elevator at every floor,
silently surrounding then violently engulfing a greasy bill collector.
Auxiliary arm of the Silver Daggers gang, the Dagger Debs are headed by Lace,
a baby-faced killer of considerable charm. Swaggering around in motorcycle gear,
she's slavishly in love with the gang leader. When a new gunfighter ... I mean,
girl ... comes to town, gorgeous and deadly, Lace's man rapes her to show his
interest — and power begins to shift from Lace to Maggie. When the male Daggers
turn out to be too cowardly to avenge their leader's murder, Maggie allies the
Debs with a Black Power girl gang to wage large-scale turf war.
The action in "Sisters" is brutal yet balletic, ranging from a knock-down,
drag-out with prison matrons to a skating-rink ambush. In one extended,
breathtaking action sequence, the two switchblade sisters slash it out all over
a warehouse, until Maggie puts Lace down for good: "We're not gonna be anyone's
Debs ... we're the Jezebels — immoral, impudent women!" It's a feminist battle
cry, sounded from within an infra-dig genre.
Easy to see why "Switchblade Sisters" turned Quentin Tarantino on — he re-released the film in 1996,
under his Rolling Thunder aegis. These distaff outlaws are soul sisters of the
Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in "Kill Bill."
(Corbis SYGMA)
Close
Hotmail
