenching blow. Amongst those dealing out the barrage of beatings and psychological torture is Walker regular Sheila Keith (Frightmare). Whilst obviously relishing every moment of her screen time, Keith is rather akin to the likes of Price and Karloff, in that she is able to imbue an obviously deranged, villainous character with underlying pathos, which greatly adds to the disturbing aura of the film.
When it was initially released, Whipcord served as a fitting allegory for censorship and the Mary Whitehouse regime (Whitehouse campaigned for the Christian values of morality and decency and constantly attacked the media for their ‘corruption of the youth’) – a satire of Britain’s right-wing, who claimed the country's morals were declining, while at the same time espousing the return of capitol punishment.
