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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: September 10, 2013.
Director: Ted V. Mikels
Cast: Tura Satana, Francine York, Tiger Yang
Year: 1973/1991
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The Movies:
Vinegar Syndrome teams up two films from the great Ted V. Mikels for this Blu-ray double feature release, the classic The Doll Squad and the (understandably) lesser known Mission: Killfast. Both movies make their high definition debut with this release. Keep your eye out for the magically mustachioed director, complete with his trademark tooth necklace, as he makes brief cameos in each movie.
THE DOLL SQUAD (1974)
Mikels' insists that Aaron Spelling ripped him off when he made Charlie's Angels, and this film about a team of super-agent hot chicks saving American from bad guys does appear to be pretty good proof that Ted's right. The film follows an elite team of beautiful female federal agents, put together by Vic Connelly (Anthony Eisely) to be led by Sabrina Kincaid (Francine York). Just like James Bond, these foxy ladies in tight outfits are licensed to kill in the name of their country.
This comes in handy when they're assigned to take down a lunatic and former special agent named Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara) who wants to unleash a killer virus upon an unsuspecting world in hopes of getting his hands on some top secret missile plans. He's got his secret base set up on a remote island and so Sabrina and the rest of her team - Maria (Lisa Todd), Cat (Sherri Vernon), Sharon (Leigh Christian) and Lavelle (Tura Satana) - arm themselves and head off to save the day to take on the countless number of unnamed minions on O'Reilly's payroll.
It's hard to deny the similarities between this film and the successful TV show that it likely did 'inspire' - they're fairly obvious. Outside of that, however, The Doll Squad is interesting and a lot of fun based entirely on its own merits. Francine York is great as the cute and curvy tough talking leader, while her chemistry with fellow Doll Squader Tura Satana (she of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! fame) is the stuff that B-movie dreams are made of. They've both got such a great screen presence that you can't help but get behind them and root for them as they chase the sinister bad guys around the globe.
The film never goes too far into seediness to qualify as sexploitation, rather, it's a low budget action film that features a bevy of hot girls in bikinis and tight fitting cat suits, but that doesn't really hurt the picture at all. It moves at a great pace, it's exciting and ridiculous and if it isn't exactly well shot or made with the best of production values, it's a Hell of a lot of fun. There's no deeper meaning to the film and any feminist underpinnings are likely little more than coincidence but damn if the movie isn't a blast to watch. Hot chicks with guns and bazookas taking down megalomaniacal bad guys always makes for a good time and while some might lament the PG rating, again, it doesn't really seem to take anything away from this deliriously enjoyable film.
The finale is probably the nuttiest part of the movie, it all builds towards what we know has to be an explosive conclusion. The influence of the James Bond movies is obvious here, especially once the action heads to the island. Here the movie actually gets pretty violent with some good squib effects used throughout many of the shoot-out sequences. There's also tons of great bad kung-fu on display, awkward posing with weapons and stilted delivery of poorly written dialogue. We also get to see Francine York take out a guy with a flamethrower in the middle of a restaurant, which isn't something you see every day.
MISSION: KILLFAST (1991)
The second feature on the disc stars Tiger Yang as Tiger Yang. Not only is he a blackbelt martial arts instructor with a patriotic streak a mile wide, he's also a parade Grand Marshal and secret government operative. He's approached by a couple of C.I.A. operatives who need his help - see, a shifty arms dealer has stolen some nuclear detonators (which a few characters pronounce as 'detonatahs' for some reason) and he intends to sell them to some bad military dudes. To do this, he's going to employ the services of some Las Vegas mobsters and their crew of thugs.
Now, Tiger Yang? He's retired. He's left all of this behind him and just wants to teach middle aged men martial arts and strut around in a cool jacket that says TIGER YANG in a crazy font on the back. But those feds, they just can't do this without his help and eventually he agrees to go undercover and take out the bad guys. Along the way we witness some fashion shoots, bear witness to some completely unnecessary gratuitous nudity, a couple of moderately amusing actions scenes and an unusually long scene that takes place on a mini-golf course.
Tiger Yang's acting here is akin to Y.K. Kim's performance, albeit without Kim's incredibly infectious enthusiasm for the part. He does have some pretty fly moves and a great haircut but having him perform his part in occasionally very broken English doesn't do the movie any favors. All of the bad guys, both the Vegas mobsters and the terrorist guerilla types (who spend most of their time practicing at a firing range where the same gunshot sound effects are looped over and over again no matter who is firing what), are mostly chubby middle aged guys, none of whom see particularly threatening. Why the C.I.A. couldn't handle these schlubs on their own remains a mystery - it's entirely possible they just didn't want to bother with it and figured they'd feed gullible old Tiger a line to get him to take care of it while they went for drinks.
The parade scene is great - why Tiger is the Grand Marshal remains a mystery but there he sits in a white convertible with 'TIGER YANG GRAND MARSHAL' or some such nonsense scrawled in paint on white poster board and strapped to the side of the car. When the bad guys get wind of this they send out two of their best to assassinate him (shades of the Kennedy assassination here?) with a rifle and a pistol. A few feds are onto this and show up in time to save Tiger, but they're not as tough as the bad guys and they get shot. Later Tiger shows up at a garage full of folded cardboard boxes, his army of middle aged kung-fu assassins lurking about and climbing very slowly off of the roof to engage the mobsters. A few more guys get shot and Tiger kicks some people in the face.
What else happens here…. well, a super model named Chantelle (played by Shanti) is suspected of being a rat by one of the bad guys so she gets shot in the head. A chick named Cat tries to help tiger out by going undercover at a mob connected modeling agency it doesn't end well but a few ladies get naked (SPOILER ALERT: Most of them have weird boobs!) and there's lots of stock footage and weird sound effects. The movie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense (Ted explains what happened in the extras but seems unusually proud of this picture) but if you dig Z-grade action movies, you can have some stupid fun with this. It's very padded, strangely paced and features in scene with more quacking ducks in the background than any other movie ever made but despite the fact that it's about thirty minutes longer than it has any right to be, it's completely watchable if you're in the right frame of mind.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both movies are presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and looking good. Given that Mission: Killfast was shot over almost a decade and on different stock, you'll notice some fluctuations here and there between scenes and both films use some grainy stock footage inserts but outside of that, picture quality is very good here. Both movies exhibit excellent color reproduction and very strong detail throughout with good black levels and nice texture. There are no issues with noise reduction or edge enhancement nor are there any obvious compression issues. Grain is present as it should be but never overpowering and while sometimes you'll notice the odd speck here and there, overall these transfers are clean, clear and very detailed.
DTS-HD Mono tracks are supplied for both movies. Again, there are some fluctuations in the audio for Mission: Killfast that probably couldn't be avoided while The Doll Squad fares better. There might be a little bit of hiss in a few spots but otherwise things sound pretty good here. The levels on The Doll Squad are more balanced but both movies are perfectly listenable. Scores and sound effects can be a bit all over the place in the mix (see previous comments regarding quacking ducks, for example!), but that's part of the charm of a Ted V. Mikels film, you probably wouldn't want it any other way.
The first extra is a commentary track With Ted Mikels and moderator Elijah Drenner (director of American Grindhouse) over top of The Doll Squad. This is a pretty active track with Ted in fine form and Drenner asking a lot of good questions. It's basically a scene specific track that starts out with Mikels discussing the basics of the story then going on to detail the movie's psychedelic credits sequence. They discuss the contributions of the various cast members, the locations, how the movie mirrors some of what was popular on TV at the time in shows like Hawaii 5-0, and choreographing some of the action scenes. Mikels also gives some background information on how he got into show business working as a magician as a kid and working his way up into directing - some of this is covered in the interview as well, but Mikels is a fun guy to listen to so this is hardly a problem. It's a good commentary overall, it's engaging and interesting and it offers up a lot of amusing stories about the history of this production.
The disc also includes two interviews with Ted Mikels, the first of which was originally recorded for the American Grindhouse documentary and which covers The Doll Squad as well as some of the more recent work in his extensive filmography. The second interview, entitled Moustache Commandos, was recorded specifically for this release and lets Ted wax nostalgic about making Mission: Killfast. There are some interesting tidbits in here, including how the movie was shot over nine years at locations in Reno, Hollywood and Las Vegas and how Universal would have picked it up had he put in a sex scene for Tiger Yang with one of the leading ladies. Ted refused and he finished it his way, albeit some time later.
The disc also includes a fun interview with the leading lady of The Doll Squad, Francine York, who speaks candidly about how she was enlisted to come on board this picture, what it was like working with Mikels and some of her co-stars, Tura in particular, and quite a bit more. She starts off by calling Ted a genius, noting that he could 'make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.' He also notes that he appreciated the fact that she'd speak her mind about issues she had and offer her own thoughts on things. She speaks quite fondly about her experiences here, and talks about how dominant women is a theme in Mikels' films.
Rounding out the extras is a fun theatrical trailer for The Doll Squad, menus and chapter selection. Additionally the cover art for this is reversible, with The Doll Squad the focus of one side and Mission: Killfast the focus of the flip side.
The Final Word:
Like it or not, the films of Ted V. Mikels are starting to hit Blu-ray! The Doll Squad remains a good watch, an enjoyable mix of goofy camp, hot chicks and screwy action set pieces while Mission: Killfast is just flat out bizarre and nonsensical in a really fun way if you're in the right mood for it. Vinegar Syndrome's double feature Blu-ray looks great and sounds okay but just as importantly it contains a few choice extras that document the history and origins of these two cult oddities.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
