Best Prison movies of 1970s

Actors : Ian Hendry, Jack Watson, Helmut Griem, Brian Keith,
Directors : Lamont Johnson,

During WW2, German POWs in Britain plot to escape from their prison camp in Scotland.

Actors : Frimann Falck Clausen, Tom Courtenay, Alf Malland, Espen Skjønberg,
Directors : Caspar Wrede,

Fly-on-the-wall treatment of an ordinary day in the life of a prisoner in Stalin's Gulag. Closely adapted from Solzhenitsyn's classic novel based on his own experiences. Shot entirely on ...

Actors : Giovanna Mainardi, Mircha Carven, Paola Corazzi, Giorgio Cerioni,
Directors : Sergio Garrone,

Near the end of WW2, prisoners of war are used in experiments to perfect the Arian race.

Actors : Maristella Greco, Fulvio Ricciardi, Adriano Micantoni, Daniela Poggi,
Directors : Cesare Canevari,

Lise Cohen is taken to a special prisoner-of-war camp for female Jews, a camp run as a bordello to entertain the German officers and troops going in to battle. The camp is run with an iron ...

Actors : Hughie Restorick, Jean Taylor Smith, Stephen Archibald, Karl Fieseler,
Directors : Bill Douglas,

The second part (My ain folk) of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the ...

Actors : Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina, Vasiliy Shukshin, Ivan Ryzhov, Mariya Skvortsova,
Directors : Vasiliy Shukshin,

A former thief is released from a prison. He tries to start a new life with his penfriend - a good village woman, but his past doesn't let him go.

Actors : Paul Muller, Roger Darton, Monica Swinn, Lina Romay,
Directors : Jesús Franco,

Women's prison tale, with Lina Romay as Maria who is jailed after killing her father, played by director Jess Franco, who tries to rape her. Lesbian wardens, torture, nudity, sex, insanity and conspiracy round out the formula.

Actors : David Gulpilil, Dennis Hopper, Frank Thring, Jack Thompson,
Directors : Philippe Mora,

The true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.

Actors : Peter Carsten, Antonio Cantafora, Marcella Michelangeli, Klaus Kinski,
Directors : Antonio Margheriti,

Gary Hamilton, innocently sentenced to ten years in prison is released. When he comes out he promises himself to seek revenge on the guilty.

Actors : Strother Martin, George Kennedy, James Stewart, Anne Baxter,
Directors : Andrew V. McLaglen,

In 1935, after 40 years in a West Virginia prison, three released convicts wish to open a legitimate business using the 25 thousand dollars earned in jail but a crooked prison guard in cahoots with the town banker plan to defraud them.

Actors : Thanos Grammenos, Vangelis Kazan, Kostas Pavlou, Giorgos Kyritsis,
Directors : Theodoros Angelopoulos,

It is 1936 in Greece, shortly before the Metaxas' dictatorship. A former drug trafficker and police informer, Sofianos, is in prison because of the assassination of a trade unionist during ...

Actors : Renzo Palmer, John Saxon, Tomas Milian, Maurizio Merli,
Directors : Umberto Lenzi,

Luigi Maietto (Chinaman) escapes from prison he then orders two henchman to murder the inspector whose testimonal led to his being jailed. Inspector Tanzi is left for dead but lives. The ...

Actors : Márcia Fraga, Danielle Ferrite, Neide Ribeiro, Maria Stella Splendore,
Directors : Oswaldo de Oliveira,

In a prison, women rebel against the guards' sadism and sexual abuse and decide to run away. Some manage to escape and are chased by the Police.

Actors : Richard Harrison, Marisa Mell, Helmut Berger, Marina Giordana,
Directors : Sergio Grieco,

Sadistic no-count killer Nanni Vitali and three other equally brutish hoodlums escape from prison. The foul foursome embark on a savage rape, murder, and robbery spree. Vitali even abducts ...

Actors : Don Marshall, Phyllis Davis, Ena Hartman, Marta Kristen,
Directors : Stephanie Rothman,

It's every man and woman for himself on an island where convicted murderers are dumped, rather than kept in prison.

Actors : Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins, John Marley, James Garner,

In the Old West, a gunfighting outlaw connives his way into a prison in hopes of getting his hands on a large shipment of gold stored there.

Actors : Arthur Hansel, Ellen Sherman, Claudio Brook, Martin LaSalle,
Directors : Juan López Moctezuma,

The inmates of an insane asylum take over the institution, imprison the doctors and staff, and then put into play their own ideas of how the place should be run.

Actors : Antonio Iranzo, Alberto Dalbés, Claudio Undari, Emma Cohen,
Directors : Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent,

A wagon load of convicts on their way to prison is being escorted through the mountains by a cavalry troop. They are attacked by a bandit gang, and only a sergeant, his beautiful young ...

Actors : Mayumi Nagisa, Bunta Sugawara, Asao Koike, Noboru Andô,
Directors : Kinji Fukasaku,

A yakuza, who has an untamed rage and lack of respect for authority, finds himself leading the remnants of the gang he once belonged to in order to secure an area of their own.

Actors : Seizô Fukumoto, Gorô Ibuki, Nobuo Kaneko, Hiroko Fuji,
Directors : Kinji Fukasaku,

While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.