Scott LeBrun Predating the cycle of gang movies by a few years, "The Jezebels" (a.k.a. "Switchblade Sisters") by exploitation icon Jack Hill really is a whole lot of fun. It's colourful entertainment that actually manages to be campy and serious in equal doses. And it does come complete with a feminist statement.Robbie Lee is Lace, the leader of a girl gang dubbed The Dagger Debs, who are affiliated with a male gang known as the Silver Daggers. She's sweet on Dominic (Asher Brauner), their leader. Laces' world starts falling apart when Maggie (Joanne Nail), a loner, attracts the attention of the gangs (especially Dominic) and rises within the ranks - and gains influence - a little too quickly. Amid the personal problems of the main characters, they must go to war with a gang that masquerades as community activists.Considering the fact that some of these actresses don't really convince at all as tough gals (especially Lee), and are clearly too old for their roles, they really are a whole lot of fun. Monica Gayle delivers a standout performance as Patch, a gang member who comes to distrust and despise Maggie. A rich assortment of familiar actors in the supporting roles include Marlene Clark as black revolutionary Muff, Don Stark as Hook, Bill Adler as Fingers, Kate Murtagh as butch lesbian prison guard Mom Smackley, and Bob Minor as police officer Parker. Nail definitely looks very hot in various sexy outfits. Co-star Kitty Bruce, who plays the put-upon Donut, is the daughter of Lenny Bruce.The movie contains some absolute gems of dialogue thanks to screenwriter F.X. Maier; the viewer will find them very quotable. Nails' speech to the cops right before the end credits is hilarious. There's sex and plenty of violence, and some eye catching costumes by Jodie Tillen. And you just know that this is going to a be a most enjoyable film because of the tune "Black Hearted Woman" that's belted out during the opening credits. Many fine scenes include the clichéd action in the penitentiary and the gunfights at the roller rink and in the streets.Fans of this kind of thing would be well advised to seek it out. It really hits the spot in terms of all of its exploitative elements.Nine out of 10.

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.

bensonmum2 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!

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.