HUSTLER SQUAD (1976)
The graveyard of exploitation cinema is littered with the corpses of good ideas badly executed. To that pile of rotting cinematic flesh you can add this Filipino actioner. It's hard to imagine how you can take an idea like the army training a group of women as killer prostitutes and make it dull but somehow HUSTLER SQUAD manages just that.
Directed by Cesar Gallardo, the film was produced by the legendary Cirio H Santiago and could sorely have done with him behind the camera. Sure, it would still have been cheap crap with a ludicrous story but you can be sure it would have been a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
That's not to say that HUSTLER SQUAD is totally devoid of cult movie appeal. The story itself can't help but at least be partly charming to the enthusiast of sleazy cinema - hardened maverick army officer trains women to bed the enemy and kill them - but incredibly the really tasteless stuff comes in justifying the ladies' reasons for agreeing to the mission. They range from terminal illness to revenge for being raped to the fact that one of them has been in jail for ages and needs a man. Obviously.
Given that the crazy soldier in charge is picked solely because "you're the most unconventional officer I've got!" you don't exactly expect too much in depth character development but even by the usual exploitation standards, the film is pretty thin. Perhaps most surprising of all is the general lack of nudity and violence - what little that does pop up is not all that impressive or sustained either, questioning who exactly this film (also released under the title THE DIRTY HALF DOZEN) was aimed at.
All in all, some brief promise shown early on only ends up climaxing in a bit of a damp squib. Along the way we are treated to bad Australian accents, terrific death spasms by anyone being shot and a training montage with wholly inappropriate jazz score.
I'd hate for you to think it was all bad though, so I have to award a couple of bonus points for any film that can, with a straight face, deliver a line like "I guess what the world needs is a few more nymphomaniacs with killer instincts."
Directed by Cesar Gallardo, the film was produced by the legendary Cirio H Santiago and could sorely have done with him behind the camera. Sure, it would still have been cheap crap with a ludicrous story but you can be sure it would have been a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
That's not to say that HUSTLER SQUAD is totally devoid of cult movie appeal. The story itself can't help but at least be partly charming to the enthusiast of sleazy cinema - hardened maverick army officer trains women to bed the enemy and kill them - but incredibly the really tasteless stuff comes in justifying the ladies' reasons for agreeing to the mission. They range from terminal illness to revenge for being raped to the fact that one of them has been in jail for ages and needs a man. Obviously.
Given that the crazy soldier in charge is picked solely because "you're the most unconventional officer I've got!" you don't exactly expect too much in depth character development but even by the usual exploitation standards, the film is pretty thin. Perhaps most surprising of all is the general lack of nudity and violence - what little that does pop up is not all that impressive or sustained either, questioning who exactly this film (also released under the title THE DIRTY HALF DOZEN) was aimed at.
All in all, some brief promise shown early on only ends up climaxing in a bit of a damp squib. Along the way we are treated to bad Australian accents, terrific death spasms by anyone being shot and a training montage with wholly inappropriate jazz score.
I'd hate for you to think it was all bad though, so I have to award a couple of bonus points for any film that can, with a straight face, deliver a line like "I guess what the world needs is a few more nymphomaniacs with killer instincts."
Labels: cult movies
posted by Alan at 3:44 pm
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