Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Are you looking for a trashy, earthy junky film? Switchblade Sisters promises to be a highly exploitative movie about a gritty girl gang, and it more than delivers on that promise. All of the indulgences of 1970s cinema are on florid display, from the earthy violence to the big, unkempt hair to those stereotypically bullhorn-loud outfits. This is no subtle film - it's brash trash.The plot's as straight as Cher's hair (then, anyway): the aforementioned gang, called the Dagger Debs (they're sort of the ladies' auxiliary of an all-male gang, the Daggers), harasses an innocent waif named Maggie. Maggie, though, kicks ass, so the girls decide (after the usual you-must-prove-yourself act) to accept her as their own. At least their leader, Lace (Robbie Lee) does. Her #1 cohort, Patch (Monica Gayle) has plenty of reservations about the new meat, probably because she's jealous about how much attention Maggie (Joanne Nail) is getting from Lace. And that might be because Patch wears - go on, guess - an eyepatch. Kind of makes her look badass, but I bet she's a little self conscious about it, too. Fun fact: Quentin Tarantino was such a huge fan of this film that he modeled the character of Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) in the Kill Bill movies after Patch.Anyway, like even the most outrageous premises, one must not only suspend disbelief but expel it for the duration. All of the kids - who are indeed in their late teens or early twenties in real life - look like they're in their forties. Or maybe it's the hair. The Debs and the Daggers attend a high school where they rule the roost. I don't mean just stuff like taking nerds' lunch money. I mean gambling, prostitution, extortion, whatever it takes to get by, man. The principal, who's not really their pal despite his title, tells the head Dagger, Dominic (Asher Brauner) that Dom's chief gangster rival, Crabs (Chase Newhart) is transferring to the high school, and would Dom mind sharing a bit of the action? Ha, ha, it is to laugh, at both the proposition and Newhart's receding hairline. The Daggers try to play it cool but are attacked anyway by Crabs' gang. The big fight scene takes place in - no kidding - a roller skating rink, where members of both gangs zoom around the floor with the greatest of ease. That's when the good violence begins and things get messy, as in bloody, as in over the top.It's hard to call this a terrible film, because it is exactly what it pretends to be. There's nothing highbrow about this production. Even some of the acting is pretty good, although there aren't any "names" among the cast. An Afterschool Special, this ain't. But would you believe, according to writer-director Jack Hill, this is actually loosely based on Othello? You can see the resemblance if you squint hard or have a terrific imagination. Switchblade Sisters has a rough-and-ready title, hot young women, lots of guns and knives and other implements of destruction, an insane fashion sense, and a whole lot of things getting smashed up. This is the paragon of drive-in movies, and if you don't know what those are, ask your grandfather.

The_Void Switchblade Sisters is an undoubtedly silly and unrealistic slice of Grindhouse exploitation, but it's also an absolute blast and a real must see for any fan of cult cinema! The film will likely get compared with later but better known gang flick 'The Warriors' and I suppose you could determine Switchblade Sisters to be the female version of Walter Hill's classic exploitation film. But just because it focuses on the fairer sex, don't let that fool you into thinking that Switchblade Sisters doesn't have its own nasty edge; as while you cant really take this film seriously, there's certainly plenty to please exploitation fans. The plot actually has more layers to it than you might expect considering the type of film but the main focus is on a gang named 'The Dagger Debs'. The Debs are controlled by Dominic; the leader of 'The Silver Daggers'. The plot kicks off properly upon the introduction of Maggie; a new girl in town who makes a splash when she beats one of the senior Debs in a knife fight. However, Maggie also exposes jealousies within the gang and adding to the problem is the rival lead by a man named Crabs...The film is difficult to take seriously, mostly owing to the terrible acting and unfocused plot line. You never really know where the film is going, though that's more down to the fact that it just seems to do whatever it feels like without following a logical progression; although to the film's credit, this does work rather well. I wasn't surprised to find that most of the main player's didn't make much else aside from this film (Monica Gayle being the only exception) and most of them fail to convince with their performances - though again, it's actually to the film's credit as it helps to instill the Grindhouse style. The film is mainly set around a school and this is hilarious as all the actors clearly left school years before the filming of this movie took place! Despite the numerous problems (which would only really be problems in a serious film), Switchblade Sisters is still an awesome trash flick as it's just so much fun to watch. There's always plenty going on in the film, most of the lead characters are very amusing and the liberal attitude to violence that is displayed makes for great entertainment. This film is an absolute must see for fans of this sort of stuff!

Coventry "Switchblade Sisters" is one of the most awesome and amusingly incompetent trash/gangsploitation movies ever made; only back in the period when it got released nobody ever intended to make a bad film, of course. Personally, I enjoyed the privilege of seeing this film in a genuine grindhouse theater and with no less than writer/director Jack Hill present there to introduce the film and answer questions from the audience. Hill explained how he always dreamed of filming his very own version of Shakespeare's "Othello", yet this story was probably the closest he ever came to realizing that project. Irrelevant info, I know, but this just to illustrate "Switchblade Sisters" once actually was a remotely ambitious film and not just a piece of lesbian trash. The recent revival of drive-in & grindhouse cinema (courtesy of Quentin Tarantino, who's also a giant fan of this particular film) enlarges the sleaze-elements and silliness of 70's movies even more, but you should always at least try and see it in its framework of time. That being said, "Switchblade Sisters" is first and foremost a delightfully absurd gang-wars movie and a thoroughly flamboyant portrait of female empowerment. This baby has it all! Stereotypical gang members that easily look over 30 but still attend high-school, big fat ugly lesbian prison wardens, romantic rivalry, jealousy, treason, roller-skating shootouts, secretly desired rape sequences and – last but not least – female Maoist guerrilla fighters. Maggie is the ravishing and potent new chick on the block and she eagerly joins Lace's Dagger Debs gang after proving herself in a knifing contest. The Debs are the girlfriends of the Silver Daggers and all together they hang out in a ramshackle hangar to play pool and sell dope. There's a gang war with the Crabs in the offing and jealous Dagger Deb Patch inflicts a dispute between best friends Maggie & Lace when she notices they both fancy the same hunk. If you can overlook (and you simply must when you're interested in this type of cinema) the sometimes atrocious performances, one-dimensional characters and the absolute lack of logic & coherence, you will find great enjoyment here! The clichéd situations inside the penitentiary (with the obese lesbian warden), out in the schoolyard (with the nervous principal) and in the skating hall (random M-16 gunfire!) are all sublime. The whole finale, from the actual virulent street war up until the main Jezebels' showdown contest, is simultaneously suspenseful, spirited and even a bit touching. The soundtrack is great, although clearly not as enchanting as the ones featuring in Jack Hill's ultimate Blaxploitation masterworks "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown". Speaking of which, this movie perhaps lacks the powerful and attention-demanding presence of a starlet like Pam Grier, but the girls here are still more than adequate. The supportive characters are actually more convincing than the main ones. Lace, played by Robbie Lee, is an often intolerable and whiny child and Maggie simply appears too cherubic to play a rough chick. I vote for Patch to be the Jezebel's unhinged leader! She's unreliable, deceitful, mean and stark raving mad. Awesome film, highly recommended to slavering sick puppies like myself.

sol ****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.