Lethal Ladies Collection – DVD Review

The Films:

Shout Factory has made it their mission to release all kinds of Roger Corman goodness recently. They put together 2, 3 and even 4 movie sets with some of Corman’s lost movies. They have also made a name for themselves by just putting out some other cool DVDs in general. Their latest foray into the Roger Corman world is a triple feature, and although only 1 of the movies is produced by Corman, each contain the same heart and ideas, although that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

In ROGER CORMAN’S CULT CLASSICS TRIPLE FEATURE: LETHAL LADIES COLLECTION, Shout Factory has brought the world the DVD release of FRIECRACKER (1981), TOO HOT TO HANDLE (1977) and the Corman produced TNT JACKSON (1976). Each of these films contain similar stories. They are each about women who take the law into their own hands and kick ass.

TNT JACKSON is about Diana “TNT” Jackson (Jeannie Bell). She is on the hunt for the people that killed her brother. she travels to Hong Kong where her brother is killed by ruthless drug dealers. She doesn’t want help from the police, since they’ve never been help to her growing up. This sounds a lot like another film from that era, FOXY BROWN. The only difference is that this movie’s setting is Hong Kong and FOXY BROWN is a good movie. Outside of TNT looking for her brother’s killer and kicking bad guy’s asses, nothing really goes on. The movie is poorly acted, and outside of the fighting scenes, which aren’t bad, is boring. Jeannie Bell is a carbon copy of Pam Grier in the aforementioned FOXY BROWN, and that’s not a good thing.

Next out of the box is FIRCRACKER (which is also on the first disc with TNT JACKSON). Susanne Carter (Jillian Kesner) is a martial artist who is taking down the mafia. That’s the plot, that’s all that goes on. She fights, screws and fights some more. While, like the other 2 movies in the set, having very little plot going on, this is the best of the bunch. It seems like everyone involved was in on the joke and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Kesner is stunning here and, thankfully, spends much of the movie in the nude. One of the best scenes in the movie is one of her many fight scenes. In the scene, Susanne is fighting some of the mafia scum. As she’s running and starting to fight, somehow her clothes start to come off. Once she start fighting, she’s down to just her bra and panties. That doesn’t last long as her bra comes off next. She spends the next 3 minutes fighting one of the mafia goons in just her panties. The end fight with the big boss is not bad, and that’s this movies saving grace, the fighting. The acting, once again is over the top and silly, but this movie is just fun.

Last up is TOO HOT TO HANDLE. This is the movie that gets it’s own disc in the 2-disc set.  Samantha Fox (Cheri Caffaro) is a James Bond-ish character. She is in Manila after she accepts a contract to take out some gangsters. Much like Susanne Carter in FIRECRACKER, Fox spends the entire movie fighting or naked. she uses her feminine wiles to get close to the leader. In order to take out each of the gangsters, she uses costumes to get close. At one point, she wears dark colored make-up, glasses and her hair in a bun. After taking out this gangster, she goes to eat. As she’s getting her picture drawn, the head gangster (or a cop, I couldn’t quite figure this one out) comes over and asks the artist to draw glasses on her and a bun in her hair. Fox is impressed he figured this out. That’s the logic in this movie, not much. Once again, the acting is over the top, but not in a good way. It’s nice to see the movie filmed on location and being able to see the sites of the Philippines was cool.

Overall, the movies aren’t very good. The most entertaining one is FIRECRACKER and should have been the one that got it’s own disc.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: The sound is fine. There is nothing over the top here as far as that aspect is concerned. Shout did do a good job with the video. It looks good and all the locations look great, including the hard bodies.

Special Feature:

Shout really didn’t go all out with the special feature here. On disc 1 there are 3 trailers for other strong women movies. The only one of note is THE BIG BIRD CAGE starring Pam Grier.

On disc 2 there are a couple more trailers, but the big one here is an audio commentary. Elijah Drenner, director of the great documentary AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE is here with the star of TOO HOT TO HANDLE, Cheri Caffaro. Even though the movie really isn’t very good, the commentary is a lot of fun to listen to . Caffaro tells stories about the making of them movie and things that went on while on set. She talks a bit about her charities as well. This might be the best part of the whole set as you can tell Caffaro loved making the movie, even if it is bad.

The films:

TNT JACKSON: Rating:

FIRECRACKER: Rating:

TOO HOT TO HANDLE: Rating:

The DVD:

Rating: