Dave takes a trip to Roger Corman’s recycling depot for a film that held so much promise for its ambitious director.

“I hope to make four or five more features with Roger’s graduate film school,” Victoria Muspratt told Canadian industry publication, Playback.

“Then, I plan to be the next Francis Ford Coppola.” [1]

Pride comes before a fall as the saying goes – and although it’s tempting to admire Muspratt’s ambition, reading this interview back after almost thirty years elicits a slight wince.

Muspratt always approached each challenge with a stunning level of confidence, though. After graduating university in Canada, and with no experience in the film business at all, she flew to New York and immediately bagged a position at a top casting company. Immigration, alas, had something to say about that; undeterred, Muspratt hopped over the Atlantic and got a similar gig in London. Back in Los Angeles, a job hiring models for Cameo Films’ Playboy productions proved a test too far, so, upon learning that Roger Corman could offer a gateway into directing, the wannabe helmer showed up at his studio and began work as an unpaid intern.

Despite climbing the ranks of Corman’s establishment, Muspratt didn’t find the B-movie mogul particularly receptive to the idea of her sitting in the director’s chair. So, to change his mind, Muspratt used the money she’d received from an insurance payout following a car accident to lens a short film. Impressed with her ingenuity, Corman let Muspratt write and direct one of his Showtime flicks, Circuit Breaker (1996).

As it happens, Muspratt’s chat with Playback took place the week after Circuit Breaker wrapped – no wonder her tail was up. Sadly, the “four or five more” features she hoped to make with Corman only amounted to two, the standout of which being MACON COUNTY JAIL.

A remake of 1976’s Jackson County Jail – an old drive-in favourite starring Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones [2] – Muspratt works from her own script again and remains faithful to her source material. Ally Sheedy takes over the lead role (here rechristened Susan Reed), playing a toy designer faced with the double whammy of losing her job on the same day she discovers that her husband is having an affair. Heading from Los Angeles to New York on a spur of the moment road trip, a hitchhiker called Bess (Jennie Vaughn) is the catalyst for a series of calamitous – and at times comical – mishaps that land her in the joint alongside Coley 2.0 (David Carradine). This light-hearted tone doesn’t last for long, however – and in the wake of defending herself during a brutal sexual assault, Susan is forced to go on the run to prove her innocence, with her cellmate in tow as the only witness.

Although falling short of recapturing the vibe of ’70s Hicksploitation, Macon County Jail makes a damn good fist of it. Both Sheedy and Carradine are perfectly cast, and they’re the ideal combo of desperate souls. Charles Napier feels slightly underwritten as the town sheriff; nevertheless, his steely-eyed intensity is always welcome. For Muspratt, the film is crispy shot and efficiently paced feature, and lively action sequences punctuate well-structured exposition.

Finishing her Corman tenure with White Wolves III: Cry of the White Wolf (1999), Muspratt travelled to Romania and made her fourth and final picture, Teen Sorcery (1999), for Charles Band’s kiddie imprint, Moonbeam. Not quite The Godfather (1972), but four films from a standing start deserves fulsome praise.

As for Macon County Jail, it debuted in the U.K. on satellite TV as ‘Jailbreak’ in May 1998 and hit U.S. video stores under its original title in February ’99 before schlepping to PPV five months later.

USA ● 1997 ● Thriller ● 91mins

Ally Sheedy, David Carradine, Charles Napier, Mark Pellegrino ● Dir. Victoria Muspratt ● Wri. Victoria Muspratt, based on the screenplay ‘Jackson County Jail’ by Donald E. Stewart

[1] Victoria Muspratt: Portrait of a Woman in Action, Playback, 26th February 1996.
[2] Jackson County Jail‘s helmer, Michael Miller, had previously reworked the film as Outside Chance (1978): a telepic for CBS that was meant to lead into a series. In it, Mimieux reprised her role.