The Ultimate 1970s Female Juvenile Delinquent Flick

Okay, I’ve got to admit right off the bat that I am less than impressed with Quentin Tarentino. Although I find his films thoroughly enjoyable, I still am dubious when it actually comes to calling him a bonafide genius director; in the same way that I am hesitant to call a collage maker an "artist." Tarentino is a rip-off king (albeit a clever one) who sure can’t fool a video junkie like myself. I’ve seen American Boy and City on Fire and Mr. No Legs . . .

But film making prowess aside, Tarentino has done the video- watching portion of the world a big favor with his Rolling Thunder label. In essence, it’s a video distribution company that releases Quentin’s favorite films. To date, Rolling Thunder has released the less-than-interesting thriller Curdled, Wong Kar-Wai’s Chun-king Express, re-released Lucio Fulci's splat-classic The Beyond, and "Beat" Takeshi's Sonatine and Jack Hill’s Switchblade Sisters.

I love Jack Hill. He’s the man who is single-handedly responsible for giving the world Pam Grier. Spider Baby, Coffy, Foxy Brown, The Big Dollhouse, and The Big Birdcage are all classics. Hill specialized in giving the Pavlovian audience exactly what they expected while still managing to put his own unique spin on genre flicks.

Switchblade Sisters, Hill's entry in the "female juvenile delinquent" subgenre, is the story of The Dagger Debs, an all- girl gang/harem for the local thug group, The Daggers. Tough, spunky, and not afraid to inflict bodily harm, The Debs rule their turf with an iron fist. Enter the new girl, Maggie. Fearless. Able to hold her own in a knife fight. Viewed as a threat at first then as a powerful ally, her cool demeanor is the exact opposite of Lace, the current leader of the Debs. A Shakespearean tangle of loyalties and conflicts twists and turns through what would at first appear to be just another exploitative gang flick. But like I said before, director Jack Hill has a way of meeting audience expectations while dashing the usual conventions. Are the actors bad or are they in on the joke? Is the dialogue campily brilliant or totally inane? These are the questions that face the viewer of Switchblade Sisters.

All I know is that Hollywood should continue to make movies like Switchblade Sisters. Tough-as-nails juvenile girls in prison, denim hot pants, feathered hair dos, militant black gangs with armor-plated deathmobiles, cowering adults, roller rink shoot outs, youthful rebellion, and an ending that’s a resounding spit in the face of authority . . . Everything I look for in a movie. A veritable smorgasbord of criminal savvy and rebellion. All lovingly shot in that blue/brown tinged film stock that brings back memories of youth . . .

I watch a lot of cheesy 1970s juvenile delinquent flicks. Naturally, I ran across Switchblade Sisters years ago and felt from viewing #1 that there was something unique about the film. An intangible element of cool sleaze that is seldom accomplished on film. Switchblade Sisters must be seen to be fully appreciated and it gets the "Editor X Seal of Approval." Especially now that Tarentino has managed to get new prints struck which look a hell of a lot better than the big box specials I’ve been renting for years (not to mention the fact that the film is more readily available now).

The tape is out there courtesy of Rolling Thunder, but I must recommend the laser disc edition. Widescreen, with running audio commentary by Hill and Tarentino, and scenes from and trailers for every one of Hill’s movies, it’s well worth the money . . . and you’d better hurry! Obscure title discs, sanctioned by film wunderkinds or not, often have limited pressings.

- Editor X