''Switchblade Sisters'' is a 1975 American

exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour ** Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery ** Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploi ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

detailing the lives of high school-aged female

gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

members. It was directed by

Jack Hill Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American film director in the exploitation film genre. Several of Hill's later films have been characterized as feminist works. Early life Hill was born in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Mildred (n� ...

and stars Joanne Nail, Robbie Lee and Monica Gayle. The film is also known as ''The Jezebels'', ''Maggie's Stiletto Sisters'' and ''The Warriors II: Las Navajeras''. The movie was not a success at the box office, but garnered a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

later on. Most of its current popularity can be attributed to film director

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

, who named the picture a personal favorite and re-released it in 1996 under his

Rolling Thunder Pictures Rolling Thunder Pictures was a short-lived film distribution company, set up under Miramax Films by Quentin Tarantino, that was headed by Jerry Martinez and Tarantino. It specialized on releasing independent, cult, or foreign films to theaters. Th ...

label. This version of the film features a

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

by both Hill and Tarantino. The film's tagline is "So Easy to Kill, So Hard to Love."

Plot synopsis

Maggie (Joanne Nail) transfers from across

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

to a new

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

that is essentially run by the Silver Daggers, a rough, hierarchical male gang, and their female counterparts, the Dagger Debs. A confrontation between the Dagger Debs and a repo man gets all the female members — and Maggie — arrested. Because Maggie is new, a lecherous

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

at the

juvenile detention center In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile det ...

(

Kate Murtagh Kate Murtagh (October 29, 1920 – September 10, 2017) was an American actress and singer-comedian, a native of Los Angeles, California. Early life Kate Murtagh's parents were both musicians of accomplishment. Her mother, born Wootson Davis in ...

) threatens to physically abuse her. Maggie fights back and eventually the Dagger Debs join her. Subsequently, Dagger Deb leader Lace (Robbie Lee) decides she likes Maggie and entrusts her with running errands while she serves a brief sentence in

juvenile hall In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile det ...

. One such errand – delivering a love note to Lace's boyfriend, Dominic ( Asher Brauner) – ends in Dominic following Maggie home and raping her. Maggie's close friendship with Lace upsets Lace's closest friend, Patch, who lost one of her eyes in service to the gang and now sees herself as second-in-command. Lace is released from juvenile hall and reunites with Dominic, telling him that she discovered she was pregnant during her incarceration. Dominic disavows fatherhood and refuses to help Lace care for the child, encouraging her to undergo an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. Meanwhile, the Silver Daggers have to contend with the arrival of a new gang, led by the villainous Crabs ( Chase Newhart), at the high school. After Crabs shoots Dominic's brother and orchestrates the

gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

of one of the Debs, Maggie devises an ambush on Crabs's men at a local

roller rink A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of hardwood or concrete, used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located ...

. The effort proves disastrous when Crabs' men show up armed with rifles, kill Dominic, and brutally assault Lace, causing her to miscarry. While Lace recuperates in the hospital, Maggie assumes leadership of the gang, expels the men and changes its name to The

Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and ) was the daughte ...

s. She teams up with Muff (

Marlene Clark Marlene Clark (born December 19, 1949) is an American actress, animator and fashion model. Clark is perhaps best known for her portrayals of Ganja Meda in the 1973 horror film ''Ganja & Hess'' and Janet Lawson, Lamont's girlfriend in the sitcom '' ...

) and her gang of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

militants The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin ...

from across town to ambush Crabs. All the while, Maggie suspects that someone in her group tipped Crabs off to their plans at the roller rink, not knowing that Patch has already uncovered the real traitor: Lace, who organized the ambush to get Maggie killed in revenge for her stealing Dom and for assuming the role of leader of the Dagger Debs. Patch agrees to cover for Lace and, after the ambush proves successful, she shoots Crabs before he can confess to Maggie. Back at the Jezebels' hideout, Lace and Patch attempt to convince the gang that Maggie was the traitor. The members refuse to believe Lace's assertions, and a

knife fight A knife fight is a violent physical confrontation between two or more combatants in which one or more participants is armed with a knife.MacYoung, Marc, ''Winning A Street Knife Fight'', (Digital format, 70 min.), Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, (J ...

ensues between Lace and Maggie. Maggie fatally stabs Lace in the throat, prompting a police strike force that had been surrounding the building to storm in and arrest everyone. The various members of the gang proudly proclaim themselves as members of the Jezebels, but when Patch attempts to identify herself as part of the gang to the police, the remaining members disavow any knowledge of her. The blood-soaked Maggie becomes hysterical as she and the rest of the gang are loaded into the back of a police van, screaming threats that the Jezebels will one day return.

Cast

*Robbie Lee - Lace *Joanne Nail - Maggie *Monica Gayle - Patch * Asher Brauner - Dominic *Chase Newhart - Crabs *

- Muff *Kitty Bruce - Donut *

Janice Karman Janice Felice Karman is an American actress, producer, writer, and director. She is the co-owner of Bagdasarian Productions with her husband Ross Bagdasarian Jr. Early life Karman was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father was psycholog ...

- Bunny *

Don Stark Donald Mario Stark (July 5, 1954) is an American actor known for his role as Bob Pinciotti on the Fox Network sitcom ''That '70s Show'' for all eight seasons (19982006) and fictional Los Angeles Devils owner Oscar Kinkade in VH1's '' Hit the ...

- Hook *

- Mom Smackley

Production notes

*Jack Hill allegedly interviewed real-life female gang members before filming ''Switchblade Sisters'' in order to give small details an air of authenticity. *While filming, the titles ''Playgirl Gang'' and ''The Jezebels'' were considered. Hill states in the DVD commentary that he figures not enough people would know what a Jezebel was, however. Thus, ''Switchblade Sisters'' was chosen, even though the phrase is not spoken in the film.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a rating of 52% from 25 reviews.

Influences

Jack Hill has stated that ''Switchblade Sisters'' was broadly influenced by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

''.Audio commentary with Jack Hill and Quentin Tarantino Hill and Quentin Tarantino liken Patch to an

Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates ...

character in the commentary for the film. Hill credited

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

's ''

The Fountainhead ''The Fountainhead'' is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young architect, who battles against conventional standards and refuses to com ...

'' for inspiring the scene in ''Switchblade Sisters'' in which a female gang member shrugs off being raped, Hill claiming that this occurs in Rand's novel.

Pop culture relevance

* One of the warden's attendants—listed in the credits as "Matron #1"—is played by stuntwoman

Jeannie Epper Jeannie Epper (born January 27, 1941) is an American stuntwoman and actress. She has performed stunts in over 100 feature films and television series and is perhaps best known as Lynda Carter's stunt double on the 1970s television series ''Wond ...

. Epper played the Reverend's wife in the first segment of '' Kill Bill: Volume 2''. Her daughter Eurlyne also worked with Tarantino, playing a tag-along accomplice of drug dealer Lanna Frank (stuntwoman

Monica Staggs Monica Staggs (born February 24, 1970) is an American stuntwoman and actress. Her acting credits include roles in '' The Settlement'' (1999), ''Sorority Boys'' (2002), Quentin Tarantino's ''Death Proof'' (2007), as Lanna Frank, '' Hesher'' (2010) ...

) in the ''

Death Proof ''Death Proof'' is a 2007 American action-thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women with modified cars he purports to be "death-proof". Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito ...

'' segment of ''

Grindhouse A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film ...

.'' * The film was reviewed by Siskel & Ebert alongside another well-known exploitation film, ''

Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. ''Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.'' is a 1990 American Superhero film, superhero comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz (producer), Michael Herz and distributed by Troma Entertainment. Plot The film follows Sergeant Detective Harry Gr ...

''. They gave it two thumbs down. Roger said that the main takeaway from watching the 1976 film two decades later was an appreciation for how much more talented young writers, actors, and directors were when making very low-budget/exploitation films, declaring this movie to be "amateur hour." * A line from the film, "Everybody's gotta be in a gang" was directly referenced in the final roll-out of artists for the 2017

Treefort Music Fest The Treefort Music Fest is a five-day, indie rock festival which is held at numerous venues throughout downtown Boise, Idaho in late March. The inaugural 2012 festival took place March 20–23 with the featured acts Built to Spill, The Joy ...

regarding the surfy proto-

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band Death Valley Girls.

References

External links

* * *
Jack Hill on ''Switchblade Sisters''
at

Trailers From Hell ''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a web series in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and expl ...

{{Jack Hill 1975 films 1970s crime thriller films 1970s feminist films 1970s exploitation films Films directed by Jack Hill American exploitation films Films scored by Les Baxter American crime thriller films 1970s gang films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films