The Female Bunch (1971)

Absolutely Fantastic

A different way of telling a story

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"The Female Bunch" was completed in Aug 1969 under shooting title "A Time to Run," even more brutal and shocking than director Al Adamson's breakout success, "Satan's Sadists," on Western locations in Utah and the Spahn Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, at the very time the Charles Manson family was committing their most heinous crimes. The new title was inspired by "The Wild Bunch," going even further in its violence and nudity, even a full frontal shower scene, never topped by Adamson. A modern story about man-hating women living on an isolated California ranch, enabling them to run heroin from across the Mexican border. The sight of the bunch on horseback, constantly riding hither and yon, quickly grows tiresome, and even their sexual antics prove boring under Adamson's out of focus direction. Future HEE HAW girl Jennifer Bishop had an extensive exploitation career in Adamson films, "Blood of Dracula's Castle," "Horror of the Blood Monsters," and "Jessi's Girls," but hasn't the acting chops to truly convince as Grace, the 'queen bee' of this hive, and none of the other females stand out. The nominal male leads are Lon Chaney and Russ Tamblyn, only around long enough to justify their prominent billing, Chaney billed with the 'Jr.' for the only time since the 1942 Universal short "Keeping Fit." Tamblyn only arrives at the midway point, getting killed in glorious fashion with a pitchfork to the groin after being branded on the forehead by Grace. As Monti, aging former stuntman, Chaney is the only male working on Grace's ranch, believing that she'll eventually respond favorably to his amorous advances, only to be knocked out, tied to the back of a horse, and allowed to be dragged off to certain death. With only 6 1/2 minutes screen time, it's a disappointingly small role for the actor's last, but even worse is the quality of his cancer ridden voice, reduced to a terrible rasp, even when he's supposed to register emotion. There's a certain home movie atmosphere in the way that Adamson unflatteringly films his star, happily guzzling a bottle of vodka and spitting it out! It's a sad sight to see, but Lon Chaney's career comes to a close after 164 films in 37 years of dedicated work.

This is a historic film it was filmed at the Spahn ranch outpost of the the Manson family or at least parts of it were. There are too many similarities between the film and that group. Ironic Manson was also a Film Consultant at Universal Studios. Anyhow the film by its self has that classic 60's free Hollywood spirit , this was a time when Hollywood as the Motion Picture Film capitol was being broken up and auctioned off piece by piece and studios were scrambling around figuring out what was going to be the next big wave in show business. The creativity of the era is what balanced it all out this was a time when money didn't mean much and you didn't need to be a big shot to get licensing. Very unlike what we saw by the late 70's. Films like this are unique and they cannot be compared to your usual run of the mill productions. Now you have to literally go through a avalanche of regulations. The value is in the spirit of the film not in the acting even though much of the acting is good if you compare it by that standard as acting stands by itself. I'd rather watch this film over again than anything coming out of my local theater.

I bought this as an ex-rental on VHS for 50p an thought i cant go wrong at that price its bound to be a load of rubbish,silly dialogue,silly clothes ridiculous script etc.Id never heard of the film before but had vaguely heard of Al Adamson the director so ill give it a try,you never know it may be good for a laugh at least. But how wrong i was,it turned out to be quite a good film and very watchable.The film is basically about a mean but sexy womens gang who live out on a ranch in the wilderness and the gang leader Grace has a drugs deal going on across the border in Mexico,which the girls frequently visit illegally indulging in drunken orgies and mayhem with the local men.But back on the ranch men are not aloud and as Russ Tamblyn finds out will be dealt with severely.The films main theme seems to be all about revenge,the women are taking revenge on men for being men and as the film moves along the men want revenge back and you have to see the ending to see what i mean,i don't want to give any more away as it would spoil the viewing.But if you get the chance to see this film you probably wont be disappointed by todays standards its pretty tame although when it was made in 1968 it must have been very shocking as there is quite a lot of nudity and some fairly graphic sex scenes which make it very ahead of its time,even today it would be strictly adult viewing.The only problem i have with this film is the character Scotti the Vegas singer who you see at the beginning of the film,his acting is well over the top and he is just awful,but his only in the film for a short while so you can forget him easily.The film was obviously made on a budget but that doesn't matter as there's no need for any special effects even though the plane chase across the desert is well directed.In all this is a very worth while film to watch and be entertained by if you get the chance as its unusualness makes it memorable. Try to get the VHS version released in the late 80's if you can as the DVD version whats been on sale has cut many of the interesting parts out,and the recording is really poor quality.What a shame.

After viewing Al Adamson's "Angels' Wild Women", I was wondering if it was such a good thing that I rented this as well. Since "Angels" didn't actually feature much footage with the women, I was nervous that "The Female Bunch" would be another wasted opportunity. Well, it wasn't.Jennifer Bishop is Grace, the butch leader of a group of feminists who make up a secret society in an isolated desert ranch (in reality the notorious Spahn Ranch, home of the Manson Family). A new member, Sandy (Nesa Renet), is buried alive in a coffin to ensure she has guts (great claustrophobic scene)! Regina Carrol does a sultry go-go dance before once again getting an underwritten part (Al! She was your wife! Couldn't you have given her better roles?!).The male cast members, Russ Tamblyn, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Geoffrey Land, are not in the movie that much, which makes "The Female Bunch" all the more true to the title. Tamblyn doesn't do much but be a victim of the sadistic ladies when he has sex with Denise (Leslie MacRae) and attempts to rape Grace! It's very hard to watch Chaney in his last role; his voice has been irreparably damaged from years of smoking and drinking and is barely audible. I much preferred his silent role in "Dracula vs. Frankenstein". Land only becomes a character in the last 15 minutes, so this really is the female bunch's movie. Thank God Adamson lived up to the title! Things to watch for: the opening scenes of ladies on horseback and a plane chasing a young couple through the desert is stunningly choreographed by Adamson standards; the heavily claustrophobic scene of Sandy being buried alive; Grace brands Tamblyn with a branding iron; and basically any scene where the women appear. A very, very good movie. It isn't "Satan's Sadists", but at times comes very close to topping it! Highly recommended!