User Reviews

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.

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!

Arrow Video is releasing a new blu-ray version of the Jack Hill directed film SWITCHBLADE SISTERS. My first exposure to this film was years ago when director Quentin Tarantino released it in 1996 as part of his Rolling Thunders Pictures label, a collection of movies he considered among his most favorite. At that time I found the movie terrible, perhaps because my expectations were set high. So here I am 25 years later willing to give the movie another chance.

The movie revolves around the girl members of a gang called the Dagger Debs, an offshoot of the male gang the Silver Daggers. Led by Lace (Robbie Lee) they run into the recently relocated Maggie (Joanne Nail) at a local burger joint and haven't quite decided what to think of her. When Maggie helps them as they take on an obnoxious collector, all of the girls are arrested and tossed in jail.

The jail is overseen by nasty lesbian warden Mom Smackley (Kate Murtaugh) who takes a liking to Maggie. Mom leaves the Debs alone so they play nice while in jail. But Lace takes a liking to Maggie and comes to her aid with the rest of the gang letting Mom know she's hands off. Now friends Maggie becomes part of the gang and when she gets an early release Lace asks her to deliver a letter to her boyfriend, the Silver Daggers leader Dominic (Asher Brauner).

Maggie follows through with the delivery of the letter but other members of the gang take it from Dominic's hands and begin reading it out loud. Rather than allow his feelings to be on display he lets it happen joking that Lace is reading more into their relationship than he feels. Upset and angry he follows Maggie home and rapes her. From that encounter (and only in the world of a grindhouse style film) he begins to wonder if she would be better for him than Lace.

Lace's friend Patch (Monica Gayle) is jealous of Maggie's budding friendship with Lace and sets out to split the two. She tells Lace that it was Maggie who read the letter aloud and made fun of her. She also leads her to believe that Maggie is making a play for Dominic. Lace tries to lay claim to Dominic once she gets out of jail by claiming she's pregnant. Wanting nothing to do with the child Dominic leaves Lace.

As all of this is going on the Daggers are facing trouble from a rival gang led by Crabs (Chase Newhart). After Crabs shoots Dominic's little brother the Daggers are out for revenge. Maggie suggests a plan to get that revenge at the local roller rink. But Lace, angry at Dominic, betrays the group and they are ambushed at the rink.

As Lace recovers in the hospital from the attack, Maggie takes over the Debs and renames them the Jezebels. Claiming they don't need the help of the Silver Daggers any longer after their numbers have been cut, she guides the girls out for their own form of revenge. But will she be able to handle Lace and Patch when they return?

The movie is pure drive-in/grindhouse material. This time around I saw that there was more story to the film than I gave it credit for all those years ago. And the performances weren't nearly as bad as I recalled either with the exception of one. I still found Lee's performance as Lace grating. The amount of times she yells things through clenched teeth to show anger displays a lack of ability that comes with time. Most of the cast never went on to lengthy careers with the exception of one, Don Stark. He plays gang member Hook. You'll see him and think you've seen him before and most likely that was when he played Bob Pinciotti, Donna's dad on THAT 70'S SHOW.

In the end the movie was better than I recalled and for fans of drive-in/grindhouse movies this will be a must add to your collection. Not only does it look better than ever Arrow has done their due diligence and included plenty of extras. These include a new audio commentary track by historians/critics Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger, "We Are the Jezebels" and archival documentary on the film, "Gangland: The Locations of Switchblade Sisters" an archival documentary about the locations the film was shot at that includes director Jack Hill and filmmaker Elijah Drenner visiting these locations, an interview with Jack Hill and Joanne Nail at the Grindhouse Film Festival in 2007, an archival interview with Hill, Lee and Nail featuring Johnny Legend, galleries of behind the scenes stills, international posters, video covers and lobby cards, theatrical trailers, a reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil and for the first pressing only an illustrated collectors booklet featuring new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Heather Drain.

A classic slice of '70s exploitation, which mixes in all the familiar ingredients from gang movies - drugs, prostitution, street wars, cat fights, double-crosses, and drive-by shootings - into one satisfying whole. Directed by the almost legendary Jack Hill as one of his last movies, this is a fast-paced and sometimes thrilling movie with plenty of treachery, name-calling, back-stabbing, and violence to recommend it to fans. It's also one of Quentin Tarantino's favourites, which is why it got a re-release through his Rolling Thunder label. The acting from the mostly unknown young cast is very good, with each of the (mainly female) cast convincing in their roles, particularly Robbie Lee and Joanne Nail as the two rival antagonists who battle for control of the gang.

During the course of its running time, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS packs in a stay at a prison ruled over by a perverted lesbian guard; a shoot-out at an ice rink which makes excellent use of its location; an incredible street battle with Molotov cocktails, armoured vehicles, explosions and machine-gun battles in the street, and to top it all off a sickeningly violent cat fight between two switchblade-wielding gang members. The film does an admirable job of maintaining tension throughout and building up the suspense towards the finale, as evil eye patch-wearing Patch stirs up trouble and leads things to a final showdown. The police can't believe their eyes, and neither will the viewer! A solid juvenile delinquent movie from the drive-in days, the kind of which they don't make any longer, sadly.

Cult Cuts Volume 23 (Tarantino Edition)

#1/4: The Switchblade Sisters (1975)

(7/10): Originally Titled "The Jezebels", The Switchblade Sisters is a solid exploitation gang film from cult director Jack Hill who has written and directed many cult staples from the late sixties to the early eighties, including another film that has peeked the interest of Tarantino and was covered previously during Black History Month, Coffy, which led to Pam Grier getting the lead role in Tarantino's Jackie Brown.

Back to Switchblade Sisters, it follows a young group of women who are in a gang with some men that are soon to be in a gang war with a rival gang over territory, during this time we see their lives as one of them is in a relationship with one of leading male gang members who has been hanging around a newcomer, and she suspects that she has been fooling around with her man.

Things escalate as she holds it in and lets her join the group and then once the rival gang strikes back for the initiation she had that wrecked a bunch of their stuff and also had their leader lose his necklace, the war begins as they plan to strike back with an attack at the roller rink that goes wrong and leaves the one man and his girl in the hospital and distraught.

Once they recoup they ween out the men who have been nothing but cowards and rename themselves The Jezebels and aim to finish this war once and for all.

It's got everything that you would find in an exploitative crime/action flick from the seventies; blood, breasts, gritty and grimy fight scenes and rape, which is never pleasant.

It tells a tale of life on the streets as a young woman and from a female perspective, obviously I can't speak on whether or not it's %100 truthful as I can't speak for a kind of person that I have never been or met, but it seems realistic enough that everything that I see, give or take a few elements, is believable.

The acting was pretty solid across the board, the fact I didn't love it was more just because, I don't know exactly, maybe something about it rubbed me the wrong way a tiny bit, it could be the rape scenes, I never really enjoy those, even though they were never meant to be enjoyed, but still.

The score has a bit of an attitude to it which I rather liked as it complements the rebellious nature of the film.

I can totally see why Tarantino would have enjoyed this film, I always find that sometimes the inspiration and interests of specific directors might be equally if not more interesting than their work and I find that that's the case with Quentin Tarantino.

Jack Hill also did Coffy & did a good job about updating The 1963-era "Birmingham Angel" to Pam Grier. I wonder if Pam Grier remembered, "Birmingham Sunday"? The Jezebels got some reinforcement from a black girl group that followed Mao. However In life I've seen a black girl with a 1955 Packard Clipper beat up a bully in real life back in 1963. The urban assault car came from a 1955 Packard Patrician 4-Dr. Sedan so Jack Hill & I met halfway. Kitty Bruce's Donut was a thankless character, but she was loyal to the end. The Movie was unreal in some parts, but people actually think they can get away with it but in reality check, you get it in the end. If I did the screen writing, The black girl gang led by Muff would be shown as spirits & have 1950s cars with lethal death rays installed in them and poisoned black smoke & the led car would be a 1955 Packard Clipper Sedan & when the black girl gang leave the scene a mist is used and they go into the mist and vanish. And when they unleash there weapons on Crabs' Teen Patrol they would yell: "We didn't forget what happened on Birmingham Sunday, on September 15, 1963 & this one is for Denise McNair & her fellow school girls!" and they would zap The Teen Patrol with death rays & vaporized them & get most of the members. However Crabs gets it by Lace. The movie was good and Jack Hill met me halfway with the urban assault vehicle made from a 1955 Packard & didn't name the leader, "Esther Williams". I liked the movie & it's in my collection. With a girl gang like The Jezebels, they make Charles Starkweather look like Pope John Paul II. That's it for now. Marcus Brainard