Policewomen

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.

"Lacy Bond" (Sondra Currie) is a young policewoman who is stuck in a jail-house processing female prisoners and she feels like she is going nowhere fast. Then a mass breakout occurs and she single-handedly manages to prevent all but two female prisoners from escaping. Because of her actions she is offered an extremely dangerous assignment involving a group of female gold smugglers headed by a ruthless leader by the name of "Maude" (Elizabeth Stuart). Now, rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a mildly entertaining low-budget film which attempted to emulate the James Bond series to a certain extent. Unfortunately, some of the characters and the script clearly needed some fine-tuning and as a result it just wasn't up to the same high standards. But Sandra Currie was definitely hot and having plenty of attractive young women in swimsuits lolling about certainly didn't hurt this movie in any way. In short, this isn't a great movie by any means but it wasn't that bad either. Accordingly, I rate this movie as about average.

POLICEWOMEN opens with a semi-explosive, karate-enhanced jailbreak, led by the nefarious duo of Janette and Pam (Laurie Rose and Jeannie Bell).

Now, uber-tough policewoman, Lacy Bond (Sondra Currie) is on the case. Thankfully, she's as good at gunplay, stunt driving, and snappy comebacks as she is with her fists. She'll need all of her skills to take on an all-female drug smuggling ring, headed by a 75 year old granny!

Lacy's superiors have a hard time containing her unorthodox, violent methods, while many terribly-choreographed, sluggish martial arts battles ensue.

This is another example of drive-in movie fodder, with the typically forced "street" dialogue, hit and miss acting, and haphazard story line. Still, Ms. Currie remains likeable throughout, in spite of the hilarious shambles around her. Her character's training session with Bill the karate instructor (William Smith) is one for the ages!...

Policewomen is an action movie directed by Lee Frost, who made several exploitation flicks including the pleasingly ridiculous The Thing with Two Heads (1972) about a white racist who has his head transplanted onto the body of a black guy! This one is certainly less psychotronic than that effort but is better value overall in my view. Its title makes no sense at all of course, as there is only really one policewoman in the film, seemingly it was going to be titled 'Policewoman' until a TV movie of that name was aired just before its release so the producers just pluralized the title of this one. Whatever the case, it hardly matters. It's about a female police officer who goes undercover to infiltrate an all-female gang of criminals.

I really like films full of women so this one was right up my alley. The guys that appear are very peripheral and sometimes even get beat up by the chicks, which is never a bad thing. But seeing as it's a 70's action flick, while it has some material satirising male chauvinism, the female empowerment stuff is offset by a sprinkling of nudity throughout, so everyone's a winner basically. The lead actress is Sondra Currie who makes for a great heroine. She, and the other women, get involved in much kung fu fighting and it's consistently entertaining stuff. The film opens with a prison break and then moves onto its gangster plot-line but it is in essence a female-led action flick which was clearly aimed at the unpretentious low budget drive-in crowd. I personally found quite a lot to like about this one and consider it something of a success.

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).