Wonder Women

What I remember about the film was the only known star was Nancy Kwan, which meant it was truly a low-budget effort. Set in the Philippines, Hagen stars as a private eye who's on the hunt for a group of women kidnappers. Hagen gets to fight one female; On second thought it wasn't much of a fight. Hagen gets tossed all over the room, ruining furniture and appliances in the process, but still survives(!), despite the strength of his genetically-engineered female foe. He wins her trust and she leads him to the lair of Nancy Kwan, the evil scientist (!!). Atrocious acting, some good fight scenes, lush Manila scenery, poor plot. Strictly for enthusiasts of apartment-style mixed wrestling.

A multi-racial gang of ladies with skimpy clothes, big hair and bigger guns is running amok in Manila - kidnapping athletes and skinny-dippers left, right and centre. When they nick a Jai Alai player, hero Mike Harber (Hagen) is called in. Hooked up with a sidekick jeepney driver (denim-clad Vic Diaz), Harber winds up on the island lair of transplant artiste Dr Tsu (Nancy Kwan). "Her genius and her talent transcends the question of human morality," says her debonair sales manager (Sid Haig) and Tsu's brain transplant techniques and stock of body parts are the key to longevity. With a labload of flashing, bipping and swirling things, brain sex, a high-speed downtown jeepney chase and an army of Filipino warrior gals enthusiastically belting the crap out of people, Wonder Women is a load of fun. And that's before Dr Tsu's mutant test subjects escape their cells! The ending - Harber, a blonde and another all-female hit squad - is a reminder that Ross Hagen was the producer of this manic actioner.

I stumbled upon the 1973 movie "Wonder Women" by random chance here in 2024. Even with it being a movie that is two years older than me, then I didn't hesitate to sit down and watch the movie. I had never heard about it, nor did I know about it existing, so I had no idea what I was in for here.

In that sense, then writers Lou Whitehill and Robert Vincent O'Neil, with the latter also directing the movie, had every opportunity to entertain me with their 1973 movie. I had zero expectations to the movie when I sat down to watch it.

The movie started out with a hilarious death scene of a security guard, where the actor just over-did the dying. It had me laughing so hard. And with that we were off to a glorious early 1970s foray of crime action.

The script was adequate, though a bit on the cheesy and campy side. I suppose it was that particular 1970s flavor to the movie. That being said, I am not saying that "Wonder Women" is a bad movie, because it definitely was a watchable movie, and entertaining enough for what it turned out to be. Though you must have a certain degree of interest in movies of this particular genre and era to fully enjoy the movie from director Robert Vincent O'Neil.

I was surprised to find the likes of Ross Hagen and Sid Haig on the cast list. They were, in fact, the only two performers that I were familiar with on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were good, taking everything into consideration.

All in all, a fair enough movie that proved entertaining for a single viewing.

My rating of "Wonder Women" lands on a five out of ten stars.

After the mysterious disappearance of one of the biggest names in Jai alai (a variation of the sport pelota), insurance investigator Mike Harber (Ross Hagen) is hired to try and find the missing sportsman. Mike's search leads him to the heavily guarded island fortress of Dr. Tsu (Nancy Kwan), where the unscrupulous surgeon has been harvesting the bodies of athletes abducted by her all-female army and using their limbs and organs in illegal transplant operations for the super-rich.

Opening with a scene in which several topless female swimmers are abducted by Dr. Tsu's sexy hench-women, this early 70s USA/Philippines production starts as it means to go on by being unashamedly exploitative trash. As his film unfolds, director Robert Vincent O'Neill (who also gave us the equally exploitative Angel and Avenging Angel) piles on the outlandishness, delivering a prolonged chase scene through the streets of Manila (which involves some particularly perilous looking stunts), some really bad fight scenes (his actresses clearly total strangers to the martial arts), lots of leggy babes in revealing outfits, and a very silly finale that sees a bunch of Dr. Tsu's failed experiments running amok on the island (the daft creatures including a half man/half ape and a guy who sports a glass cranium with an orange beacon inside). All of this is accompanied by a cool funky '70s soundtrack.

The movie's kitschy style also adds immensely to the fun factor: there are go-go boots and hot-pants aplenty, Dr. Tsu's operating theatre boasts cutting-edge psychedelic coloured lighting and swirly hypno-discs (while her PVC operating gown is the height of '70s surgical fashion), and Mike samples the delights of 'brain sex' via a silly high-tech headband covered with diodes.

Add supporting roles for cult favourites Vic Dias and Sid Haig, and what you have is a delightfully daft piece of nonsense—not great film-making by any stretch of the imagination—but highly entertaining nonetheless.

Satires are always going to be a thing after a serious film gets made. For "Wonder Women" this is once farce I don't mind watching. You got these super chicks would can kick butt without effort. There's this female mad scientist(Nancy Kwan) who is a cross between Dr. No and Dr. Frankenstein, only more advanced. These women would kidnap athletes and use them for making older men more active. This is going too far. There's an insurance investigator(Ross Hagen) who would take the assignment to get the j'ai a'Lai player all in one piece from the scientist and her crew. The choreography in the film needed work. The fight scenes are a little light. Yet, very subtle. Why would they give this movie a 'PG' rating, when they have topless women in the beginning. Back in the 1970's, there was no 'PG-13' at the time. And it wasn't violent enough for an 'R' rating. I wasn't born in that time, and it was a first time for me to see this flick. I liked it though. 2 out of 5 stars