Cette femme est un flic

A beautiful, albeit deadly, young policewoman named Lacy Bond (Sondra Currie) is recruited to help bring down a new all-girl gang.

This film is aimed squarely at drive-in film fans who like their stories with a little touch of female exploitation. Well, this film is nowhere near as sleazy as its opening credits would seem to suggest so some may be disappointed.

Ultimately this is a film that Almost Works: the fight scenes are surprisingly good, there's a coherent plot that's easy to follow and our leading lady proves easy to like as well as easy on the eyes. Yes this almost works...in terms of a serious film...

But Not Quite...why?

Well for one thing there's a few too many underdeveloped characters. Another is how the all-girl gang likes to spend most of their time sunning themselves in bikinis....also the ending really stretches the credibility a bit too far...

Still all in all this is sometimes quite a lot of fun to watch. My favorite scenes include Lacy kicking butt in police uniform when the prisoners make a break, what happens when she takes on William Smith, and when she saves someone (I won't say who) from a severe beating at the hands of five vicious bikini-wearing babes?! Somewhat ahead of its time given the current craze in television for this type of stuff.

I have always loved crime or action films starring female criminals, inmates or not. Although there were dozens of women in prison movies. This one is not, or only at the beginning, whilst a bunch of chicks escape from behind bars. Besides this, that film is a great fun, despite the fact that it is really corny, but that's why I love it. Don't watch it in the same way as you could do it with SET IT OFF, A GUN FOR JENNIFER or GIRLS ON THE LOOSE, other girl gang features, which deserve to be seen with other eyes, with a more serious manner. This is a grade B film destined to Saturday evening drive in audiences, nothing else. I would not be surprised to learn that Quentin Tarantino is a great fan for this kind of stuff, and this film in particular. It could have been a series TV pilot, but I guess the TV show starring Angie Dickinson - POLICE WOMAN - would have jeopardize this never made TV show. I laughed with the sequences showing the lead female character - the cop - wearing her suit without undergarment for her breast. We clearly see her tits through the shirt. I am surprised that no other viewer has commented about this. And useless to say that the scenes showing the headquarters of the bikini girls is unforgettable. And the old gang leader with her younger husband, a sort of pencil neck bodybuilder pumping iron...ha ha ha

A must see for grade B cinema. But ONLY grade B cinema. Don't expect any serious stuff.

Can you give a low budget b-movie a 7 rating? I am tempted!

I was entertained and amused for 90 minutes by this 1974 flick. No it's not the best script and acting but it is definitely entertaining and I enjoyed it more than some IMDb 8+ rated blockbusters. Plenty of gratuitous nudity and classic 1974 action/fighting / karate scenes.

Sondra Currie was extremely enjoyable and the clear star of the show. And she's not difficult to look at either. A strong 6 plus for this flick.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

"Policewomen" (actually, there is technically only ONE policewoman in the movie) is not as sleazy or action-filled as other drive-in movies of the period. However, it does manage to be much more enjoyable than many of them.

Much of this is due to Sondra Currie, who is a delight as the lead. She gives her character confidence, a sense of humor, and a spirit of adventure. Whether arguing with her superiors or in hand-to-hand combat, she constantly shines. Judging from her performance here, it's a mystery why she didn't go onto bigger things, or at the very least become a prominent star in the drive-in genre.

But there is additional enjoyment beyond Currie. There is a good amount of humor - some unintentional, like how Currie's policemen co-workers are surprisingly sexist. However, most of the comedy is intentional and pretty funny at that. The plot has some outlandish touches (an all-girl gang that spends most of its time in bikinis?), a cameo by William Smith, Elizabeth Stuart has some hilariously stingy one-liners, and there is a respectable amount of nudity and sex. The best bits are the martial arts sequences, which are unusually very well choreographed (and surprisingly brutal at times.) Dim the lights, pretend you're at the drive-in, and sit back and have some fun.

POLICE WOMEN is a straightforward early '70s action flick about an undercover cop who infiltrates an all-female gang in order to bring some perps to justice. It has a low rent, TV movie-style look and feel to it, but a string of rather basic martial arts fights keeps the running time bubbling along, allowing this to be mildly enjoyable for the undemanding viewer.

Sondra Currie essays the role of the tough, ass-kicking female lead, and she does a fine job with it. She brings some of the sass and verve of Pam Grier to the part, and she's one of the best things about the movie. Elsewhere, watch out for William Smith's amusing cameo as a karate instructor. Director Lee Frost worked his way through an exploitation career incorporating such titles as HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN, THE DEFILERS, LOVE CAMP 7, and THE THING WITH TWO HEADS. What a resume!