Switchblade Sisters (1975, Jack Hill)

" The "Dagger Debs" are a gang of snarling girls, and Maggie is their newest member."

One look at this poster and you know the film better deliver and in this case it does and does it way better than I was expecting it to. This movie is going to be a tough one to make people believe its great and given my extremely high rating it will make it even harder. But trust me if you were to see this movie and you are open minded to films like this one you will love it just as much as I did.

Switchblade Sisters comes from Jack Hill who is slowly starting to turn into one of my favorite directors. The thing that makes me love the guys direction and also the few films I have seen by him is one main thing...these movies should be bad but they are not at all! He handles everything perfectly in that he doesn't try to make it amazing but also doesn't make it bad. Its a well balanced mix between "camp" and "artistic" filmmaking that ultimately creates little odd works of cinema at its most funnest. Jack Hill knew how to work within a genre and make it all work and this is a prime example of that. For example Hill points out that Coffy is his take on Richard III and Switchblade Sisters is his take on Othello. It doesn't get much better than that!

You have rival gangs, cat fights, underage women in prison, lesbian prison guards, plot twists, and a roller rink showdown! This film has it all and I once again have to stress this point: the film is actually excellent! It sounds like it might be trashy and it might be "cheesy" (a word I am starting to hate) or pure camp but it really all does add up to one of the funnest and most enjoyable films I have ever seen.

It's a wild ride for 90 minutes that feels like it only lasted 15 minutes and I mean this in a good way. If your a fan of the genre go watch it and then belong to the group of people who love and adore this film. It deserves all the love it gets and then some.

- ****