Savage Sisters

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.

I caught this little biscuit over winter break from school. I've been a huge fan of 70's exploitation fare, and decided that my film diet needed a good injection of cheese, so I sat down to watch it. The plot is pretty basic, three very different women (an Asian revolutionary, a black bad-ass, and a rich white girl) team up to track down a desperado (an over the top performance by Sid Haig) who has one million dollars stolen from a corrupt third world dictatorship. The Asian girl and white girl are involved in a revolution (for very different reasons) and the black girl was a torture expert used by the government, but she switched sides to get the cash. Along the way, they meet up with a scumbag wheeler-dealer (John Ashley) who wants the cash for himself and are chased by an incompetent army captain trying to make a name for himself.

The plot is pretty standard cookie cutter exploitation fare, and it obviously was made on a budget, but it isn't without its charm. The jokes that they pull off, although extremely campy, actually are kind of amusing. The girls give solid performances and John Ashley seems to be having a good time playing the used car salesman type, but the real winner here is Sid Haig. I wouldn't say Sid is the only thing this picture has going for it, but he's obviously enjoying his role and gives a fantastic performance.

Recommended for anyone who likes the women in prison genre (even though there is no nudity in this one).

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.

SAVAGE SISTERS is the brainchild of Director Eddie Romero. It stars Cheri Caffaro as the tough-talking Jo Turner, and Gloria Hendry as the sadistic prison guard, Lynn Jackson.

The story has something to do with a stolen case containing a million dollars. The plot is of minor importance, since Romero is concerned only with presenting a Women-In-Prison movie full of blood, torture, and sexual perversion.

Astoundingly, Romero does this without utilizing any actual nudity. Not even during the shower or bath scenes!

We are presented with the requisite shootouts, explosions, and double-crosses, as well as a big jailbreak.

Cult film mega-god, Sid Haig plays criminal mastermind, Malavasi. Throw in Romero regular, John Ashley as the slimy W. P. Billingsley, and we should be guaranteed a bona fide Filipino classic!

Unfortunately, this movie really tends to drag on. Romero just isn't a Roger Corman, who would have made this into a crackerjack fiesta!

Watch this one only after having seen every other such film...

I'm surprised this isn't more well known among exploitation fan circles. As far as women in prison movies go, this one is pretty amusing and works better than most of its ilk. Sure, it's not without flaws with some lame action scenes and a surprising lack of sleaze for the genre but the directing and acting do well with the zany script.

The lead women, which are a white, black, and Asian respectively, skip on the nudity but deliver some amusing dialogue and acting which the movie would have been pretty dull without. Performances are over the top lending to a cartoony vibe with John Ashley and Sid Haig being standouts. No ground is being broken here, but after watching countless exploitation movies, this one provides a fun lighthearted atmosphere missing from most.