Super Flics en jupons

This highly entertaining action flick is from the legendary Ted V Mikels, director of The Astro-Zombies and The Corpse Grinders. The Doll Squad is a laugh-a-minute cheese-fest of the first order. Mikels apparently sued Aron Spelling for nicking his idea and creating Charlie's Angels. Well, I don't know about that, but what I do know is that I would've been perfectly happy if there had been a series based on this movie. The basic premise is one that really you cannot go wrong with – a group of sexy action chicks take on an evil genius and his army of boneheads and save the day. It's a perfect recipe. What makes it so much fun is that the cheese-factor is in hyper-drive.

The film is ram-packed with action from start to finish. Lots of machine-gun toting babes, girls high-kicking men in the face, amazingly fake looking explosions and an array of ludicrous gadgetry. We have bad guys who blow up after drinking explosive vodka, an evil character who has his face set on fire by a cigarette lighter flame thrower and an undercover agent with fake face who is unmasked in a hilarious Scooby Doo style fashion. And for some reason the bad guys travel around in cars sitting on the bonnets, while the Doll Squad navigate the rough terrain of the island in high-heeled boots. Everything is accompanied by the most 70's soundtrack ever recorded. The film is just an endless succession of seriously silly events.

The only member of the cast I recognized was Tura Satana from Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! fame. She is strangely subdued it has to be said but it's always nice to see her. The rest of the Dolls are completely unfamiliar to me but they all just get stuck in and kick butt at every opportunity. There is a perhaps surprising lack of nudity but it doesn't really matter. The Doll Squad is a blast from start to finish and I strongly disagree with the view held by some that it is boring at all. It's loads of fun.

Director Mikels claims this was the inspiration for "Charlie's Angels." Maybe so or maybe not, but this film turns out to be a fairly standard 3 girl/4 girl formula exploitation acioner. Some funny scenes, like the exploding enemy agents. Satana is wasted in a supporting role. This one probably satisfied the drive in crowd in 1973, but it doesn't have too much to recommend it now, even to fans (like me) of this stuff, because it's a bit too clunky.

One of schlock film master Ted Mikels' best bad films. Not as famous or fun as the Astro Zombies, but certainly worth checking out. Mikels is said to have sued TV Mogul Aron Spelling over Doll Squad, claiming Spelling created "Charlie's Angels" based on this film! That gives Spelling way too much credit. Don't know what ever came of the law suit, but I would like to listen to Mikels' legal arguments! Typical Grade Z government actor types program a big secret super computer to choose the ideal squad of secret agents to save the world, and it comes up with 4 fighting bimbos for the job. They use their sex appeal and unconvincing martial art skills to get the bad guy and titilate the audience. Everything in the movie has a very brown-orange shag carpet 1970's look. I'm sure Mikels was the first on his block to get a leisure suit.

Ted V Mikels is a kitsch director whose best work rises above practical efforts at criticism. He produced the films most highly regarded amongst a coterie of fans over just few years: ‘The Astro Zombies' (1969), ‘The Corpse Grinders' (1972), and ‘Blood Orgy of The She Devils' (1972), each have their following and have endured on video. As the last of Mikel's trash favourites to appear, 'The Doll Squad' contains the least horror and fantasy and, in comparison to it's predecessors, adheres more closely to a logical dramatic structure. Since then, although he had remained active - most recently with ‘Dimension of Fear' (1998) - Mikels has produced nothing else regarded by fans with such long-lived affection. Firmly in the realms of so-bad-it's-good, the years have added an enjoyable sheen to ‘The Doll Squad', particularly now that it can be taken with the gloss of post-modern irony.

This is the film whose central premise - Mikels allegedly claimed - was ripped off by producer Aron Spelling to become the television series ‘Charlie's Angels'. No doubt the reissue of ‘Doll Squad' has also been at least in part inspired by the commercial success and marketing of the big screen version of that programme. Comparison of Mikels' film with Spelling's work does reveal similarities. But nothing in the TV ‘Charlie's Angels', or the recent Hollywood outing compares to Mikel's wide-eyed glance at the genre, the cheesy pulchritude on display and his disregard for dramatic standards.

The Doll Squad is selected for assignment by computer, after it picks up 'something in O'Riley's personality which means experienced women should do the job' of stopping him. 'Experience' in this context naturally implies more than just familiarity with tough assignments. The squad of Sabrina, Liz, Sharon, Lavelle and Kim hail from different backgrounds, including a librarian, a scientist, karate instructor and, most noticeably, erotic dancer (played by Tura Satana, the Apache-Japanese better known for her role in Russ Meyer's far more provocative 'Faster Pussy Cat, Kill Kill!' (1965)).

It might be argued that, as a group of strong assertive women, the Doll Squad is a model of feminine self-reliance. After all, they are empowered to find and stop the villainous O'Riley by a senator, and are allowed complete independence and licence for the duration of their mission. But their assertiveness is essentially apolitical and, except for their expected impact on the criminal community, always non-threatening and contained within fantasy. The choice of squad personnel, obviously intended as a cross section of female society, merely emphasises a common voluptuousness. In tandem with the women's physical stamina, Mikel creates through this all-too familiar trash archetypes

Leaving aside its relationship to 'Charlie's Angels', the most striking element of Mikels' film is its flat playfulness. Like most favourite cult trash directors, he is cheerfully oblivious to the handicaps of abilities and material. For the viewer, of course this is part of the fun. It would be pointless here to refer in detail to the fluffed lines, one-dimensional plot and rudimentary cutting and pacing. Instead, a viewer best engages with the film on a naïve level, such (presumably) as the director/producer/co writer did, or by assuming a knowing camp sophistication. There's more than a degree of that to be found in the flame-thrower cigarette lighter, for instance, the lame kung fu, or the exploding poison. These days ‘The Doll Squad' is more likely to leave the knowing viewer with a wink than a grimace, as it plays its simple variation on the espionage thriller. As a z-grade auteur, Mikels, resolutely goes his own way in the film, immune to the strictures of any ‘responsible' judgement, incidentally striking a chord with the modern viewer which he could hardly had anticipated at the time.

However one approaches the film, it still has the distinct straight-faced charm which has kept it a favourite down the years. Helped by a surprisingly strong musical score, and photographed competantly, ‘The Doll Squad', beehive hair cuts and cheesy décor intact, has dated pleasantly and remains a guilty pleasure.

The Doll Squad was an Americanized spin on the James Bond film series. It could've been a cinematic inspiration for Charlie's Angels. Well received among movie goers in it's day, The Doll Squad was a popular movie. If you are unfamiliar with older films in you should try watching this one. Doll Squad is straight forward and fun. It's not an avant guard art film, it's an action spy movie from the 70's.