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Switchblade Sisters
The Jezebels
USA 1975
produced by John Prizer, Jeff Begun (executive), Frank Moreno (executive) for Centaur Pictures
directed by Jack Hill
starring Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Monica Gayle, Asher Brauner, Chase Newhart, Marlene Clark, Kitty Bruce, Janice Karman, Don Stark, Don Marino, Helene Nelson, Bill Adler, Paul Lichtman, J.S. Johnson, Kate Murtagh, Bob Minor, Clint Young, Frances E. Williams, Michael Miller, Roy Engel, Jerii Woods, Georgia Lee, Betty McGuire, Jack Lukes, Jeannie Epper, May Boss, John Voldstad, Rob Berger, Roger Richman, Ninette Bravo, Gay Guldstrand, Jane Darbyshire, Sherri Brussa, Charlotte De Orlow, Tina Christine, Patti A. Nolton, Debby Insinger
story by Jack Hill, F.X.Maier, John Prizer, screenplay by F.X.Maier, music by Medusa, Les Baxter, special effects by Greg Auer
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Somehow streetsmart Maggie (Joanne Nail) gets mixed up with a teen
girlgang, the Dagger Debs, and gets arrested alongside them after an
altercation - but the Debs' leader Lace (Robbie Lee) takes a liking in
her, enough so that she asks Maggie to hand over a letter to her
man Dom (Asher Brauner), leader of the Daggers. But Dom isn't as moved
by the letter as he ought to have been, but takes an immediate interest in
Maggie, so much so that he follows her home and forces himself on her -
which leaves Maggie above all else confused. However, when Lace and the
rest of the gang, she leaves Dom to her, and yet Patch (Monica Gayle), who has grown jealous
of Lace's friendship with Maggie, immediately notices there's something
going on between Maggie and Dom, and she tries to convince Lace that
Maggie's a traitor ... but Lace is not that easy to convince, especially
after Maggie successfully goes through an initiation ritual by stealing the
medallion off of a rival gang leader, Crabs (Chase Newheart). Things get
difficult though when Lace tells Dom he's pregnant, and he wants to hear
nothing of it, doubts it's his even. So when Dom, with Maggies help, makes
up a plan to attack Crabs and gang's favourite hideout, Lace spills the
beans to Crabs, thus lures her own gang into an ambush - during which
she's hospitalized and Dom is shot dead. With Dom and Lace out of the
picture, Maggie takes over the gang, kicks out all men and teams up with a
gang of female black socialists led by Muff
(Marlene Clark) to plan an attack on Crabs' gang - but when Lace returns
from hospital Maggie hands over leadership to her, but asks to not kill
Crabs in the attack so they can get the name who has tipped him off about
the earlier attack out of him. Now Lace and her only real confidant Patch
can't let Crabs implicate Lace - but this gets more and more of a
tightrope dance with a deadly finale. It
is rumoured that originally, director Jack Hill planned to make a realist
movie about teenage gangs - but Switchblade Sisters, despite the
occasional politico-social allusions, is of course miles away from any
actual realism, instead Hill presents us with a slightly simplistic but
fun piece of grindhouse cinema of the girlgang-variety. Sure, the
film is not nearly
as elegant as its Japanese counterparts (e.g. the Stray
Cat Rock-series), but its more gungy style fits the story
well, and the film's still 1970's-style hip in a charming
way, trashy in an irresistible way, and on top of that also fast-paced and unrelenting
enough to keep the audience on the edge throughout.
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