Cette femme est un flic

Can you give a low budget b-movie a 7 rating? I am tempted!

I was entertained and amused for 90 minutes by this 1974 flick. No it's not the best script and acting but it is definitely entertaining and I enjoyed it more than some IMDb 8+ rated blockbusters. Plenty of gratuitous nudity and classic 1974 action/fighting / karate scenes.

Sondra Currie was extremely enjoyable and the clear star of the show. And she's not difficult to look at either. A strong 6 plus for this flick.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

A beautiful, albeit deadly, young policewoman named Lacy Bond (Sondra Currie) is recruited to help bring down a new all-girl gang.

This film is aimed squarely at drive-in film fans who like their stories with a little touch of female exploitation. Well, this film is nowhere near as sleazy as its opening credits would seem to suggest so some may be disappointed.

Ultimately this is a film that Almost Works: the fight scenes are surprisingly good, there's a coherent plot that's easy to follow and our leading lady proves easy to like as well as easy on the eyes. Yes this almost works...in terms of a serious film...

But Not Quite...why?

Well for one thing there's a few too many underdeveloped characters. Another is how the all-girl gang likes to spend most of their time sunning themselves in bikinis....also the ending really stretches the credibility a bit too far...

Still all in all this is sometimes quite a lot of fun to watch. My favorite scenes include Lacy kicking butt in police uniform when the prisoners make a break, what happens when she takes on William Smith, and when she saves someone (I won't say who) from a severe beating at the hands of five vicious bikini-wearing babes?! Somewhat ahead of its time given the current craze in television for this type of stuff.

Policewoman Lacy Bond,played by small dynamic redhead Sondra Currie,is a "supercop" assigned to take down a band of female gangsters who are up to all sorts of fiendish criminal activities.She uses(pretty basic)martial arts skills against them,and is later joined by undercover agent Pam Harris,played by Jeanie Bell,to help her take down the bad girl mob.The guys are generally pretty unimportant in this movie.Tony Young,as Lacy's boss and partner is reduced to a hapless sidekick,muttering his disapproval when he thinks she is putting herself in danger(and at one point having to be rescued by our heroine from some murderous babes who are beating him to death!).Only Phil Hoover,playing a funny and pretty vicious villain,and the great William Smith,sending himself up in a cameo as a patronizing police fight instructor,really register among the male cast.This cheap but entertaining movie contains all the elements expected from Lee Frost's "drive-in" fare,some sex and nudity,scantily clad girls,and lots of action.Fans of female fighting in movies should like the scenes where Lacy and Pam use judo and karate battling the female villains-such as tough con Janette (Laurie Rose)and Caroline (Dorrie Thomson) and her gang.

POLICE WOMEN is a straightforward early '70s action flick about an undercover cop who infiltrates an all-female gang in order to bring some perps to justice. It has a low rent, TV movie-style look and feel to it, but a string of rather basic martial arts fights keeps the running time bubbling along, allowing this to be mildly enjoyable for the undemanding viewer.

Sondra Currie essays the role of the tough, ass-kicking female lead, and she does a fine job with it. She brings some of the sass and verve of Pam Grier to the part, and she's one of the best things about the movie. Elsewhere, watch out for William Smith's amusing cameo as a karate instructor. Director Lee Frost worked his way through an exploitation career incorporating such titles as HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN, THE DEFILERS, LOVE CAMP 7, and THE THING WITH TWO HEADS. What a resume!

Among the films that have featured female super cops (mostly Hong Kong), Sondra Currie is more believable. She's not big, but displays sufficient athleticism so as not to ruin the illusion. This low budget crime action film is passable entertainment. I actually liked it, but I enjoy the action woman genre. None of the movie was believable. After all, who would put a policewoman in such extreme danger without much backup.

The video box cover indicates that this movie is "the most daring caper since "The French Connection". This puffing is a tad overstated, okay, a lot overstated. The cast was fairly extensive and the acting ability varied quite a lot. Don't be mistaken, most viewers will be laughing at portions of the movie. For me, I will overlook the bad and take some comfort in seeing the film and knowing that the film makers tried to make a good movie. Policewomen has largely disappeared from circulation. I gave it a 6 (from 10).