WONDER WOMEN 1973

  One of the more entertaining "girls with guns" Filipino exploitation movies to come out of the 70's and recently released on DVD by Retromedia.

   Former Hollywood quasi A-lister Nancy Kwan (The World of Suzie Wong) plays Dr Tsu who hides out on a James Bond on a budget style island fortress, where she experiments on organ/brain transplants and hires her services out to millionaires all over the world who need various new parts. Excluding her lawyer & business manager Sid Haig she's staffed by an all girl machine gun totting army. In order to procure the best parts she goes after famous athletes (including a women's topless synchronized swim team !) who are kidnapped by her top agents including exploitation favorite Roberta Collins (The Big Doll House) & Shirley Washington (Bamboo Gods & Iron Men).

   After a world famous (?) jai alai player is kidnapped mercenary/ex-CIA guy Mike Harber (biker flick fav Ross Hagen) and his sawed off shotgun are hired by Llloys of London to track him down for $50,000. Also popping up are Filipino exploitation regular Vic Diaz (The Big Bird Cage) as a comical cab driver & Bruno Punzalan (Brides of Blood).
  Nancy's island fortress is an orgy of pulsating colors and 70's decor gone wild with clear latex operating gowns, guards in yellow mini-skirts and future experiments wrapped up in saran wrap. In addition she's got an organism machine (which you wear on your head & looks like an automobile air cleaner with Christmas lights) and her operating room has a speaker phone/intercom so Dr. Tsu can yell at subordinates & do conference calls while preforming brain transplants. Naturally as all good mad doctors do, she has the cages in the basement full of her past failed experiments (who escape at the movies climax) including a guy in ape mask and a 7' basketball player with a clear dome over his brain.

    Nancy seems to have been having great fun in her role and there's a couple of well done car chases considering the budget - plus you got Ross chewing up the scenery, lame kung-fu, PG rated nudity, a cockfight and girls firing machine guns.
   Retromedias's DVD is loaded with features and comes with a nice anamorphic transfer (it probably hasn't looked this good since it left the camera), a commentary by director Robert V. O'Neil, 8mm on the set home movies, scenes from the European cut, stills, trailers and footage from the never competed sequel Warrior Women, plus an interview with stuntman Erik Cord.