IF YOU'RE TALKING EXPLOITATION, YOU MAY BE TALKING JACK HILL PART FOUR

Foxy Brown (1974)

No you young whippersnappers I am NOT referring to the female rapper of the same name. She wasn't even BORN yet when this movie was made. And I'm sorry, but Pam Grier has it all over that young lady as far as looks and talent. And that's TODAY people, not just when she was younger.

This movie was to showcase Pam Grier, with music by Willie Hutch, but the script follows along other Jack Hill movies.

Pam, who has a heroin pushing brother (Antonio Fargas - if you're just a little older you knew him as 'Huggy Bear' in Starsky and Hutch - if you're still scratching your head, skip it) is waiting for the release of her boyfriend from the hospital. 

No he's not there for sexual exhaustion, he's an informant who's had plastic surgery to hide his identity (although he stays with Pam who was known as his girlfriend - duh) and when the bandages come off, he's Colonel Tigh (Terry Carter)! Sigh, you don't know who that is, do you? Battlestar Galactica? The REAL one, not the one where everybody turns out to be a bloody Cylon.

Anywho, Huggy Bear is in trouble 'cause he's a few bucks short on a shipment and Colonel Tigh has a price on his head. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who Foxy's new man is so Huggy Bear turns him in for the money. Nice. Colonel Tigh doesn't last even five minutes past that before he's shot down right in front of Foxy.

Now Foxy's no cop. She's not a detective, undercover, not an official anything. But she's mean and she's mad and that's enough. She goes on a one-woman rampage to wipe out the syndicate - no small task since they've paid off cops, judges, jurors, etc. plus having the required bevy of women who hate to wear tops to provide to the apparently all male system of justice. This is the 70's after all. You've got the language, the sexual biases, and heroin and cocaine run freely. Just recently a very popular TV personality got fired for saying a certain word - well, if your sensitive ears don't like that kind of language, better pass on this movie 'cause I think they use every derogatory race word in the urban dictionary.

She pieces together that the murderers run a 'modeling agency' and plans to infiltrate it to destroy them from the inside. When sent with a fellow 'model' to entertain some men of official position (which seemed to be sitting with topless women on their laps) she and the other lure a judge into the bedroom, strip him of his boxers and shove him out into the hallway where a bunch of prim and proper older ladies beat him with their purses and umbrellas (no I have no idea why they had umbrellas since it was summer). 

I was afraid we were going to get a very saggy sight of old man butt - however I guess that was a little too much even for Jack Hill, so this judge had tighty whities under his boxers. Dumb but a relief, trust me.

So eventually Foxy finds out that there's going to be a big shipment coming in from just over the Mexican border. The pilot (Sid Haig of course, although not being in the movie until over an hour into it) is of course persuaded by Foxy's charms to let her ride with him in his little plane to the site. Once there she kicks major ass and, although we don't get to see (apparently men's privates are no-no's but women's....) she cuts off the leader's, uh, favorite body parts and puts them in a jar, sending them to his girlfriend.

This leads to a frenzy of violence that Foxy, of course triumphs over 'cause there's 'a whole lotta fight in that woman'. And one dealer is done. And so is this movie. And so is my look into exploitation 'cause there's a whole lotta nausea in me.

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IF YOU'RE TALKING EXPLOITATION, YOU MAY BE TALKING JACK HILL PART THREE

Women In Cages (1971)

Although this movie was NOT directed by Jack Hill but by Gerardo de León, it is essentially the same movie as Hill's The Big Doll House. Hill's movie was released earlier in 1971 and this came quickly after, with many of the same actors, a similar story, even using the same locale and buildings. Why? 'Cause it was cheap and the boobies sold tickets, that's why. Oh and Roger Corman's name was attached so it was destined to be held up as a classic - eventually.


WIC is definitely a harsher picture than The Big Bird Cage in that women are treated even worse in this one, if that's even possible. And Pam Grier, instead of being a champion of the downtrodden, is a lesbian guard who loves to torture as well as 'sample' the inmates. Umm yeah. I know, 'Are there boobies?' Duh.






So the basic plot as it goes is another woman is set up by her man. In TBDH it's murder, here it's a heroin possession charge. Both movies feature women used for men's (and women's) pleasure and torture, often for the promise of a taste of heroin. 

And there is an escape in both movies with disastrous results in both (What exactly were they trying to tell women - we can't get away from abuse?) with few differences in each movie, except that Sid Haig is not in WIC. Only one woman in WIC makes it out relatively intact, one is doomed forever (short forever since she's an addict) as a prostitute, the rest dead. Yikes. Again.

Sorry, I don't know the body count or who survived TBDH as I couldn't find it anywhere. That was kind of a relief if you want to know the truth.

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IF YOU'RE TALKING EXPLOITATION, YOU MAY BE TALKING JACK HILL PART TWO

The Big Bird Cage (1972)

This movie is of two exploitation themes: women in prison and the Philippines. As I stated about the documentaries I watched, in the 70's the Philippines was the hot spot to film these types of movies for the lack of censorship, cheapness, and exploiting the locals. This is actually a follow-up movie to one I couldn't find called The Big Doll House (1971) however, don't despair - Netflix DOES have Women In Cages, filmed later the same year, with most of the same cast, almost the same story and using the same sets. 

Pam Grier and Sid Haig

The only difference I noticed off-hand was the lack of Sid Haig, a favorite actor of Jack Hill. I'm not trusting Netflix when you look up lists 'cause I thought I'd gotten all the Jack Hill movies they had but this one popped up. Same happens for other things I've looked up, you've just got to do your own searching I guess.

This movie as most can tell you who've seen it, treats nudity as casual as violence and sex - the girls run around scantily clothed, their shirts sometimes tied, sometimes not. They obviously didn't really care. Especially the native women.

This chick had to be seven feet tall I swear...

Jack Hill loved putting Sid Haig (now a staple in Rob Zombie movies) and Pam Grier together and did so in several of his movies. There are also some obvious models in this movie - they towered above the locals by at least a foot. So what's the plot? Uh, well - to tell the truth there's not much of one. It's about a woman out of place going to prison with a bunch of others where they learn the ropes - and how to get naked ever two minutes or so. They YEARN for men (pfft) but alas, the male guards are all gay. Uh huh.

The big bird cage that mills... something...

So Pam and Sid play Blossom and Django. Django is a guerilla leader looking for revolution - but not very hard. But one day Django and Blossom tangle with the law and not only does Blossom get arrested, so does an, um an escort? to... whoever pays I guess - after a botched attempt at Rrrrrrrevolution in which Django grabs her and she asks why. Here's the famous line and the man's fantasy: 'To rape you!' To which she replies: 'You can't rape me, I like sex!' I'm not even going to touch that one.

A rare moment of shirt wearing...

So we've got black chicks, Filipino chicks and white chicks. And lots and lots of nudity, crass jokes about nearly everything, male rape (why would women want to... ah never mind) and violence. Don't forget violence. In the documentary, which named this movie specifically, it said that locals made about five dollars a day, were in constant danger (Who's gonna be around to make sure they're all safe?) and, of course, bared their bodies for the American moviegoer. 

Well, they do it in the circus I guess...

Scenes with police and police dogs were with REAL police and police dogs - they had to film them separate from the women so no one would get attacked. But if one was called to fall from, say, off a roof they did - right onto the ground. And in one scene where a guard is set on fire - HE IS ON FIRE and simply instructed to jump in the river to put himself out. Nice. And the scene where the woman hangs by her hair - they claim that it doesn't hurt much if you have a lot of long hair. Uh huh.

Two guns against dozens? Might work...

So Django plots with his men to get his main squeeze out of prison. Here the documentary calls the plan the WORSE PLAN EVER MADE because everyone dies. He's not kidding. The girls rush at the soldiers who show up to get Django with sharp sticks, a couple of weapons - not much. All the soldiers have machine guns. Guess who wins? But at least they died with their shirts off.

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IF YOU'RE TALKING EXPLOITATION, YOU MAY BE TALKING JACK HILL PART ONE






Switchblade Sisters (1975)

For the next couple of movies we'll be checking out director Jack Hill, who wrote this movie, The Big Bird Cage and Foxy Brown which are just the three I could find on Netflix - there are others. While at the time they were considered as exploitation films, some are now touted as feminist works. Go figure. I guess it might be because the women in these movies, put upon and mostly naked as they are, are strong figures for the most part. After watching several documentaries on the subject his name came up a lot - in fact Quentin Tarantino loved 'em and re-released them under his label Rolling Thunder Pictures.

Newly named Jezebels with weapons 
received from black militants (?!?)

This is one of those movies about high school kids who are obviously pushing 30. And this must be the toughest white place in the nation (no racism intended or presented) 'cause this high school is nothing BUT violent gangs. The tagline 'So Easy To Kill, So Hard To Love' of course has nothing to do with the movie at all but I guess it sounded good at the time.

I could spell out the plot but all you'd probably notice is switchblade fight fight boobs fight switchblade betrayal boobs fight jail school boobs.... so I'll keep it short.

Lace with her pre-Star Wars Princess Leia hair...

A girl transfers schools and immediately runs afoul (doubt if any of the characters could even spell that) of the local girl's gang led by squeaky voiced Lace called the Dagger Debs. They later change their names to the Jezebels. The name of the movie never appears in the movie. Boobs.

After the new girl, Maggie is raped by the leader of the male white gang Dominic, we have the fictional fantasy of men that Maggie finds after she stops fighting that she now has feelings for Dom. Uh huh. Boobs. Lace begins to notice Dom, who is her boyfriend, acting distant and so tells him she's pregnant. They fight and break up. Inexplicably, in the next scene they are together, laughing, holding hands, and planning bloody murder on a rival gang. Boobs.

Gang war on skates...

There's fighting and betrayal. Boobs. Dom is killed in a fight with the rivals and both Maggie and Lace mourn. Boobs. The guy who steps up to the plate to be the leader and main raper of women looked sort of familiar but sounded VERY familiar and I couldn't watch the movie 'cause my fibro brain takes little tiny nuggets and turns them into HUGE blockages that prevent me from concentrating on anything else. Boobs.

Donna's father was a hottie. Ick...

So I had to look him up and laughed - okay, SALTS. Boobs. The second-in-command was played by Don Stark. No you don't know that name - unless you watched That 70's Show. He played Donna's father. Boobs.

We'll be back... wahahahahaha!

So we have the ultimate fight (and nobody goes to school around here) and the newly named Jezebels are all arrested, screaming they will be back. They weren't. Boobs.

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