Super Bitch Review

• 2nd Nov 2012

800×600

There is always a cult following around Italian B movies from the 1970s and Arrow Video are the leading purveyors of those films. The latest of releases from Arrow is Super Bitch, an exploitation B movie thriller with little to recommend it other than the fantastic funky soundtrack (by Riz Ortolani); the graphics and the soundtrack during the opening credits sequence is the best thing about this film. Sometimes known as Blue Movie Blackmail or in its original Italian title, Si può essere più bastardi dell’ispettore Cliff? Directed by cult director Massimo Dallamano, a director better known for his horror films, this is one of two recent releases by Arrow of Dallamano’s films. Here he directs a thriller about an escort agency in London that acts as a cover for a drug smuggling ring from Europe and Lebanon to the UK. Working for the agency is an undercover cop (Ivan Rassimov) who is in a relationship with one of the agency’s top girls (Stephanie Beacham) but is planning on not only getting the girl but setting the gangs against each other and keeping the money for himself.

Of course one of the notable highlights is the inclusion of Stephanie Beacham in an early role for her in this cheapo euro thriller that includes much of her in the nude with some uh hum very 70s grooming. The previous year Beacham had starred alongside Marlon Brando in the curious The Nightcomers before late going on to become a darling super bitch herself in classic 1980s soaps such as ‘Dynasty’ which sparred her against Joan Collins. The film opens in Beirut, Lebanon with a killing led by the ruthless Mama Turk (Patricia Hayes) and her family before going back to London and the agency. The main actor playing the undercover cop is Ivan Rassimov, an actor who appeared in many an Italian B movie, mostly horrors. Rassimov plays his character as a renegade cop, dubbed into English he sounds somewhat like a Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry type cool figure. Also included on the DVD is a tribute to Rassimov, a Russian actor who settled and graduated in Italy becoming a cult and little known star who later went on to star in a number of cannibal horrors from Italy in the 1970s making them leading exponents of the video nasty.

The DVD includes both the Italian and English language soundtracks and I have to say I have often swung both ways on whether films like this from Europe are better seeing in English (with an international cast) and their country of origin. In this case I would say that it is best viewed in English. Ultimately this is a pretty dreadful film that is best to be avoided although I am sure that it does have its fans and really should be for aficionados only.

Chris Hick

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-GB
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;}