The third and final film in the "Lethal Ladies" collection of Roger Corman's Cult Classics, I'm happy to report that Too Hot to Handle has a completely different plot-line than the previous two movies in the collection, thank God.
As amusing as it was to realize that the director and writer of TNT Jackson had essentially plagiarized themselves with Firecracker, three movies with the exact same plot in a row would have been a bridge too far for me, personally.
Thankfully, that proved not to be the case with Too Hot to Handle (aka She's Too Hot to Handle), which instead plays like a combination of a James Bond flick- or should I say Jane Bond? - and something like La Femme Nikita (or, if you prefer, Point of No Return). It also feels like a real movie, as opposed to a bit of a cartoon, as is the case with the other two films in the collection.
Not that, mind you, I didn't have fun with TNT Jackson and Firecracker (see my reviews here and here for more). They were just a little on the silly side, what with all the topless Kung Fu and the sped-up film techniques and the like.
THTH, on the other hand, is basically played straight, and the film is all the more effective for it. Indeed, with a few minor tweaks to better suit the current climate (such as it is) and a remake could play like gangbusters as a tale of female empowerment.
After all, it revolves around a woman who is basically her own boss, calls her own shots, and makes serious bank doing it. She even finds the time to seduce and toy with the detective investigating her! (Shades of Basic Instinct.)
All the while single-handedly dismantling several crime organizations by infiltrating them and killing off their leaders one by one. Not too shabby.
Granted, this is a down-and-dirty exploitation flick, so she often gets naked or at least scantily-clad while doing so, but ultimately, she plays by her own rules and does things exactly the way she wants to every step of the way, which should actually play just fine with a modern crowd.
You also don't have any pesky black-face, racial stereotypes and/or whitewashing to deal with, as with the other two films in this collection, so there's that. I mean, granted, some Millennials will go to lengths to find something to bitch about, but overall, there's not much I could see that fits the bill here.
Maybe the BDSM crowd might bitch about how they're portrayed as perverts, but that's about it, lol. I think they've got bigger fish to fry with those terrible 50 Shades movies, though. But hey, at least that guy goes out doing something he loved!
In addition to all the female empowerment going on, there's also some lush location shooting going on in- where else?- the Philippines, as per all the other films in this collection. Also, the fashion is pretty interesting for those into such things, and designed by the film's star herself, Cheri Caffaro, who also did her own stunts. Take that, Tom Cruise!
Caffaro's character- wait for it- Samantha Fox (!), even gets the requisite theme song, "Lady Samantha," performed by Julie McFadden, with music from the film's composer, John Montenegro, who also did the honors for that same year's film, The Farmer.
Oh, and I looked it up: the singer Samantha Fox didn't begin her career until 1983, and was actually born with that name, but the porn star of the same name began her career the same year this film was released, so that may not be a coincidence, as, in her case, it is indeed a stage name. Hey, if you're gonna do porn, I guess you could do worse than naming yourself after a sexy assassin-for-hire.
The film was directed by Don Schain, who also helped concoct the story-line. Schain has a history with star Caffaro- the two had worked together on the so-called "Ginger trilogy," a series of films revolving around the character of the same name, which he also wrote and directed. Caffaro played the titular character in Ginger, as well as in the follow-ups The Abductors and Girls are For Loving, all of which were huge hits on the Exploitation circuit.
Like this film, the series saw Caffaro play a James Bond-style vixen that used her feminine wiles to seduce and kill the bad guys. The chemistry between the two wasn't just in the movies, either, as they were married for a time as well, though they eventually divorced.
Things take an odd, decidedly unexpected turn from there. After this film, Schain segued into producing, at first doing more of the same kind of thing, before taking a very hard left into more family-oriented fare.
Indeed, a younger generation may be quite familiar with his stuff, as much of it was from Disney, notably Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire (with Caroline Rhea, of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame, plus Robert Carradine and a young Laura Vandervoort) and several entries in the Halloweentown series- including Halloweentown High, with a young Finn Wittrock, of American Horror Story; and Return to Halloweentown, with a young Sara Paxton, of The Innkeepers and the Last House on the Left remake fame.
However, his crowning achievement, and the series he'll likely be remembered for (Schain died in 2015) is undeniably the High School Musical series, three in all, which were huge hits for the Disney Channel. Maybe you've heard of it?
So, yep, one of the purveyors of some of the sleaziest flicks of the 70's and early 80's went on to do the freaking High School Musical movies. Go figure. You learn something new everyday.
The oddball connections don't end there, either. The screenwriters of THTH, Jan Michael Sherman and Don Buday, also wrote the notoriously cheesy KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, which I'd like to cover here at some point. Sherman also co-wrote the early-80's Exploitation fave California Girls.
Buday went on to associate-produce the TV-movies Through Naked Eyes (with David Soul and Pam Dawber) and Deep Dark Secrets (with James Brolin and Melody Anderson) and wrote the movie Lost (not the TV show), with grown-up teen starlet Sandra Dee, of Gidget fame. Buday was also the music producer for, of all things, Spawn of Slithis, another film I hope to cover here eventually.
Getting back to Cheri Caffaro, she's a fellow Floridian, like myself, who won a Brigitte Bardot lookalike contest as a teenager and subsequently worked as a model throughout the 60's before seguing into acting in the early 70's, making her debut in the Sexploitation flick Up Your Alley. The Ginger series followed, making her a bona fide star, at least on the Drive-In circuit.
In addition, she also starred in A Place Called Today, the Tarantino favorite Savage Sisters and Ghostly Obsessions. She basically retired from acting in the late 70's, after this film, opting to switch to the other side of the camera as a producer, where she oversaw Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake, The Demons of Ludlow and the aforementioned Ghostly Obsessions.
However, her crowning achievement as a producer is the movie H.O.T.S., the much-beloved-by-guys-of-a-certain-age Sexploitation flick, which I discussed here in a previous review, as it starred Susan Kiger of Death Screams (aka House of Death) fame. Caffaro co-wrote the opus as well. If you saw it, you probably won't soon forget the infamous topless football scene- talk about shirts and skins! 😲
Alas, she retired from the business in the early 80's and went on to raise honeybees! (You can't make this stuff up.) Though she made a bit of a comeback with 2004's Ghostly Obsessions, it was decidedly short-lived.
I highly recommend her commentary, which is featured on the Corman set as the only bonus feature beyond a set of trailers. In a very real way, she was kind of a pioneer for tough, action-minded ladies in film, which was a bit of a novelty at the time.
I highly recommend her commentary, which is featured on the Corman set as the only bonus feature beyond a set of trailers. In a very real way, she was kind of a pioneer for tough, action-minded ladies in film, which was a bit of a novelty at the time.
As Domingo De La Torres, the detective hot on Samantha's trail, there's Aharon Ipalé, a Moroccan actor who made his first credited motion picture debut in the classic movie adaptation of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.
He also did lots of TV, including the miniseries Christ Recrucified and Moses the Lawgiver, plus guest shots on Charlie's Angels, Kojak, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O, One Day at a Time, Taxi and The Love Boat.
Movie-wise, he cropped up in Innocent Bystanders, The Concorde... Airport '79, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, Xanadu, The Final Option, The Shooting Party, Ishtar, Vibes, One Man Out, American Ninja 5, Son of the Pink Panther, and the 90's-era Mummy series.
The film also features a series of guest appearances, in the form of Samantha's various targets she is assigned to take out. Among them are such notable actors as French star Corinne Calvet (The Far Country, What Price Glory, The Sword & The Sorcerer) as would-be beauty-guru Madame Ruanda; Dutch-born actor John Van Dreelen (13 Ghosts, Topaz, Lost Horizon) as the S&M-loving Mackenzie Portman; and Filipino actors Butz Aquino (Ebony, Ivory & Jade; The Last Reunion) and Subas Herrero (The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, Enter the Ninja) as the two rival drug lords.
Rounding out the cast is Vic Diaz, as Sanchez, as Detective Torres' right-hand man. I covered him in my review for Firecracker, so check there for more on him. I will say he has a much better showcase here than he did in that film, by far. He's the only one who gets caught in the crossfire that you actually care about.
That said, the somewhat ambiguous ending leaves it up to the viewer as to what the fate of Torres is in the end. Does he escape just in the nick of time? Or did he not quite make it? I like to think he did, and they probably meant to do it that way, lest the film be successful to warrant a sequel. I don't have any figures on that, but apparently it wasn't, as there wasn't one.
Either way, though not as gleefully goofy as the other films in the "Lethal Ladies" collection, it's still a fun romp and the only one of the bunch that I could see being remade as a solid movie.
In fact, I've definitely seen that big twist near the end, where Samatha plays both sides against each other in something since then, for sure. Not saying this movie originated it, but it's a neat twist, nonetheless, even if you've seen enough of these movies to have seen it coming.
Caffaro is genuinely great in the movie, even if it could have benefited from slightly better writing. As it stands, the writing is merely adequate, with good plotting, but iffy dialogue.
Had it been improved in the latter, this might be a diamond in the rough awaiting rediscovery, but ultimately, it's just a nifty little action flick with plenty of sex, nudity and violence, some of it bordering on Ilsa-type territory, notably the S&M kill and the one with the beauty mask lady.
Granted, some of it is kind of ludicrous, but I still really enjoyed it, and like I said before, it's not nearly as cartoonish as the other movies in the collection. For the most part, unlike those films, it's played straight, and that element makes it work a lot better as a result.
That said, it's not without a sense of humor, and I genuinely liked the cat-and-mouse back-and-forth between Samantha and Torres, who make for a sexy couple. I kind of hated to see it end the way it did, but I also respect the film taking the road less traveled. Besides, Torres did make his choice, even when Samantha offered him an out.
All in all, I definitely recommend the flick, especially if you're a fan of action-oriented Exploitation flicks. Also, of the three movies in the collection, it's the least likely to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities, so there's that. The others in the collection are a bit iffier on that end.
By all means, check it out!
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