After director James Cameron hit the jackpot with 1984's The Terminator, Hollywood took immediate notice and began churning out a slew of imitators, all featuring human-like androids wreaking havoc. Quality definitely varied, but among the best was undeniably 1987's RoboCop, which took things to the next level by implanting robotics into an actual human, after an officer was killed in the line of duty.
The resulting cyborg retained some of the memories of its former life, which then informed his actions moving forward, which inevitably led to his- or its, if you prefer- seeking out those responsible for the initial death of its human side and getting its bloody revenge. Needless to say, this approach was also ripped off by many films as well.
Taking inspiration from both of the aforementioned films, 1991's Steel & Lace, aka Final Exterminator, combined elements of the two with, of all things, a rape/revenge flick, a la I Spit on Your Grave or Ms. 45. Though somewhat overshadowed by the moderately successful box office sleeper Eve of Destruction- released the same year, with a similar plot, but a decidedly bigger budget and a better-known lead in dancer-turned-actor Gregory Hines- Steel & Lace is a more down-and-dirty alternative for those who like their B-movies a little sleazier and gorier.
It all begins after a concert pianist, Gaily Morton (Clare Wren), is headed home after a performance and finds herself accosted by a group of thugs in an alleyway. She manages to escape their nefarious clutches and, spotting a would-be knight-in-shining-armor at the end of the alley, runs for her life into his arms.
Alas, he turns out to be in cahoots with the others, and subsequently has his way with the poor girl as his friends hold her down. But Gaily doesn't take it lying down and immediately goes to the police, who arrest the offender, aspiring businessman Daniel Emerson (Michael Cerveris). Unfortunately for her, Emerson's parents have deep pockets, and even worse, Emerson is alibied out by all of his buddies that were present that night.
It's almost impossible to watch this sequence in light of current events and not think of the whole Brett Kavanaugh travesty- and we all know what happened there. As with everyone's least favorite beer-loving frat boy, Emerson gets off scot-free, leaving Gaily an emotional wreck. She almost immediately heads to the top of a building, where her adoring-but-powerless brother, Albert (Bruce Davison) watches in horror as she jumps off the roof and takes her own life.
Cut forward five years, and Emerson and his buddies are now all rich and successful in their own right, with Emerson having made them all "equal" partners in his firm, which forces people out of their homes to make way for high-rises and malls and the like, which sounds about right. Meanwhile, Albert has been perfecting a cyborg that combines his sister and a robot, which he then programs with her memories- as interpreted by him, at least- and an agenda: to track down and kill the men responsible for Gaily's rape and suicide.
In an admittedly fun twist, Robo-Gaily doesn't always appear as she once did, typically waiting until the right moment to spring a "gotcha!" on her victims at the last possible minute before dispatching of them in various gory ways. In other words, she can appear as anyone, including a man, before ripping off her disguise and revealing who she really is and killing her prey. It's a smart move on the behalf of the writers that easily side-steps the whole "wouldn't the guys freak out the minute they saw someone seemingly back from the dead?" issue.
Hot on the case with varying degrees of success is the lead detective in the investigation, Dunn (David Naughton), who also worked on the initial rape case, and is under strict orders to not bust Emerson until the FBI finish making their case against him, which will happen within the month. Part of that includes keeping an eye on his ex, artist Alison (Stacy Haiduk), who was a courtroom sketch artist at the time of the rape trial, and who has an invested interest in the connection between the current murders and that case.
Naturally, both concerned are initially convinced that Emerson is the actual culprit behind the murders, thinking that he's looking to tie up loose ends that could potentially rat him out for his past actions. But as the determined Alison keeps digging, she becomes less sure of Emerson's role in the crimes, and more inclined to believe that he's actually the end-game for the murderer in question. She isn't wrong, obviously, which ends up putting her in the crosshairs of RoboGaily.
Things proceed from there about how you'd expect, but it is fun determining who will reveal themselves to be RoboGaily in disguise, and what gory way she will take out her next victim. In that aspect, Steel & Lace certainly doesn't disappoint, delivering the goods in often amusingly violent ways, i.e. decapitation, burning, even "draining," if you know what I mean- and if you don't, you'll find out after you see it for yourself.
Though the film may lack a huge star, it's not at all without familiar faces, especially for B-movie fans. Perhaps the biggest is Bruce Davison, who got his first big break at the age of 25, when he was cast in the titular role of Willard, in the movie of the same name way back in 1971. He was all over both the small screen and the big one moving forward, cropping up in everything from The Waltons and Lou Grant in the 70's on TV and movies like Mother, Jugs & Speed, The Gathering and its sequel, and Deadman's Curve (in which he played Dean, of "Jan & Dean" fame) in the 70's.
His star rose even further in the 80's, with roles in such TV shows as V, Tales From the Darkside, Amazing Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a starring role on the hit cop drama Hunter. Movies of the era included Ken Russell's wonderfully mental Crimes of Passion, Spies Like Us (with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase), another rape/revenge flick, The Ladies' Club, and the Oscar-nominated Longtime Companion, about the AIDS epidemic.
90's kids, however, will know him best from the TV show version of Harry & The Hendersons, and movies like the excellent Short Cuts (well-worth checking out, for the cast alone), Six Degrees of Separation, The Skateboard Kid 2, Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog, The Cure, The Baby-Sitters Club, It's My Party, The Crucible, Paulie (the one with the parrot), Apt Pupil (one of the more underrated Stephen King adaptations- he was also in the TV miniseries Kingdom Hospital, penned by King) and the first two X-Men movies. He continues to work steadily to this day.
Another familiar face is that of Stacy Haiduk. Like Davison, she was a steady presence on TV back in the day, notably as Lana Lang on Superboy and Lt. Cmdr. Hitchcock on SeaQuest 2032; plus roles in the well-regarded vampire-themed miniseries Kindred: The Embraced (if you saw that, you'd remember her- see pic below) and on Melrose Place, and guest spots on the likes of Profiler, Charmed, The X-Files, ER, CSI: Miami and New York, Cold Case, NCIS and recurring roles on Heroes,True Blood and Prison Break.
However, I probably best know Haiduk from her genre work in movies like the oddball cult classic Luther the Geek, the crime drama Sketch Artist (another flick involving Haiduk's skill in this film, with Drew Barrymore and Sean Young), the strange little flick Salt (not the one with Angelina Jolie), the evil nanny movies The Sitter and The Nightmare Nanny; and horror-thrillers like Within, Victim and No Answer. She also cropped up recently in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Sharp Objects.
From there, things get a bit, if you'll pardon the pun, sketchier. There's could-have-been-a-contender David Naughton, who showed such promise in the horror/comedy classic An American Werewolf in London, but has basically coasted on that success ever since, unless you count the likes of cable staples like Hot Dog...The Movie, Wild Cactus, Amityville: A New Generation (the one with the haunted mirror), Ice Cream Man (okay, I kinda like that one, thanks to Clint Howard), Mirror Mirror III, Flying Virus, Big Bad Wolf (no Werewolf in London), Sharknado 5 and God help us all, Attack of the Killer Chickens The Movie. (Okay, I'd probably watch that last one, lol.)
As the robo-tastic Gaily, there's Clare Wren, who mostly did TV, including a leading role on The Young Riders, which is kind of like Young Guns, the TV show; though she did occasionally crop up in movies like No Man's Land, Season of Fear, Midnight Edition and Lunker Lake. Too bad she didn't have a bigger career- she was a looker in her day.
Leading baddie Michael Cerveris has worked steadily, on the other hand, also doing lots of TV, notably Fame, the spin-off of the movie of the same name; the excellent Fringe (he was "The Observer," aka Gemini or September), the acclaimed HBO series Treme and Mosaic; The Good Wife, The Tick (he was Ramses IV) and Gotham (he was Professor Pyg). He was also in the movies Tokyo Pop, Strangers, Rock and Roll High School Forever (he took over for Clint Howard as Eaglebauer), The Mexican, Temptation, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Stake Land and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Also cropping up in bit parts are Brian Backer (The Burning, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Scott Burkholder (Crimson Tide, Swordfish), Paul Lieber (Shag, Alias) and John J. York (Night of the Creeps, TV's Werewolf, lots of soaps), as Emerson's gang of sleazeballs; and David L. Lander as the forensics guy who's a little too into his job.
I distinctly remember Lander in a similar role on TV's Twin Peaks- remember the thing with the little Pine Weasel?- but he's probably better known as "Squiggy" on TV's Laverne & Shirley and for his voice work on lots of cartoons, notably "Doc Boy" on The Garfield Show and Henry on Oswald.
Director Ernest Farino never did another feature, but he did do a fair bit of TV, including episodes of Monsters and the 90's version of Land of the Lost. However, he did do a host of visual effects for movies you do probably know and love, including The Thing, Dreamscape, Screamers, the two Dune TV miniseries, and yes, he even worked for the man himself, James Cameron, on The Terminator and The Abyss. Hey, if you're going to steal, might as well be someone you worked with, am I right?
Along with co-writer Dave Edison, better known as an editor, the film was written by none other than Joseph Dougherty, who brought us Pretty Little Liars and its various spin-offs, Ravenswood and The Perfectionists. In addition to executive producing all those shows, he also wrote a lot of episodes of them and directed four episodes of PLL.
If teen mysteries aren't your thing, you may also know him for writing the excellent Lovecraft-inspired HBO flicks Cast a Deadly Spell and Witch Hunt, the Attack of the 50-ft. Woman remake with Daryl Hannah and the Harvey one with Leslie Nielsen.
Last but not least, there's producer David DeCoteau, which is a name that is surely familiar to B-movie fans. DeCoteau started out as a production assistant at the ripe old age of 18 for the legendary Roger Corman, then swiftly worked his way up the ranks, also worked for another legend, Charles Band, along the way. He's produced or directed over 140 films over the years, including the likes of Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama, Lady Avenger, Dr. Alien, Beach Babes from Beyond, Witchouse, Totem, Voodoo Academy, Leeches and various Puppetmaster, The Sisterhood and The Brotherhood flicks.
If you liked horror and/or trashy cult movies and grew up in the 80's or 90's, there's no way you haven't seen at least one of his movies- if not, you really owe it to yourself to check one of them out, because they're a lot of fun. The Puppetmaster series is entertaining, but I just loved his movies for Cult Video back in the day especially the aforementioned Sorority Babes and Creepozoids. His stuff is admittedly an acquired taste, and maybe offensive by some people's standards these days, but they are what they are. They don't call it exploitation for nothing, folks.
Steel & Lace isn't particularly ground-breaking, and, as I mentioned, it borrows quite a bit from other, much better films. But hey, if you like B-movies, that's par for the course- ripping other, better movies is sort of their general MO, right? That said, I could see where this might inspire some interesting conversations about, say, the "male gaze" in films and if the revenge here is really Gaily's at all, given that it's done by a man, technically.
But if you go in not expecting too much, and especially if you dig sci-fi/horror hybrids involving cyborgs and pretty girls, then this should be right up your alley. Just stay out of the alley in this film if you know what's good for you...you never know who- or what- might be lurking there! 👸👹💀
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