Switchblade Sisters (1975)

I love this movie so much

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Blistering performances.

SWITCHBLADE SISTERS/THE JEZEBELS- 1976.My friend, Bob, made a connection with the Extras Casting Director at New World Entertainment, in Hollywood, California. I was interviewed and assigned a role as a "cop". My wife was assigned a role as a "street person". We would each earn $20 a day, plus catered meals.Early one morning, we assembled at a defunct Tasty-Freeze Drive-in restaurant in Eagle Rock, CA. I was given a "Metropolitan Police Uniform", a "flack jacket", a helmet and a "Billy Club".My first duty was to drive a "Police Car" full of other "Officers" to the curb in front of the Drive-in. We disembarked and chased after the "Dagger Debs", who had scattered upon our arrival.I located one of the Debs behind a dumpster in the rear of the property. I grabbed her wrist and put a (gentle) Hammerlock on her arm. With my club raised to strike, I marched her towards the camera. Suddenly she snarled, "Let go, you Son-of-a Bitch". Forgetting that she was an actress, I thought I was hurting her, so I released the hold. The Director yelled, "Cut". And that scene went onto the Cutting Room floor! Then, my friend Bob was instructed to frisk another Deb for weapons. Being a very religious, family man, he kept his hands about five inches away from her body. The Director finally yelled for him to," feel her up". He blushed as he complied! My wife (in a blue dress) and two other "street persons" sat at tables in front of the Drive-in when the Debs showed up. The ladies "fled" and the scene was completed.On a subsequent evening, we assembled at a vacant pottery factory in Glendale, CA. This was the clubhouse of the Debs. Following their well-orchestrated Knife Fight, we cops burst into the building. I grabbed one of the girls by her ponytail and pulled her head against the end of a shotgun. (That was cut). Finally, I got a full-face scene as I loaded the girls into the police van. As we rehearsed, I would grab and roughly shove them into the vehicle. But, then I would gently help them down for the next practice. You may notice that my "flack vest" is worn wrong side out.It was very late when I got home, so I got ready for bed in the dark. Only in the morning, did my wife see that my arms were covered with blood (fake)! My wife & I had only observed the filming of our respective scenes, so we looked forward to the movie's release at a theater. We took our 14 year-old son to see it on screen.Holy Smokes! The language, the suggestive body actions – we were so embarrassed! But our son said it was just like Junior Hi-school!

For whatever reason, Quentin Tarantino feels that Switchblade Sisters is Jack Hill's best film. And while I found a lot to enjoy in the movie, it doesn't come close in my mind to equaling some of Hill's other films like Spider Baby or the movies he made with Pam Grier. Not that any of Hill's films are set in reality as most of us understand it, but Switchblade Sisters is just too unrealistic for me rate among his best. The problem is with the casting decisions. The girl gang members aren't threatening. Why would anyone be threatened by Robbie Lee's Lace? She comes off more as a Girl Scout on her way to sell cookies than a vicious would-be killer. The other girls, from the too soft Donut to the too pretty Maggie, were no more convincing. The guys fair no better. Being stupid is not the same as being tough.I did, however, enjoy the over-the-top plot and action sequences. The final battle between the two gangs, the skating rink scene, and Maggie stealing Crabs' medallion were all cheesy highlights of the film for me. But my absolute favorite moment comes at the very end of the film. That speech Maggie makes to the cops as they are dragging her off to jail is incredible. Yeah, sure, it's as unrealistic as the cast, but it's a lot of fun. You don't hear dialogue like this just every day – "No, let me give you some advice, cop. You can beat us, chain us, lock us up. But we're gonna be back, understand? And when we do, cop, you better keep your ass off our turf, or we'll BLOW IT OFF! Ya dig? We're Jezebels, cop - remember that name. We'll be back!" Awesome stuff!

****SPOILERS**** Movie about a girl street gang "The Jezebel's" who after wiping out all the street gangs in the city with an arsenal that can hold off the Red Army collapses in the end when it's two co-gang leaders blow the whole gang organization and all it's territorial holding over cute and handsome Dominic, Asher Brauner, the head of the gang "Silver Daggers" who the Jezebel's were part off. Lace, Bobbie Lee, The "Jezebel's" gang leader and Dominic's girlfriend feels that fellow gang member Maggie, Joanne Nail, is stealing "Dom" away from her. Maggie of course is innocent of what Lace suspects her of and actually rejected Dom's advances and the only "affair" she had with him was when he attacked and raped her. Crazed with jealously Lace sets up Dom, with the help of friend and gang member Patch, Monica Gayle, by telling his rival gang leader Crabbs, Chase Newheart, that "He's" being set up to be offed by Dom and Maggie at the local skating rink that Friday night. After Dom is shot down by the Crabbs gang Lace in her crazed state of mind plans, again with Patch, to silence Crabbs in order to keep him from spilling the goods about her and what she had to do with Dom's death and may well get to the bottom of it and exposes both Lace and Patch. This happens later when "The Jezebel's" with the help of the "Ghetto Gals" wipe out the entire Crabbs gang and when Crabbs is about to give himself up Patch shoots him down before he can talk. Soon after that in the clubhouse Lace accuses Maggie in that she was the one who sold out Dom but none of the "Jezebel's" believed her. Maggie and Lace then have it out in a bloody and deadly knife fight where Lace gets slashed to death and finally the police coming to the "rescue" raiding the gang clubhouse with everyone involved being sent up the river. Awful but entertaining movie with one of the most outrageous attempted prison rape scenes in a womens prison ever put on film. With the head of the guards, Mom Smackly, Kate Murtagh, getting worked over by the girls after she tried to examine Maggie to see if she had any social diseases. The street battle at the end of the movie with the Crabbs gang was as fierce and bloody as "The Battle of Berlin" with the cops out to lunch during the entire fighting. The girls in the movie were so unconvincing that it seem impossible for them to hold on to their assault weapons after they shot them off just from the recoil. Still the fight between Maggie and Lace did come off realistic but was spoiled by the police using the knife fight and death of Lace as an excuse to barge in when they couldn't find any reason to intervene when dozens of gang members were gunned down in the previous street fighting.

Here's a girl gang film where the members wear leather boots and hot pants and pull tricks in their high school bathroom for five bucks a pop. So how can you not enjoy this? Story is about the Dagger Debs that is led by Lace (Robbie Lee) and she and her bunch of gals hang out with a boy gang named The Daggers. These two gangs go to the same high school and patrol the same turf and Lace is dating the Dagger leader Dominic (Asher Brauner) but they hear that another gang is to transfer to their area and conflict is inevitable. Lace and her gang run into a new girl in the neighborhood named Maggie (Joanne Nail) and after testing her Lace is impressed by her toughness. They all get busted at a burger joint and after the lesbian Warden and her guards try to rape Maggie the rest of the Debs get involved and beat them. Later Maggie gets out of juvenile hall and gives Dominic a letter from Lace but he puts the moves on her instead and practically rapes her.*****SPOILER ALERT*****Lace and the rest of the Debs get out also and plan on attacking a gang led by Crabs (Chase Newhart) but Lace hears that Maggie and Dominic have been more than friends. After a terrible shootout at a roller rink Dominic gets killed and Lace lands in the hospital but while she is mending Maggie starts taking over the Debs and renames them the "Jezebels". Lace's authority is challenged and she must reclaim her role in the gang as it's leader.This film is directed by Jack Hill who made a career out of making some of the best exploitation films of all time and helped make Pam Grier a star. Sure this is low budget junk but that's the appeal to these types of films. The dialogue is clumsy like "If you leave me it's going to be bad" and the casting has Lenny Bruce's daughter Kitty playing a chubby gang member named Donut who spends the entire film getting slapped around. But I did take note of the performance by Robbie Lee who has been described by many as "Whining" but I disagree with that and while I won't consider this on the level as Charlize Theron in "Monster" I do think her performance carries the film. Lee reminded me a bit of a female James Cagney with her toughness and the way she speaks through her teeth and there is even a scene where she flips a coin up and down while talking tough with the Warden. A few other familiar faces pop up in small roles like Kate Murtagh and John Voldstad but Monica Gayle as Patch does make an impact in her part and she seems to be secretly in love with Lace. Hill creates a silly but fun film to watch that has a few shots of nudity but the emphasis is strictly on action and melodrama and no matter how far fetched this is this is still a lot of fun to view.