Review: Supervixens

Mechanic Charles Pitts has a huge fight with his extremely jealous wife SuperAngel (Shari Eubank) and storms off. Meanwhile, a brutish redneck cop Sledge (character veteran Charles Napier) who helped break up the argument, comes back to fornicate with Eubank. Unfortunately, Sledge ain’t much of a red hot lover, and Eubank (foolishly) taunts him, sending him into a violent, homicidal rage. Being the prime suspect in the murder, Pitts gets the hell outta Dodge and encounters a string of oddly Amazonian, sexpot gals along the way (including milkmaid SuperSoul, SuperCherry, deaf-mute SuperEula, and finally SuperVixen, played again by Eubank, who may or may not be SuperAngel reborn to seek revenge on the vile Sledge. Still following me?). John LaZar, who was the uber-camp transsexual rock guru Z-Man in “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, appears here in a comparatively more ‘normal’ role as a guy who offers Pitts a lift at one point. The unique (and here very scantily clad) Haji turns up as a sympathetic bar owner named SuperHaji.

 

Truly bizarre, kinky 1975 comedic male fantasy from the inimitable Russ Meyer (“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”) isn’t as much fun as “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (one of my all-time favourite films), because Meyer goes way too far with the violence in one scene that hurts the rest of the film. It is tainted as misogynistic and somewhat nasty (the scene really does get foul), when the rest of the film is just juvenile, silly (there’s just about every sex gag imaginable here, including the amazing Uschi Digard as Swedish farm girl Supersoul, married to a protective old man played by Meyer regular Stuart Lancaster) and almost good-natured. Actually, one could argue that the film has some female empowerment stuff going on in the second half (theorists still debate to this day whether Meyer was a feminist or a misogynist dirty old man). Still, Charles Napier gives one of the most frightening performances you are ever likely to see and his performance (the best of his career, perhaps), along with the huge bazoongas (Digard’s in particular are a sight for sore eyes…really, my eyes were actually hurting!) and Meyer’s genuinely good eye for interesting visuals and locations (especially for a film made for under $100,000) make it a film to see at least once.

 

If only Russ hadn’t have gone too far in that one (admittedly unforgettable) scene, this could’ve been a lot of fun. As is, that one scene taints the rest of the film, throwing the campy tone out of whack entirely. The screenplay is by Meyer himself, his first solo screenwriting effort, apparently. You’ll certainly never forget it, should you choose to watch it, but you might come away feeling a tad depressed.

 

Rating: C+