Savage Sisters

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.

'Savage Sisters' comes from the same period as the Jack Hill led Filipino "chicks in chains" flicks of the early 70s ( see 'The Big Doll House' and 'The Big Bird Cage' for the best of the genre). Hill wasn't involved in this one mind you, the director is Eddie Romero, also responsible for the classic 'Black Mama, White Mama', who also appears in a supporting role as Captain Morales. The three aforementioned movies all co-starred blaxploitation icon Pam Grier. Grier isn't along for the ride in 'Savage Sisters', the Grier role is taken by Gloria Hendry ('Live And Let Die', 'Black Belt Jones'), and while the prison side of things isn't as important as the others in the series, fans of them will really dig this one. As always, while filmed in the Philippines, the movie is set in some unnamed Banana Republic. General Balthasar (Leopoldo Salcedo) plans on smuggling one million dollars US out of the country. A group of local revolutionaries plan on stealing the money and form an uneasy alliance with some bandits, led by the wily Malavael (the legendary Sid Haig, a regular in these kinds of movies), and his bumbling sidekick One-Eye (Vic Diaz, another familiar face). Malavael not surprisingly double crosses the revolutionaries and makes of with the cash. Meanwhile Jo Turner (Cheri Caffaro) and Mai Ling (Rosanna Ortiz), each with varying commitment to the Revolution, are captured before they can rendezvous with their comrades, who include Turner's lover. While in prison they are interrogated by tough hooker turned cop Lynn Jackson (Hendry). She is later convinced by the shady W.P. Billingsley (John Ashley, who also co-produced) to break the two women out of prison and help them track down Malavael, with the secret intention of getting hold of the cool million for themselves. However, Billingsley's plan of betrayal may not go exactly as planned as Jackson begins to bond with her "savage sisters" on the jungle journey. Newcomers to these kinds of movies may not enjoy this as those more familiar with their style and approach, but I enjoyed 'Savage Sisters' a great deal, and think it deserves to be much better known than it currently is. A tough and cool movie with plenty of fun and thrills.

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.

Filipino production for AIP about three lethal ladies who are imprisoned for stealing from the government to support the revolution. The film starts out as a standard women-in-prison flick, but when they escape, it becomes an outlaws-on-the-run storyline. From prolific director Eddie Romero, who specialized in filming low-budget genre films for schlocky American production companies, making everything from these sorts of women-in-prison films to horror to science fiction to even war films and westerns. He did it all. Although he has a cult following, his movies are merely competent and have little flair to them, as compared to fellow genre Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago (who made my favorite low-budget Mad Max knockoff, WHEELS OF FIRE), which is also the case with this film. SAVAGE SISTERS has a great title, a great poster, and for a movie of this sort, it was more entertaining than most, even if it was not all that original. Sid Haig (THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, SPIDER BABY) also appears as the rebel leader in the film.

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.