Hermanas salvajes

After viewing Al Adamson's "Angels' Wild Women", I was wondering if it was such a good thing that I rented this as well. Since "Angels" didn't actually feature much footage with the women, I was nervous that "The Female Bunch" would be another wasted opportunity. Well, it wasn't.

Jennifer Bishop is Grace, the butch leader of a group of feminists who make up a secret society in an isolated desert ranch (in reality the notorious Spahn Ranch, home of the Manson Family). A new member, Sandy (Nesa Renet), is buried alive in a coffin to ensure she has guts (great claustrophobic scene)! Regina Carrol does a sultry go-go dance before once again getting an underwritten part (Al! She was your wife! Couldn't you have given her better roles?!).

The male cast members, Russ Tamblyn, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Geoffrey Land, are not in the movie that much, which makes "The Female Bunch" all the more true to the title. Tamblyn doesn't do much but be a victim of the sadistic ladies when he has sex with Denise (Leslie MacRae) and attempts to rape Grace! It's very hard to watch Chaney in his last role; his voice has been irreparably damaged from years of smoking and drinking and is barely audible. I much preferred his silent role in "Dracula vs. Frankenstein". Land only becomes a character in the last 15 minutes, so this really is the female bunch's movie. Thank God Adamson lived up to the title! Things to watch for: the opening scenes of ladies on horseback and a plane chasing a young couple through the desert is stunningly choreographed by Adamson standards; the heavily claustrophobic scene of Sandy being buried alive; Grace brands Tamblyn with a branding iron; and basically any scene where the women appear. A very, very good movie. It isn't "Satan's Sadists", but at times comes very close to topping it! Highly recommended!

"The Female Bunch" was completed in Aug 1969 under shooting title "A Time to Run," even more brutal and shocking than director Al Adamson's breakout success, "Satan's Sadists," on Western locations in Utah and the Spahn Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, at the very time the Charles Manson family was committing their most heinous crimes. The new title was inspired by "The Wild Bunch," going even further in its violence and nudity, even a full frontal shower scene, never topped by Adamson. A modern story about man-hating women living on an isolated California ranch, enabling them to run heroin from across the Mexican border. The sight of the bunch on horseback, constantly riding hither and yon, quickly grows tiresome, and even their sexual antics prove boring under Adamson's out of focus direction. Future HEE HAW girl Jennifer Bishop had an extensive exploitation career in Adamson films, "Blood of Dracula's Castle," "Horror of the Blood Monsters," and "Jessi's Girls," but hasn't the acting chops to truly convince as Grace, the 'queen bee' of this hive, and none of the other females stand out. The nominal male leads are Lon Chaney and Russ Tamblyn, only around long enough to justify their prominent billing, Chaney billed with the 'Jr.' for the only time since the 1942 Universal short "Keeping Fit." Tamblyn only arrives at the midway point, getting killed in glorious fashion with a pitchfork to the groin after being branded on the forehead by Grace. As Monti, aging former stuntman, Chaney is the only male working on Grace's ranch, believing that she'll eventually respond favorably to his amorous advances, only to be knocked out, tied to the back of a horse, and allowed to be dragged off to certain death. With only 6 1/2 minutes screen time, it's a disappointingly small role for the actor's last, but even worse is the quality of his cancer ridden voice, reduced to a terrible rasp, even when he's supposed to register emotion. There's a certain home movie atmosphere in the way that Adamson unflatteringly films his star, happily guzzling a bottle of vodka and spitting it out! It's a sad sight to see, but Lon Chaney's career comes to a close after 164 films in 37 years of dedicated work.

I recently bought the Al Adamson blu-ray collection, and this is the first one I started on. It was sleazy exploitation of strong independent women who hate men. The movie is told through a flashback from the P.O.V. of Sandy, a waitress who keeps falling in love with the wrong men. After attempting to kill herself, her friend Libby (Get it? Women's 'Lib') introduces her to a group/cult of women who live on a ranch, where no men are allowed. Eventually, Sandy wants out and tries to help a man that wondered on to the ranch. The other women want him dead. Will they survive? If you like trashy grindhouse films, you might enjoy THE FEMALE BUNCH!!!

This film essentially begins with a man named "Jim" (Geoffrey Land) driving a car at high speed on a desert road near the Mexican border with a young woman named "Sandy" (Nesa Renet) urging him to go faster. As it turns out, the reason for their high rate of speed is to get away from a group of violent women who seek to kill both of them due to an earlier altercation. Unfortunately, the two of them are soon spotted by an airplane which then relays their location to several women pursuing them on horseback. Not only that, but an occupant in the airplane also manages to shoot out one of the automobile's tires which eventually forces both Jim and Sandy to find shelter in a nearby cave. It's at this time that Sandy has a flashback to several weeks prior which subsequently explains how they got into their current situation. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this is one of those low-budget types of films that were commonly seen in the 60's and early 70's that fell under the hot rod or biker sub-genre and were often produced by companies like American International Pictures or--in this specific case--Dalia Productions. On that note, one shouldn't expect great acting or even good film quality as, more often than not, the final picture is somewhat grainy or occasionally streak marked. It's just one of those things. Be that as it may, I personally don't consider this film to be one of the better productions of this sort due in large part to the very faults I just mentioned. The acting wasn't good and the overall picture quality was a bit less than average as well. Having said all of that, however, I still found it to be somewhat entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

This is a historic film it was filmed at the Spahn ranch outpost of the the Manson family or at least parts of it were. There are too many similarities between the film and that group. Ironic Manson was also a Film Consultant at Universal Studios. Anyhow the film by its self has that classic 60's free Hollywood spirit , this was a time when Hollywood as the Motion Picture Film capitol was being broken up and auctioned off piece by piece and studios were scrambling around figuring out what was going to be the next big wave in show business. The creativity of the era is what balanced it all out this was a time when money didn't mean much and you didn't need to be a big shot to get licensing. Very unlike what we saw by the late 70's. Films like this are unique and they cannot be compared to your usual run of the mill productions. Now you have to literally go through a avalanche of regulations. The value is in the spirit of the film not in the acting even though much of the acting is good if you compare it by that standard as acting stands by itself. I'd rather watch this film over again than anything coming out of my local theater.