Les emmerdeuses

This movie is the 3rd film in the "Ginger Trilogy" after "Ginger" and "The Abductors" respectively. In this particular movie a high-ranking diplomat is kidnapped by a mysterious group who want information pertaining to the "Asian-American Trade Alliance" he was in the process of negotiating. When they discover that he doesn't have the knowledge they want they murder him and then set their sights on a higher level diplomat named "James L. Whitney III" (Scott Ellsworth) who will now assume the responsibility of negotiating the trade pact. Realizing that James Whitney is a potential target the CIA turns to an outside source and recruits "Ginger McAllister" (Cheri Caffaro) to essentially stay with him night and day in order to protect him. But neither the CIA nor Ginger fully fathom just how resourceful their enemy actually is. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film had some definite good qualities with the two most noticeable being the presence of Cheri Caffaro and Jocelyn Peters (as "Ronnie St. Clair"). Unfortunately, it also suffered from some of the same weaknesses as the other two movies as well. For example, the combat scenes and dialogue were rather clumsy at times and tended to give the movie a Grade-B quality. In short, I thought this movie was essentially on the same level as its predecessors and have rated it accordingly. Average.

This film is a continuation of the Ginger series, with Cheri Caffaro once again playing the gorgeous, very-hot-for-sex female spy. Lots of action, in exotic, outdoor settings, on the water, at nightclubs, and parties. As is Cheri's trademark, there is no shortage at all of sex, including kidnapped and tied-up innocent women, male masochism, and lots of full nudity, but this time we get an expansion of the bondage theme, as Ginger's antagonist is another beautiful lady, Ronnie St. Claire (Jocelyne Peters), ensuring female dominance of the film--the two women, with their entourage of men, vs. each other. Ronnie enjoys sex too, and like Ginger, with the enemy as well, but paradoxically (and definitely unlike Ginger) resists pleasure and being conquered, wanting control instead. This theme is played out until the climax, by which time we have seen each lead bombshell woman bond the other, fully naked and spread eagled, for the pleasure of the men, yes, but most of all to test the other on resistance to genuine sexual fulfillment. Guys, don't miss this one.

This was the third and last of the B movies written and directed by Don Schain, that featured Cheri Caffaro as Ginger, a private investigator whose activities frequently result in her losing her clothing and finding herself in sexually compromising situations - both welcome and unwelcome. It appears to have been the one with the highest budget, and it clearly suffers from the problem that each new film in such a series has to outdo all the previous ones in several important respects if the interest of the viewers is to be maintained. This is a common problem with many film series. It effectively and quite quickly destroyed my interest in the (not dissimilar) James Bond series where more and more exotic, unreal, and unnecessary special effects were felt to be necessary in each new film.. Since the two later Ginger films each attempted to outdo the first one in their exploitation of both sex and violence, it may be as well that there were no more than three of these films. For example, this film opens with a sequence showing raiders attacking a holiday chalet, torching it and murdering the couple on vacation there. This sequence is a perfect example of gratuitous and unnecessary violence -even granting that these events had an important role in the story, they could have been covered more effectively by filming a briefing session for Ginger in which these events were featured only through newspaper, TV or police reports.

I saw all three of these films soon after they were first released, but until very recently had not seen them since. However when commenting to IMDb on a more recent film of the same genre, I found myself spontaneously commenting that the films in the Ginger series had been much better, so I recently re-watched both this film and "Ginger", the first one in the series, to determine whether this impression was an illusion which would be destroyed if I watched them again. I quickly appreciated that my favorable memories of these films were undoubtedly coloured by the facts both that they broke new ground at the time they were released, and that I was watching them through the eyes of relative youth. However I believe there were other reasons why I did find them less forgettable than the many other films of the same type which I must have seen since, and I have discussed these reasons in the comments I am simultaneously submitting to IMDb on the film "Ginger". Here I would like to comment primarily on some other aspects of these films.

When these films first appeared, Cheri Caffaro a native of Miami was widely referred to as a Brigitte Bardot look alike; and, as she showed more acting ability than most of the stars of the B movies of the period (admittedly not much acting is required in this class of film), there were suggestions that she might well be able to move on to mainstream Hollywood parts. She did in fact act in several films other than the Ginger films, but these were all typical B movies as the Hollywood system at the time created a barrier between the studios producing B movies and those producing mainstream films which was almost impossible to penetrate. (Even Marilyn Monroe, after succeeding in mainstream films, encountered major problems when it was revealed that she had previously posed for figure studies for a still photographer.) This rather rigid distinction stopped most attempts to produce B movies with any real artistic qualities, and the Ginger films were all straight sexploitation movies. Their audience was primarily young couples visiting drive-in cinemas or attending the late night showings at conventional movie houses, and the main attraction for the woman was watching a private investigator who could put both male colleagues and adversaries in their place, whilst that for the man was nudity and more nudity. (After all, he had done the right thing by taking his girl to the cinema, otherwise he could have been in the local bar with his pals watching the strippers!) Clearly the stars of such films had to be prepared to deliver, and there is no point in criticising their roles on this score. Nevertheless the men in the audiences also usually expected some measure of violence, as well as threatened violence when one of the "good guys or girls" was captured by the gang. As my comments about the opening sequence of this film indicated, I am old fashioned enough to believe that such violence should be limited to circumstances where it is a necessary part of the story line. But not everyone would agree with me so perhaps this is also not a valid criticism.

However in this film Ginger showed quickly that she was a threat to the conspirators and, with the example of the first sequence in mind, it seems clear that she should have been a target for immediate elimination by them if she was captured. Instead when this occurred her captors amused themselves by trying to excite her sexually. This is the sort of highly improbable incident that certainly fits in with the theme of the movie but does not fit with the basic story line. Such concerns must affect the evaluation of a movie by a critic, but do not usually have much influence on its acceptability to its intended audience. After considering all such issues, I am left in the position where I feel that this was a well made movie of its kind, and was much better than many of its later imitations. It deserves a reasonable rating based on this assessment, but it could never receive the type of high rating one might give to a film which attempts to leave its viewers with a significant message or conclusion to think about. Six out of ten.

It's hard to decide which is more disturbing. That the makers of this movie actually thought viewers could be tricked into believing leading lady Cheri Caffero is beautiful, glamorous, and sophisticated, or that they actually believed it themselves. One doesn't know whether to cringe or laugh at the results.

Surprisingly, the movie does have a bright spot of sorts. The movie begins when a "fourth assistant undersecretary" named "Steve" is stripped and kidnapped with his girlfriend from an A-frame house. The girlfriend is promptly shot dead but Steve is beat-up, questioned, and eventually executed by the evil Ms. St. Clair. The actor playing "Steve" is H-O-T yet he's not even listed in the movie's end credits. Who is this guy?

The worst scene? So many choices, but the prize must go to Cheri Caffero's nightclub number when -- swathed in a cocoon of blue feathers -- she tries to sing and look sexy at the same time.

This is the last of the "Ginger" movie series and had a higher budget than the first two films. Bridgette Bardot look-alike Cheri Caffaro is back as Ginger, a private investigator hired by the CIA to infiltrate a spy ring.

The movie opens with a man and a woman making love in a small A-frame lodge. Suddenly the bad guys burst in and grab the man as the woman runs, naked, out into the snow where she is caught by a bad guy and bound to a tree. He, being a bad guy, promptly has sex with her and then, with a broad grin, shoots her. In fact, at various points in the film, all of the evil people show broad grins (must've been part of the Evil Guy recruiting campaign - "Ok, fill out this form and show me your grin.")

The mastermind behind the spy ring is a woman, Ronnie St. Claire, and the CIA has hired Ginger to bodyguard the next probable victim of St. Claire's ring. Sure enough, Ginger and her escort are kidnapped and tied up naked and tortured (well, actually more like taunted and fondled) by St. Claire and her henchmen. Not a girl to lay around, Ginger manages to escape from her bonds and with the help of her escort she captures St. Claire and ties her to the same table to which Ginger had been tied. The kidnapped diplomat/spy that Ginger had been sent to recover is then told to molest St. Claire so that she'll regret ever having been Evil.

In between the beginning of the film and the end, just about everybody ends up naked and bound in one way or another. One interesting scene is: two Evil henchman have been captured and bound naked with their hands above their heads. Actually, they aren't completely naked - they've been dressed in metal jock straps that have an electrical wire poking out right about where their manhood is supposed to be. Ginger flips a switch and the Evil Guys twitch a bit as Ginger gets them to reveal secret information about St. Claire and the hide-out.

And then there's the scene where Ginger, as a test by St. Claire, is strapped naked to a table and told to resist the efforts of her henchman to get her aroused. She fails the test, of course. This scene is repeated at the end, only its St. Claire bound naked on the table and molested by the diplomat. What goes around comes around.

Worth seeing if you don't mind 1970's "B" movie quality film. See the commennts for the first two films, too.