Vice Squad (1982)

Sadly Over-hyped

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

With Christmas coming up a family friend asked me about a film which he remembered seeing on TV in the late '80s.Checking online,I was disappointed to find no sign of a DVD or Video of the movie.Talking to a DVD seller,I was pleased to discover that they had recently tracked down an uncut version of the title,which led to me getting ready to uncover the vices of the squad.The plot:Falling in love with her violent pimp Ramrod,Ginger decides to give him a second chance.Get his hands on Ginger,Ramrod beats Ginger up and kills her.With Ramrod having been involved in a number of cases,the police have been trying to arrest him for a long time,but nothing has ever stuck.Spotting Ginger's friend Princess working on the streets,an undercover cops gets Princess to offer him a service,which leads to her getting arrested.Expecting to be put behind bars,Princess is horrified to be shown the dead body of Ginger by police officer Tom Walsh.Desperate to get revenge,Princess agrees with Walsh's plans to work undercover,so that Ramrod can be caught in the act.Catching Ramrod's eyes at a club,Princess gets Ramrod to let his guard down,and take her to a place where they can get more intimate.Secretly following and recording their conversation,Walsh goes to arrest Ramrod as he starts to threaten Princess.Putting the handcuffs on Ramrod,Walsh & Princess soon discover that this is a ram who wont give up.View on the film:Inspired by real events taking place on the streets of Hollywood,the screenplay by Sandy Howard/Kenneth Peters & Robert Vincent O'Neill taking a refreshingly non-judgemental view of the prostitutes in the movie,with Princess being shown as a strong-minded,caring women who is determined to not having to rely on any man.Along with the black market,the writers give the cops fight to catch Ramrod a tough,to the bone mood,which goes from Ramrod killing anyone that stands in his way,to Walsh and his fellow cops pushing street hustlers to spill info on Ramrod's activities.Filmed on location,director Gary Sherman & cinematographer John Alcott (who also did Kubrick's 2001) hit the violence (which was cut by 6 minutes by the BBFC in the UK) with an unflinching fury, as the on location filming gives the title a deep murky atmosphere,as Walsh's bullets fly across the screen and Ramrod's punches landing with a real thud.Whilst treating the cops on the beat police work in a blunt manner,Sherman also displays a sly sense of humour,as the cops find themselves facing a kung-fu fighter,whilst one of Princess clients rises from the dead.Along with singing the catchy title track, Wings Hauser gives a blistering performance as Ramrod,with Hauser's burning red ravaged eyes making Ramrod a psychopath who has long passed his breaking point.Filmed as she was facing a divorce and custody battle with Kurt Russell, Season Hubley gives an excellent performance as Princess,due to Hubley balancing Princess stern,self determination,with an explosive femme fatale brittleness,as Walsh and the squad go after all the vices.

***SPOILERS*** Worth seeing only for the off the wall and over the top performance of Wings Hauser as the crazed and psychotic street pimp aptly called Ramrod who chews up the carpet or celluloid in every scene he's in. In Fact we hear Hauser screaming at the top of his lungs the movie's theme song "Neon Slime" together with the opening credits that puts you right in the mood, in it's ear splitting and cat shrieking sounds, for watching the movie.It's All-American mom and successful businesswoman by day and high paid street hooker by night Princess, Season Hubley, who ends up crossing swords with Ramrod who beat to death her friend and fellow street hooker Ginger, Nina Blackwood, after accusing her of holding out $500.00, that she made turning tricks on the street, on him. Princess after being busted agrees to work undercover for the L.A vice squad to get the goods on Ramrod by getting a job as one of the hookers in his stable. Caught soliciting Princess for cash Ramrod is arrested and about to be sent downtown to be booked. That's when the two Keystone Kops Mendez & Kowalski, Pepe Serna & Joseph Di Giroloma, that have him in their custody take their eyes off him and end up getting clobbered by Ramrod who's now determined to get even with Princess for setting him up.Not knowing that Ramrod escaped and is out looking for her Princess goes about her work as a hooker or lady of the night entraining customers which includes this old weirdo, Hugo Stanger, who like Dracula likes to sleep in a coffin and have her turn him on by waking him up while dressed only in her bra & panties together with a skimpy wedding outfit! This experience had a shocked Princess almost quit her job as a street hooker and go back to closing big business deals and doing housework and make up what she's lost in not turning tricks by playing the horses, and winning at it, at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita!***SPOILERS*** Ramrod who spends almost the entire movie looking for Princess in order to pay her back for what she did to him finally gets his hands on her and takes Princess, kicking and screaming, to his secret hideout at a deserted building in downtown L.A. Taking his time in doing Princess in by trying to slowly torture her to death gives Vice Squad honcho Tom Walsh, Gary Swanson, and his boys Mendez & Kowalski, who after having Ramrod break his nose looks like he's wearing a 1930's football helmet, all the time they needed to track the by now completely out of control psycho down. Still it took a whole lot of shooting blasting driving and running to finally put Ramrod's reign of terror to an end along with him. Still long after Ramrod finally became history were forced to suffer through Ramrod or Wings Hauser's ear and nerve wrecking splitting singing voice as the films ending credits roll up the screen.

Just saw it on basic cable network IFC. They ran it without interruption which is so rare these days on any cable station you don't pay extra for. I never saw it in the eighties but I can't believe that none of these actors never became HUGE stars! Wings Hauser's portrayal of a no-nonsense pimp is the second greatest villain performance I have ever seen, right behind the deranged killer in Dirty Harry. I agree with the positive comments by the others folks reviewing this virtually unknown B-Movie. Some of the police work being inept seemed exactly like real undercover cops. An attractive woman has to be nuts to become an undercover vice-cop! I was on the edge of my seat! I've visited these streets and can't help believing that the mid-town L.A.~Hollywood streets are really like this at night

Although I am tired of sex and violence in movies, there are times when a movie can incorporate them and still be intelligent and memorable.This is one of those movies.It is obvious that all who were involved in its production had a clear vision and executed it perfectly.The atmosphere just oozes menace and sleaze, but there are blackly humorous episodes -- such as when an aging, wealthy pervert invites a prostitute to officiate at his "funeral" in a classically ostentatious Hollywood estate complete with church pipe organ music.Such details are what make this movie, and some of them are so bizarre that -- as in life -- they must be true because no one could have thought them up.And yet they were thought up.So this movie ends up vindicating the power of imagination, as the best art must do. Okay, I'm going a bit overboard here, calling this movie "art," but let's just say it's very artful and leave it at that.I sense the influence of Stanley Kubrick in the way the movie was directed: a succession of set pieces, almost as if one were in the audience facing a stage.Now after saying all of these nice things, let me warn the potential viewer that this is indeed a brutal, disturbing and depressing movie insofar as the subject matter is concerned.It will give some people nightmares. And it will satisfy the lusts and violent desires of others.And as far as the violence goes, it is scary precisely because we know that these things really do happen to people.