Lady Street Fighter, 1981.
Directed by James Bryan.
Starring Renee Harmon, Jody McCrea, Trace Carradine, and Liz Renay.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman takes on a drugs cartel who murdered her sister.
The second release from 101 Films’ AGFA imprint of American Genre Film Archive movies, Lady Street Fighter taps into to the whole grindhouse aesthetic so much that anybody viewing it for the first time today would be forgiven for thinking it was a spoof. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which side of the taste divide you place yourself) it isn’t and could justifiably claim to be one of the dumbest and most incompetent movies ever to get a wide release, which of course means it is an absolute gem and should be cherished.
The titular street fighter is Linda Allen (Renee Harmon), who is less a highly trained Chun-Li figure and more of a flirty older work colleague who has gotten a bit drunk at a Christmas party and made an awkward pass at somebody. Her kung-fu skills are nothing more than clumsy spinning disco moves performed by someone with sciatica but she is on the hunt for the baddies that tortured and killed her sister, and she is nothing if not determined. Along the way she meets several people who don’t seem to know who they’re working for as everyone seems to be a double agent -including Linda herself – and fights, car chases and shoot-outs just sort of happen as characters’ clothes randomly fall off.
Yes, Lady Street Fighter is a movie with no plot, lame action, rubbish dialogue and terrible performances, all punctuated with quick edits and weird insert shots that just don’t fit, and if that type of movie appeals to you then you are in for a treat as it is highly unlikely you will find a more charming and entertaining 72 minutes on a boutique label Blu-ray release this year. Most of that charm is down to Renee Harmon, a German-born actress and exploitation movie legend who also wrote and produced the movie, and she is so watchable as she delivers her lines with her strong German accent, adding appropriately sleazy levels of smut as she licks telephone receivers to tease the cops and seductively fellates a stick of celery at a champagne orgy. It is also very refreshing that Harmon is not a bland twenty-something catwalk model but a sexy older woman – she was in her fifties when she made this movie – with charisma, a saucy glint in her eye and not afraid to expose more than her accent for the camera; she may not be able to act but she can certainly fill a screen without even trying.
But what if this type of grimy exploitation trash doesn’t appeal to you? Can the movie appeal to casual punters just wanting something to watch? Um… probably not as Lady Street Fighter is so steeped in post-Coffy/Foxy Brown female empowerment tropes but without the class, talent or quality to pull it off that, to the untrained eye, it just comes off as a silly parody of those earlier ‘70s movies. It does, however, have one of those most irritatingly catchy theme tunes of all time, a tune that is basically Morricone’s theme to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly but played on a Bontempi keyboard by someone possibly suffering from arthritis in their fingers, so if nothing else there is that to take away from it as once it is in your head it is staying there.
Obviously, despite the HD clean-up, Lady Street Fighter isn’t a glossy-looking film, with the grainy image popping to the point that you can almost hear it, but, as is likely to be the case with most of the movies that will be released under the AGFA banner, that is all part of the grindhouse experience. Extras come in the form of an audio commentary from director James Bryan and a martial arts trailer reel but – and hang on to your hats for this – 101 Films have included the rarely-seen 1990 sequel Revenge of Lady Street Fighter as a bonus feature. However, it isn’t really much of a bonus as the movie is less of a sequel and more of a remix, repeating scenes from the first movie out of sequence as a newly-shot framing ‘story’ tries to repeat the magic. It doesn’t and Revenge of Lady Street Fighter is genuinely awful, which is quite an achievement when 90% of it is recycled footage that was more enjoyable first time round. Still, as bonus features go, getting the sequel is a nice touch.
It goes without saying that Lady Street Fighter is really only going to appeal to a niche audience, an audience that can tolerate shoddy filmmaking and abysmal production values, but if you are in that minority then there is a good chance that this could be one of the highlights of your year. Featuring a strangely endearing performance by Renee Harmon plus the Carradine brother you’ve never heard of, Lady Street Fighter isn’t a case of so-bad-it’s-good – Lady Street Fighter is so-bad-it’s-genius.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
