Switchblade Sisters (1975) - Jack Hill

The Silver Daggers are a gang of young hoods who control the inner-city high school, selling drugs and prostitution to the student body while fighting  anyone who tries to get in their way.  The group has a ladies contingent, The Dagger Debs, who are tough cookies in their own right but are not exactly treated as equals by their male counterparts.  When a new girl, Maggie, joins the group and instantly bonds with the leader of the Dagger Debs, Lace, the leader of the Silver Daggers becomes immediately interested in Maggie sexually, as a replacement for Lace.  Through jealously and deceit, Lace begins to grow suspecting of Maggie, which threatens to hurt the group's unity, while also being in the midst of a turf between their rival gang, who poses as a community action team.  Jack Hill's Switchblade Sisters is an incredibly fun female-gang exploitation flick, which wears its b-level acting and low-level production value on its sleeve like a badge of honor.  Jack Hill's direction is assured and never apologetic in its colorful characters, situations and overall cheese.  While Switchblade Sisters is definitely categorized as low-budget exploitation, the film has some surprising social relevancy in its portrayal of urban deterioration and gang relations and ultimately is really a film about the empowerment of woman.  Almost every male character in this film is masochistic and abusive towards woman, with the primary female leads in Switchblade Sisters being strong feminine characters who ultimately take charge and take shit from no one.  Switchblade Sisters is not high-art, far from it, but what it provides in entertainment value, from its great 70's soundtrack to exaggerated characters, supplements a nice little social commentary with run results.

7.5/10

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