FIVE LOOSE WOMEN (FUGITIVE GIRLS) (director/writer: A.C. Stevens; screenwriter: Ed Wood Jr.; editor: Louigi Rogatoni; cast: Ed Wood Jr. (Pop/the sheriff), Jabie Abercrombe (Paula), Rene Bond (Toni), Tallie Cochrane (Kat), Dona Desmond (Sheila), Margie Lanier (Dee), Maria Arnold (Carrie), Gary Schneider (Bat), Sunny Boyd (Tears), Janet Newell (Calico), Foreman Shane (Cadillac Driver), Douglas Fray (Presser),Nicole Riddell (Phil’s Wife); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Stephen C. Apostolof; VEC; 1974)
“The campy pic has enough of the legendary filmmaker Wood ‘s bizarre touches to make it essential viewing for his loyal fans.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A cheapie trashy buddy crime film, with soft-core porn, that’s a remake of co-writer Ed Wood Jr.’s(“Glen and Glenda”/”Bride of the Monster”/”Jail Bait”) The Violent Years (1956). The infamous cult director Ed Wood Jr., viewed by many as one of the worst directors of all time, in the only film written by him, plays a sheriff and a character named pop, who runs a desert gas station for crop-dusting planes. The campy pic has enough of the legendary filmmaker Wood ‘s bizarre touches to make it essential viewing for his loyal fans. However the directing honors go to Bulgarian-born director of skin flicks, A.C. Stevens (“Drop-Out Wife”/”Orgy of the Dead”), who amusingly directs this tawdry women’s prison flick in a way that Wood can certainly take pleasure in.
Four of the five women who break out of a women’s prison are career criminals. The other, Dee (Margie Lanier), was convicted of a liquor store murder and robbery crime her boyfriend did. Dee’s prison break cellmates at the minimum security prison (actually filmed at a summer camp) are racist Southern bank embezzler Toni (Rene Bond), the dyke husband killer Kat (Tallie Cochrane), the uppity jive talking black power chick Sheila (Dona Desmond), and the good for nothing Paula (Jabie Abercrombe),. The authorities vigorously pursue them as the escapees go on a search for a stash of stolen money but first go to a hippie commune and steal their clothes, work over an unsuspecting motorist (Foreman Shane) and steal his Cadillac, tangle with angry bikers and rape a cripple’s wife while he’s forced to watch. Things finally get resolved in a gravel pit brawl.
REVIEWED ON 8/17/2015 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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