Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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

Parker Lewis I saw this awhile ago and if you're expecting Robert Reed to be the fatherly Brady type, then go watch the Brady Bunch. He really relishes his malevolent prison warden role big time where all the prisoners are female. Interestingly, when I revisited this movie in Wikipedia recently, I didn't realize the lead star Deborah Raffin passed away in 2012 at the young age of 59.There's a sense of foreboding in this movie and there are several deaths. I think there should be a remake/reboot. I think Michael Douglas would be amazing in the role of the prison warden, and maybe in an act of innovative casting have say Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, and Demi Moore, play the prisoners.

merklekranz This television exploitation movie is certainly entertaining, but relentlessly downbeat. Exploring, how two college coeds are thrown in a Southern prison farm on trumped up charges, the film has many fine qualities. The acting by a largely recognizable cast is solid and character development is totally acceptable, but there are problems relating to the film's resolution. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no payoff for the audience. "Nightmare in Badham County" is loaded with reprehensible characters, along with two heroines who elicit tremendous sympathy. With that setup, a more upbeat conclusion might have been better. - MERK

Aldo Renato I first saw this (like most of the other reviewers) as an made-for-TV movie in 1976. It was a typical Friday night diversion...put the brain in neutral, sit down and watch. Deborah Raffin (model-turned-actress famous for her looong hair) and Lynne Moody (nice lady later on Soap and Hill Street Blues) play two college coeds driving through the South when the car breaks down. They run afoul of the local law and end up in the county work farm for 30 days. Things only get worse and worse until a mixed ending (good news and bad news...I won't spoil it...some others already did). A great supporting cast including a lot of "good guy/girl" actors/actresses in "bad guy/girl" roles (Chuck Connors as the sheriff; Ralph Bellamy as the judge; Robert Reed as the warden; Tina Louise, Fionnula Flanagan, Lana Wood and Della Reese as guards/prisoners/trusties; etc.). This movie was an emotional experience in 1976 and the impact stayed with me for quite a while (ABC ran an advisory saying it might not be for all viewers and it may give a bad image of Southern justice). Fast forward to the early 1990s...my now ex-wife was working in a video store and brought this film home as one of her "victim movies" (she liked women-in-peril movies). What a difference 14 years makes!! This movie had all the added features described elsewhere (lesbian love scenes, nudity, strong language, etc.)...it amplified the movie I saw in 1976. Another reviewer was right...this would've made a good drive-in movie. If rediscovered, it could be set next to "Caged Heat" and "Chained Heat" as a great movie of its genre. The "9" is for both versions blended together. Leonard Maltin gave this a "below average" rating...it's much better than that. It's the type of film parents could watch with their children and say (sarcastically) "look what can happen to bad girls."

Woodyanders Sweet Cathy Phillips (well played by the lovely Deborah Raffin) and her sassy best gal pal Diane Emery (a winningly brash and spirited performance by the fetching Lynne Moody) are a couple of California college students who experience car trouble while driving cross country in the deep rural south. The pair run afoul of evil small town Sheriff Danen (a deliciously nasty portrayal by Chuck Connors), who gets the ladies sentenced to thirty days time on a harsh prison work farm where the conditions are positively hellish and inhumane. Director John Llewellyn Moxey does an expert job of relating the grim, yet gripping story at a constant brisk pace, effectively creates a dark, bleak, gritty downbeat atmosphere, and stays true to the uncompromisingly sordid and depressing tone to the literal bitter end. The trashy script by Jo Heims offers a neat and engrossing blend of elements from both the women-in-prison and "don't go down to Dixie" redneck exploitation sub-genres. Better still, the seamy plot covers all the essential scuzzy grindhouse bases: we've got rape, lesbianism, a handy helping of tasty female nudity, savage whippings, pedophilia, and racism. The sound acting from a top-drawer cast constitutes as another significant asset: Raffin and Moody make for excellent and engaging leads, Connors has an absolute ball as a supremely slimy and hateful no-count crooked lawman, plus there's fine supporting turns by Ralph Bellamy as a kindly, but corrupt judge, Tina Louise as mean prison guard captain Greer, Robert Reed as smarmy pervert Superintendent Dancer, Della Reese as wise, hard-bitten veteran con Sarah, Lana Wood as wicked guard Smitty, Fionnula Flanagan as the equally vicious guard Dulcie, and Kim Wilson as scared, vulnerable teenage inmate Emiline. Charles Bernstein's twangy, flavorsome countryish score hits the harmonic spot. Frank Stanley's slick cinematography likewise does the trick. A nice'n'grimy slice of Southern-fried sleaze.