Review of Switchblade Sisters (1975) by Christopher H — 23 Jul 2008

A rollerink massacre! A hideous, libidinous female warden who threatens to "search inside"! A teenage girl in a black leather biker cap hurling a bottle of perfume at a rat that dares to scamper across her bedroom! Lenny Bruce's plump daughter Kitty playing an overweight gang girl named Donut who's forced by the others to "squeal like a pig"! Angry femmes throwing chairs at their loser boyfriends and accusing them of impotence! Gun battles between the Dagger Debs, their black power feminist co-horts, and a group of shady drug-peddling sleazoids who dose welfare kids' food with smack! Say what you will about Switchblade Sisters, not one frame of it is boring! Quentin Tarantino's urgent conviction that the film is a B version of Othello is as compelling as it is silly.