Tagline: So easy to kill. So hard to love.
The Switchblade Sisters movie storyline. Jack Hill’s 1975 drive-in opus, Switchblade Sisters, has all the requisite cheese and then some: girl fights, gun duels, sex-starved reform school guards, flashes of nudity, and even African-American-Maoist-revolutionary-butt-kicking chicks who don’t take nonsense from anyone.
The story is a prime example of how the influence of great filmmakers can be reprocessed into pure exploitation: Maggie (Joanne Nail), a smart, new member of a distaff gang, presents a threat to the group’s established leader (Robbie Lee).
The intricacies of their subsequent relationship–love, betrayal, and a battle for control–has numerous echoes of the films of Nicholas Ray and Howard Hawks, and Hill plays it all with a seriousness that underscores the heart within this trash classic.
No wonder Quentin Tarantino became this film’s latter-day benefactor, promoting its 1998 theatrical re-release under the auspices of his revival imprint, Rolling Thunder Pictures.
Switchblade Sisters is a 1975 action and exploitation film detailing the lives of high school-aged female gang members. It was directed by Jack Hill and stars Joanne Nail, Robbie Lee and Monica Gayle. The film is also known as The Jezebels.
The movie was not a success at the box office, but garnered a cult following later on. Most of its current popularity can be attributed to film director Quentin Tarantino, who named the picture a personal favorite and re-released it in 1996 under his Rolling Thunder Pictures label. This version of the film features a commentary by both Hill and Tarantino. The film’s tagline is “So Easy to Kill, So Hard to Love.”
The Switchblade Sisters (1975)
Directed by: Jack Hill
Starring: Joanne Nail, Robbie Lee, Monica Gayle, Janice Karman, Asher Brauner, Don Stark, Marlene Clark, Kitty Bruce, Helene Nelson, Paul Lichtman, Kate Murtagh, Bill Adler, Chase Newhart
Screenplay by: Jack Hill, F.X. Meier, John Prizer
Production Design by: Beala Neel, Robin Royce
Cinematography by: Stephen Katz
Film Editing by: Morton Tubor
Costume Design by: Jodie Lynn Tillen
Makeup Department Gerald Soucie
Music by: Les Baxter, Medusa
Distributed by: Centaur Pictures
Release Date: May 18, 1975
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