Re-Released ‘Sisters’ Recalls a Pulpy Past

With Quentin Tarantino’s re-release of Jack Hill’s zesty 1975 “Switchblade Sisters” through his Rolling Thunder company, the maker of “Pulp Fiction” is paying homage to the exploitation pictures he grew up on but which have all but vanished from theaters. Tarantino is presenting the film with video distributor and film enthusiast Johnny Legend, who’s long wanted to see the film back up on the big screen.

By definition, such low-budget pictures exploited topical subjects as sensationally as possible. Yet such lurid fare played a vital role in the American cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Exploitation pictures consistently tackled serious contemporary issues, such as the Vietnam War, drug use and the counterculture, well before mainstream Hollywood movies did and often more forthrightly. They were a training ground for new talent, and most important of all, they were action-packed fun.

Fun is what “Switchblade Sisters” is. Its hilarious trailer plays it up as camp, but Hill, one of the best exploitation directors ever, is too sophisticated not to have laced conflict with intentional humor. What’s more, his gang girls, the Dagger Debs, actually have dimension, and their story, bristling with feminist spirit, is a paean to female solidarity and its importance. Best remembered for his Pam Grier pictures “Coffy” (1973) and “Foxy Brown” (1974), Hill makes his serious points so deftly that he doesn’t have to ask you to take his pictures themselves seriously.

“Switchblade Sisters” is of course first and foremost a violent urban myth that comes full circle with the working out of a complex, ever-shifting relationship between two tough young women who meet in a fast-food joint in a decaying neighborhood. A new girl in the area, Maggie (Joanne Nail), refuses to back off when Dagger Debs leader Lace (Robbie Lee) tells her to move to another table. (One of the minor Debs, Donut, is played by Kitty Bruce, Lenny Bruce’s daughter.)

Maggie’s ability to take care of herself inevitably impresses the Debs, and she and Lace come to like and respect each other. But their relationship is troubled because Lace’s boyfriend Dominic (Asher Braun), a big, well-built guy who’s the leader of the Silver Blades gang, is attracted to Maggie.

Nail’s Maggie radiates intelligence while Lee’s Lace exudes a dangerous, conflicted vulnerability, and they are memorable, contrasting presences. “Switchblade Sisters” is a terrific example of efficient, resourceful filmmaking, and its depiction of urban ills is, if anything, all too prophetic, echoed by the recent film “The Substitute.”

* MPAA rating: R. Times guidelines: The film has standard gang violence, strong language, some nudity and is not for children.

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‘Switchblade Sisters’

Robbie Lee: Lace

Joanne Nail: Maggie

Asher Braun: Dominic

Monica Gayle: Patch

A Miramax release of a Rolling Thunder and Johnny Legend presentation of a Centaur production. Director Jack Hill. Producer John Prizer. Executive producers Frank Moreno, Jeff Begun. Screenplay by Hill, Prizer and F. X. Maier. Cinematographer Stephen Katz. Set designer Roland Hill. Editor Mort Tubor. Costumes Jodie Tillen. Music supervisor Les Baxter. Music Medusa, Chuck Day, Richard Person. Production designers Robinson Royce, B. B. Neel. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741; the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 848-3500; and the South Bay 6 Drive-Ins, Main Street, Carson, between the Harbor and San Diego freeways, (310) 777-FILM, Ext. 419.