Illustration : G Francis

Switchblade Sisters
 

Jack Hill | USA | 1975

From cult exploitation writer/director Jack Hill, auteur of such blaxploitation classics as Coffy and Foxy Brown, comes this epic milestone in trash cinema, Switchblade Sisters — which was also penned by the filmmaker. 

The story concerns a gang of ‘hard as nails’ knife-wielding starlets, known as the “Dagger Debs” (as in débutants) and their male sidekicks, “The Silver Daggers”. This band of mean-spirited, grim-faced femme fatales clad in leather hot pants, makes for an outrageous evening’s viewing, as the film crams a hefty brew of internecine fueds, soap opera drama, gang war killings and the Black Panther power movement into a melting pot of just 90 minutes! 

Despite the outrageous shenanigans on display, Hill confessed that Switchblade Sisters did convey a certain authenticity: the director allegedly interviewed a number of actual girl gang members, and re-jigged his script to accommodate their comments!

Switchblade Sisters — which was actually its re-issue title, having briefly played at US cinemas as The Jezebels — made its first appearance on tape on John Parry’s Iver Film Services label, a prominent Buckinghamshire based film distributor, which started with 8mm film equipment and software, before branching into the wider-reaching videocassette business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few years’ hiatus, Hill’s film reappeared, this time from the Midlands-based Network Distribution, a software distribution company responsible for pre-cut versions of two former “nasties”, with Jorge Grau’s The Living Dead, and Luigi Cozzi’s sci-fi splatter-fest Contamination both appearing on their European Creative Films label.

This re-release of Switchblade Sisters was also shorn of some action — 8 seconds to scenes of knife play — at the behest of the moral guardians at the BBFC. This release appeared on the Network’s Stateside Productions label, replete with eye-catching, leather-clad, dominatrix inspired sleeve art by regular Stateside illustrator, G. Francis.

Something of a personal favourite of Quentin Tarantino, Switchblade Sisters has more recently appeared on his own “Rolling Thunder Pictures” label, a sideline of Miramax, presenting a collection of must-see cinema favourites, as selected and introduced by Tarantino himself.

 

aka : Playgirl Gang; Jezebels, The

cast : Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Monica Gayle, Asher Brauner, Chase Newhart, Marlene Clark, Kitty Bruce, Janice Karman, Don Stark, Don Marino, Helene Nelson, Bill Adler, Paul Lichtman, J.S. Johnson, Kate Murtagh, Bob Minor, Clint Young, Frances Williams, Michael Miller, Roy Engel, Jerii Woods, Georgia Lee, Betty McGuire, Jack Lukes, Jeannie Epper, May Boss, John Voldstad, Robert Bryan Berger, Roger Richman, Ninette Bravo, Gay Guldstrand, Jane Darbyshire, Sherri Brussa, Charlotte DeOrlow, Tina Christine, Patti A. Nolton, Debby Insinger