Jessi's Girls

I've been plowing through the Al Adamson blu ray set, and I just finished Jessi's Girls. I'm really picky about westerns, but this one wasn't too bad, if you love cheesy and low budget movies. I'm a sucker for revenge movies, especially women getting revenge on men who attacked them.

The movie is about Jessica Hartwell. She and her husband are a nice religious couple passing through, until they run into a gang of outlaws. Jessi is attacked and raped, and left for dead. Her husband is killed. Jessi runs into an old hermit named Rufe who has a terribly fake and cheap beard and helps teaches her how to shoot.

She goes off in search of the outlaws to get her revenge. Along the way, she meets some lady criminals and they team up and help her dish out her own brand of justice. If you like revenge and western movies, you might like JESSI'S GIRLS!!!

This "Western" is one of the cheapest movies I have ever seen. Highpoint of this otherwise absolutely dreary film is without question the appearance of former western-moviestar Rod Cameron, equiped with an unbelievable, grey St.Nicholas feltbeard. This scene is a true screamer. The rest is pure tedium with a few harmless sex scenes and some violence. The music only heightens the torture, because it seems that the composer came up with only one melody which is used to the point of exhaustion. After this film, you are ready for the sanitarium.

Al Adamson could have pushed the boat out with this and made a really good movie because it has a lot of potential. Sondra Currie is excellent as a woman bent of revenge after being raped by a group of marauding outlaws who also slaughtered her husband. She meets up with Rod Cameron who shows her how to shoot and gives her tips on how to deal with the murderers once she finds them. Rod Cameron is really great in this part, grizzled and authentic despite being saddled with a ridiculous false beard. There is a definite chemistry between these two players and their story should have been developed. As it is, Sondra wonders off to rescue three women convicts from imprisonment and tracks down the outlaws with their help and dispenses her own brand of justice. The final showdown is excellent with some great stunt work but the final twist is just a little unbelievable. A little more work on the script could have made this Adamson's best film but, well considering the rest of his output, this is as good as it gets.

In the Old West, a Morman couple traveling south from Salt Lake City are waylaid by a small gang of dirtbags. The wife (Currie) later teams-up with an outlaw female, a wild prostitute and a squaw to set things a'right.

"Jessi's Girls" (1975) was influenced by Raquel Welch's "Hannie Caulder," "Macho Callahan," "The Animals" (aka "Five Savage Men") and "Cry Blood, Apache" from 4-5 years prior; and would influence the forthcoming "I Spit on Your Grave" and "Bad Girls," the latter debuting almost two decades later. It's basically an exploitation thriller with a Western milieu.

With the Hays Code ending in 1968, filmmakers were exalting in their new sense of freedom, especially Indie filmmakers. As such, this includes a tasteful nude scene involving Sondra bathing near a waterfall right out of the gate, as well as a disturbing gang rape sequence, which took an entire day to shoot and is very convincing. Regina Carrol (Claire) and Ellyn Stern (Kana) also have brief nude or semi-nude sequences. Regina, by the way, happened to be the wife of the director.

As a Western, there's a lot of good in this, such as Rod Cameron as the grizzled loner who assists Jessi. He was 64 during shooting and it's too bad his part wasn't bigger and their relationship developed. Meanwhile, the score and locations are pretty much top-of-the-line, not to mention some excellent touches like how Kana hates Apaches.

Despite all the good, the script needed a rewrite as it includes some weak, nonsensical parts, like a certain formerly devout person murdering a coach driver and seriously injuring a sheriff on a whim with no ostensible motivation. If someone argues that it was to save three captive women, they are total strangers and the protagonist has no idea if they're innocent or guilty. If it's because she hates men, her spouse was a good, loving man, and so was the compassionate geezer who saved her in the desert. Plus, why would she shoot a lawman when it was outlaws who did her wrong, the opposite of lawmen?

Bad writing like this takes the viewer right out of the movie.

The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot at Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah and Dee Cooper Ranch.

GRADE: C.

Like another reviewer said, this is one of Al Adamson's lesser known films. It was likely not as financially successful as his horror films. Yet, it's very well done. The script spends more time on character development, and the film has a less frantic pace than most of Adamson's horror films. Sondra Currie is outstanding in the lead role, and Regina Carroll is great in a strong, supporting part. This was likely a passion project for Adamson, as the western genre was said to be his favorite. Check out this film.