The year was 1975: The Hippies had lost. Nixon had resigned. Rock and Roll was still a pretty big deal. In the midst of this tumult, Jack Hill, director of Coffy and Foxy Brown
We begin our story in a run-down apartment on the wrong side of town, as Lace, leader of the Dagger Debs, gets ready for her day. She observes her mother paying a collection agent, and somehow gets to the elevator before the man. He flirts with her in a crude way, then the rest of the Debs get on the elevator at the next floor and promptly beat and rob him. We're very briefly introduced to the main girls, including Donut, the slightly overweight member of the group who gets picked on mercilessly by Lace (and everyone else).
With their newfound wealth, the Debs head over to the local burger place, following well-known gang customs (see also: Black Belt Jones). They meet with their affiliate male gang, the Silver Daggers, but before they can spend Lace's mother's money, Patch, an eye-patched member of their gang, gets in a fight with new girl Maggie and gets pummeled by the newcomer. Before the gang can settle things with Maggie, they get arrested, and Maggie gets arrested for... being a girl, I guess.
The girls are sent to juvie, where they have to put up with an old militant lesbian who runs the place. Maggie gets singled out as a new girl, but Lace and the others save her. Maggie eventually gets released when it turns out she had nothing to do with anything, and gives a message to Dominic, leader of the Daggers. Dominic likes what he sees, because he goes to Maggie's place and forces himself on her. That was not very empowering of him.
Later the rest of the Debs are released and we learn about the ongoing feud between the Daggers and Crabs, a local politician/gang leader. Maggie is tasked with getting a ridiculous necklace from him, so she goes undercover to meet him. He looks like Quentin Tarantino and is clearly on drugs: no wonder QT loves this movie. She manages to nab the necklace, but Crabs' gang responds by shooting a member of the Silver Daggers and dragging a Deb into the back of a van full of gang members. Okay that was not empowering either.
The Dagger gangs plan a counter-attack at the roller disco, but unfortunately Patch has grown jealous of Maggie and Lace's friendship and betrays the group, resulting in a disaster that gets Dominic killed. In the meantime, Lace has revealed she's pregnant with Dominic's baby, but Crabs punts her in the stomach at the roller rink after murdering her baby daddy.
In the final act, Maggie steps up the gang's presence and forms the Jezebels as an independent girl gang, while Lace is cast as an incredibly annoying Othello to Patch's Iago. Will dissension destroy the gang? Will any of them pass Mr. Clutch's final?! You'll have to watch and see!
I like this movie as a sort of spiritual prequel to the camp classic The Warriors
The performances tend to vary pretty hugely in quality. Some of them are good, although most of the cast looks about a decade too old to be in high school. And then there's Lace, the incredibly irritating lead. Her greatest and only fame came from playing high-pitched characters on Rainbow Brite, and sounds like she belongs in a magical land of fantasy when she's not screeching. On the other hand, Joanne Nail as Maggie really nails (pun intended) her performance: she's hot, she's dangerous, she looks like a trashy Charlie's Angel. Monica Gayle, a B-movie veteran, plays against type as Patch, a wispy, good-looking girl who is incredibly evil... and has an eye patch. The Kill Bill
It's camp exploitation fun, maybe not on the level of The Warriors, but it at least belongs on the DVD shelf nearby.
Memorable Quotes:
Lace: Everybody's gotta be in a gang.
Maggie: Get your hands off me you fat pig dyke!
Lace: Everything was great before Maggie! She ruined everything!
Dominic: Everything was lousy! You were lousy! The whole ****-ing gang was LOUSY!
Lace: If you go, it's gonna turn out baaaaaaad!
(Dominic leaves.)
Cop: Let me give you some advice-
Maggie: No! Let me give YOU some advice, cop! You can beat us, chain us, lock us up, but WE'RE GONNA BE BACK, UNDERSTAND? And when we do, cop, you better keep your ass off our turf or we'll BLOW IT UP. Jezebels, cop: Remember that name!
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