Hermanas salvajes

An exciting not totally serious film. Gloria Hendry is excellent as Lynn Jackson. She is a totally underrated actress and should have received the fame and acclaim of Pam Grier.

'Savage Sisters' is a valuable addition to the blaxploitation/women in prison genre, and is a must for all those into this stuff. It is actually, in my opinion, one of the better examples of the genre.

I saw it when it came out in 1974. It was then available on VHS for a while.

However, as far as I know, it is NOT available on DVD, although there is a boxed set with the same title it doesn't include the movie!

The boxed set of DVDs available entitled 'Savage Sisters'consists of blaxploitation/women in prison movies but DOESN'T include the movie 'Savage Sisters'! Very strange.

I was warned that this would not be a typical women-in prison film. Cheri Caffaro may have tempted us with clothing that she was about to burst out of, but the key words are "about to." Even the shower scene with Caffaro and Rosanna Ortiz was a bust. Even Gloria Hendry in a bathtub was covered in soap. Even the matron (Rita Gomez), who jumps into bed with all the officers, hides herself well.

It's all about some crazy General, who has 10 stars and wears medals on his T shirt, who is after a million dollars the rebels stole. He enlists Capt. Morales (Eddie Garcia) with the promise of a star. Hendry takes Caffaro and Ortiz and they make a plan of their own with a shifty John Ashley, who plans to double-cross them.

Funny, but a big disappointment for WIP fans.

This movie features several different factions of a third-world country who are all trying to acquire a box containing $1 million American dollars. The first faction involves a group of revolutionaries led by a man named "Ernesto" (Dindo Fernando) who needs this money to support his cause. The second faction consists of some armed bandits led by a very unscrupulous man named "Malavasi" (Sid Haig). Initially, they side with the revolutionaries but things have a way of changing in the heat of battle. The third group is headed by a corrupt military officer by the name of "General Balthazar" (Leopoldo Salcedo) who represents the government and has specifically ordered a junior officer named "Captain Morales" (Eddie Garcia) to kill or apprehend all rebels and to obtain the money at all costs. Needless to say, with so much at stake only one side will win. Now, as far as the film is concerned, I liked the steady mixture of action and comedy which kept things entertaining from start-to-finish. Likewise, having two attractive actresses like Cheri Caffaro (as "Jo Turner") and Gloria Hendry ("Sergeant Lynn Jackson") certainly didn't hurt either. On the other hand, this was clearly a low-budget, B-movie which definitely suffered from its limitations. No use denying it. Be that as it may, however, it had enough good points to essentially make up for the obvious defects and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

You have to give credit to this Filipino actioner for at least trying something different, and that's with making the movie more or less a comedy. However, the comedy is so lazy, so uninspired, and so utterly unfunny that sitting through the movie is more painful than had it kept the comedy out! (Also, the comedy sometimes has a mean-streak in it, giving some scenes a bitter taste.)

It's not that the movie is just bad with its comedy, it's also badly made. The "action" is poorly choreographed, and the mayhem has the intensity of seeing a group of people running by you. As well, there is some unbelievably slipshod editing; characters suddenly appear (or disappear) with no explanation as to how they got there or where they went. Added with a prologue that suspiciously looks like it was filmed and added in at the last minute, there seems to have been some problems during the shooting, or that they were frantically trying to save the movie in the editing room.

Oh yeah, don't let the "R" rating fool you. The rating seems to be more for several utterances of the "ultimate" four-letter words. The action isn't graphic, the sex happens off-screen or just out of camera range, and I don't think there's one instance of actual nudity by the ladies. You have to ask yourself why if they were headed for an "R" rating with the language, why they didn't use the opportunity to spice things up.

I'm surprised this isn't more well known among exploitation fan circles. As far as women in prison movies go, this one is pretty amusing and works better than most of its ilk. Sure, it's not without flaws with some lame action scenes and a surprising lack of sleaze for the genre but the directing and acting do well with the zany script.

The lead women, which are a white, black, and Asian respectively, skip on the nudity but deliver some amusing dialogue and acting which the movie would have been pretty dull without. Performances are over the top lending to a cartoony vibe with John Ashley and Sid Haig being standouts. No ground is being broken here, but after watching countless exploitation movies, this one provides a fun lighthearted atmosphere missing from most.