When exploitation king Jack Hill made Coffy and Foxy Brown, he scored two grindhouse hits in a row, but the hits stopped coming with Switchblade Sisters. If his street gang melodrama has developed a cult following over the years, it bombed in 1975 and then again in 1996 when Quentin Tarantino supervised a re-release complete with spiffy new poster. It's hard to say why, since it's in the same vein as The Warriors and Rock 'n' Roll High School, but the title may have led audiences to expect something sleazier.
He starts by introducing Lace (Robbie Lee), who lives in low-income housing in Los Angeles with her stressed-out mother. She's the living embodiment of the Henry Wadsworth poem about the girl with a curl "right in the middle of her forehead." When she isn’t dodging rats and bill collectors, she's raising a ruckus with her gang, the Dagger Debs, and their male counterparts, the Silver Daggers, including her steady, Dom (Asher Brauner). "I'd kill for that guy!," she exclaims, though he hardly seems worth it. For fun, the Debs attempt to intimidate fresh-faced Maggie (The Visitor's Joanne Nail) at the local burger joint only to find themselves up against a girl every bit their equal.
After they all spend a night in juvie, Maggie joins the gang and changes their name to the Jezebels (the original name of the film). She clinches her membership by stealing the hilariously hideous medallion from their arch-rival, Crabs (Chase Newhart), who uses a soup kitchen as a front for shady dealings. The addition of a member who shares Lace's leadership qualities marks a new beginning for the gang until desire and jealousy get in the way. If Maggie is flirtatious, she isn't a cheat, and she only sleeps with Dom when he takes what he wants by force. Patch (Monica Gayle), the film's designated Iago, sets out to turn Lace against Maggie (her name comes from the silver, butterfly-appliquéd patch she wears over her left eye). Then, an easygoing evening at the roller rink turns into a massacre when chains and machine guns come into play, leading to a miscarriage and a murder.
Once the ladies have had enough of the Silver Daggers and their macho shenanigans, they join forces with a gang of militant Black women. Hill amps up the violence as the turf wars escalate. The Jezebels get their vengeance against Crabs and his hoodlums, but internal tensions leave the group in tatters, though Maggie vows they'll be back, bigger and badder than ever.
To call Switchblade Sisters feminist would be a stretch, but for exploitation fare, it extends more sympathy to the downtrodden women than to the boorish men, who aren't even especially charismatic, except for the swaggering Crabs with his goofily groovy threads. An abundant array of extras, including vintage featurettes and an informative commentary track from Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger provide details about the making of the film, its reception, and its legacy. Recommended for adventurous collections.