Wolff rating: EVIL
Plot summary: A ``new fish'' is sent to a prison in the Philippines, and inside she meets other messed-up women in trouble with the law and a corrupt prison system.
Biased, pithy comments: You have to ignore the people who are big women-in-prison fans and take this movie for what it is---sucky exploitation. While ``Switchblade Sisters'' tries to tell the story of ``Othello,'' this just meanders from place to place with atrocious acting, unbelieveable plotting, and leaden direction---Hill seems incapable of moving the camera and taking shots that don't make the set look one-dimensional. The only redeeming factors are the undeniably cute actresses stumbling through their lines, Pam Grier in her first major role, and Pam Grier belting out the theme song. Otherwise, it's stupid, sexual frequently without being sexy, and filled with queasy 70s fear of aggressive women. It also features some rape fantasies that are as up-to-date as a Victorian walrus moustache on a man (which one of our antiheroes sports). Skip except for your paper on sexuality in cinema for your freshman expository writing class at Brown.
Other Notes: So, women-in-prison fans point out that this is the seminal (gee, I almost wrote ``semen-al'') women-in-prison film, the film that took these sorts of films out of the ghetto of the 40s. This may be true; it probably created a few tropes that are reused and reused; me, I'm looking forward to ``Reform School Girls'' for an 80s take on this whole matter. Watch for the director cameo in the badly-ADR'd jeep sequence at the end.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Judith M. Brown, Roberta Collins, Pam Grier, Brooke Mills, Pat Woodell.
Directed by: Jack Hill