Jack Hill is back and taking on one of the sleaziest and yet entertaining pictures of his career. “Switchblade Sisters” is a thrilling gang picture that can be taken alongside “The Warriors.” It’s a tale of fracture love triangle, a gang torn asunder, and a pretty excellent adaptation of a classic Shakespeare tale. “The Switchblade Sisters” is exploitation, but cut from prime material as Hill is able to derive a lot from such a minimal budget. He also grabs some excellent turns from the cast, including the now iconic Patch, played by Monica Gayle.
We follow the Dagger Debs, and their incarceration in a juvenile ward. After coming across a tough bitch named Maggie in a restaurant, she’s framed and jailed with the Dagger Debs where she forms a bond with the leader, Lace. Maggie leaves early and now finds herself in the middle of a pure gang war brewing as the Dagger Debs sit behind the walls of their prison. “The Switchblade Sisters” is Hill once again tapping in to the more feminine aspect of sub-genre exploitation typically reserved for men.
This time director Hill delves in to the more gritty aspects of the tough Dagger Debs, and how they tend to be as tough (often tougher) than the men they roll around with. Hill doesn’t soften up the narrative to suit the feminine clichés, applying so much of the rowdy and coarse action and vengeance that we saw in his teaming with Pam Grier. Much like Carpenter, Jack Hill is a journeyman director, and he injects so much flair and tightly wound tension in to his cult gem. It’s another one of his gems that almost faded in to obscurity, which would be a shame, as it’s perfect midnight movie material, and a brilliant chaser with films like “Savage Streets” and or “The Warriors” when all is said and done. Ever since watching “The Switchblade Sisters” on Cinemax, I’ve been in love with this movie and it’s remained a (much deserved) timeless cult classic
Sadly, the commentary by Jack Hill and Quentin Tarantno is limited to the DVD release from years prior. However, the features for the beautiful treatment from Arrow Video include the newly recorded commentary track by critics Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger. Details include Deighan and Ellinger’s personal relationships with the film, the cultural context of the juvenile delinquent film, how Switchblade Sisters fits into this context, the female teen delinquent subgenre (including the truly great never discussed Teenage Doll), and more. We Are The Jezebels is an archival documentary featuring director Jack Hill, producer John Prizer, casting director Geno Havans, production designer B.B. Neel, stunt coordinator Bob Minor, and stars Joanne Nail, Asher Brauner, and Chase Newhart.
Details include how Hill got involved with API (the studio that produced and released the film), how this led to Hill’s naughty The Swing Cheerleaders, the low budget/exploitation world at the time, how this led to Hill and Producers wanting to do a Gang Film. “Gangland: The locations of Switchblade Sisters” is an archival documentary in which director Jack Hill and filmmaker Elijah Drenner revisit the shooting locations of Switchblade Sisters. Jack Hill and Joanne Nail at the Grindhouse Film Festival is another archival featurette with director Hill and actor Nail recorded in 2007. Shot at the New Beverly the featurette gives people a look at the storied theater if they’ve never been including giveaways even show us a view from the projection booth.
It is a short introduction and short post-screening Q&A. There are archival video Interviews with Jack Hill, Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Theatrical Trailers for Switchblade Sisters (3:07), The Jezebels [Switchblade Sisters’ alt-title] (3:03), Spider Baby (1:04), Pit Stop (2:02), Coffy (1:56), Foxy Brown (2:01), The Swinging Cheerleaders (2:37), Still Galleries including Behind the Scenes, Promo Stills, Lobby Cards, Posters, and 8 Home Video covers from various countries like US, Mexico, Germany, Italy. These run automatically and are navigated through the Next Chapter button on your remote.