Épreuve de force

Doing a little research on this movie, I uncovered evidence that this was a troubled production, with both multiple directors and a temporary shutdown in the middle of shooting. The behind the scenes turmoil ended up on screen. The story is kind of a mess. There are characters that disappear for long periods of time (or disappear with no explanation.) There are scenes that seem to provide no real purpose except maybe to make sure the movie gets to an acceptable running time (though it's only 82 minutes long.) But even if there hadn't been problems behind the scenes, there would still be some big problems with the movie. Karin Mani looks nice, but she simply cannot act very well, and her martial art sequences are not the least bit exciting or well choreographed. In the end, what we have here is a movie that had great trash potential but will not satisfy even the most forgiving B movie fan.

The amusing "Alley Cat" is a watchable low budget variation on the time honoured "Death Wish" premise with a female lead. It never really catches fire, but it remains a mild diversion anyway - a crude, formulaic, sleazy, cheesy diversion that does deliver some of the requirements of the exploitation genre.

Karin Mani stars as Billie, a young woman living with her grandparents who works herself into a righteous fury when the old folk are targeted by criminal scum. The grandmother is fatally stabbed during a mugging and Billie becomes consumed with the idea of revenge. She meets cute with a nice guy cop named Johnny (Robert Torti) who indulges in some of his own vigilante tactics.

Mani's clearly got what it takes when it comes to the ass kicking department, but in general isn't terribly appealing; Torti scores more strongly in terms of likability. (However, Mani looks so good sans clothes that it's doubtful many people are going to care that much.) Much of the acting is amateurish yet entertaining. Lovely Britt Helfer has a memorable bit as a hooker whom Johnny intimidates into giving up information. Both Jon Greene and Michael Wayne have fun roles as a jerk cop and the prime antagonist of the piece, respectively. Wayne, who sports a scar and is thus named "Scarface", is actually named Krug in the movie, which will amuse any fan of "The Last House on the Left".

There's enough nudity to keep people happy as well as the required shower scene since a plot twist has Billie sent to prison (there's a message in here about the complete unfairness of an incompetent judicial system). One of the cons also makes lesbian overtures towards Billie. The fight scenes aren't the most slickly staged but are basically enjoyable. And the silly music score is just icing on this cake.

It's easy to see why this might be somewhat obscure for its genre but if you're a die hard addict of trash cinema you could certainly do a lot worse.

Seven out of 10.

I appreciated that there was a little ambition as far as straightforward revenge 80's exploitation goes; it posits itself as a kick-ass woman vigilante movie (Frank Miller I bet woulf approve, and if it had been set in NYC Is half expect Daredevil to show up), but then it becomes a woman-in-prison movie for 15 minutes. It may not be much, yet what's fascinating is that the lead Karin can't escape being assaulted anywhere. In this world, it's not just men that can be villainous rapists but women too... That is if they're already behind bars. It still seems significant in some way, whether the filmmakers understood it or not, that there's another level of commentary with just those scenes. Bottom line, there is no shelter in this Hollywood.

I also liked this lead, albeit the amount of nudity makes it so that I might question if anyone ever tries to pull this out as some hidden-cum-underrated feminist treasure. It's a movie made for men AND women, it's not exclusionary really, and she certainly has a gigantic load of her own agency. On the other hand, frankly, if I were to show this to, say, my father in law (a B movie diehard for decades), he'd probably find a couple other reasons to dig this. That said, she does the role well and did the work necessary for it (I imagine she was a sruntwpman either before or after this too).

Anyway, good exploity times! PS: I advise my many female friends on social media who I've seen over time complain about men who pull the kind of crap the men do visavi hitting on others... Learn all the martial arts.

A young woman with karate skills takes on a group of killers when trouble comes too close to home. Released in 1984 but the movie looks as if it'd been sitting on the shelf for awhile. Nonetheless, it's a fun film and some scenes actually (and somewhat accidentally) exhibit great atmosphere. You won't believe the karate skills demonstrated in this movie. Karin Man does well for what she's given & looks great doing it.

One of those el cheapo action adventures of the early 1980s that used to fill video rental stores solely to be taken out by adolescent boys in the hope of a cheap thrill.

Woeful down market attempt to cash in on the Death Wish phenomenon by substituting a moderately attractive woman for the visually challenging Bronson. Acting is terrible, sets are cheap, the baddies are, well, bad. Identification with any of the characters is unlikely.

Only redeeming feature is modest amount of gratuitous female nudity, a smattering of which is full frontal. Other than that, you can leave it...