After a string of bad times with men, Sandy tries to kill herself. Co-waitress Libby saves her and takes her to meet some female friends of hers who live on a ranch in the desert. Grace, the leader of the gang, puts Sandy through her initiation and they get on with the real job of running drugs across the Mexican border, hassling poor farmers, taking any man they please, and generally raising a little hell. Soon Sandy becomes unsure if this is the life for her, but it may be too late to get out. After viewing Al Adamson's "Angels' Wild Women", I was wondering if it was such a good thing that I rented this as well. Since "Angels" didn't actually feature much footage with the women, I was nervous that "The Female Bunch" would be another wasted opportunity. Well, it wasn't.<br/><br/>Jennifer Bishop is Grace, the butch leader of a group of feminists who make up a secret society in an isolated desert ranch (in reality the notorious Spahn Ranch, home of the Manson Family). A new member, Sandy (Nesa Renet), is buried alive in a coffin to ensure she has guts (great claustrophobic scene)! Regina Carrol does a sultry go-go dance before once again getting an underwritten part (Al! She was your wife! Couldn't you have given her better roles?!).<br/><br/>The male cast members, Russ Tamblyn, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Geoffrey Land, are not in the movie that much, which makes "The Female Bunch" all the more true to the title. Tamblyn doesn't do much but be a victim of the sadistic ladies when he has sex with Denise (Leslie MacRae) and attempts to rape Grace! It's very hard to watch Chaney in his last role; his voice has been irreparably damaged from years of smoking and drinking and is barely audible. I much preferred his silent role in "Dracula vs. Frankenstein". Land only becomes a character in the last 15 minutes, so this really is the female bunch's movie. Thank God Adamson lived up to the title! Things to watch for: the opening scenes of ladies on horseback and a plane chasing a young couple through the desert is stunningly choreographed by Adamson standards; the heavily claustrophobic scene of Sandy being buried alive; Grace brands Tamblyn with a branding iron; and basically any scene where the women appear. A very, very good movie. It isn't "Satan's Sadists", but at times comes very close to topping it! Highly recommended! This is a historic film it was filmed at the Spahn ranch outpost of the the Manson family or at least parts of it were. There are too many similarities between the film and that group. Ironic Manson was also a Film Consultant at Universal Studios. Anyhow the film by its self has that classic 60's free Hollywood spirit , this was a time when Hollywood as the Motion Picture Film capitol was being broken up and auctioned off piece by piece and studios were scrambling around figuring out what was going to be the next big wave in show business. The creativity of the era is what balanced it all out this was a time when money didn't mean much and you didn't need to be a big shot to get licensing. Very unlike what we saw by the late 70's. Films like this are unique and they cannot be compared to your usual run of the mill productions. Now you have to literally go through a avalanche of regulations. The value is in the spirit of the film not in the acting even though much of the acting is good if you compare it by that standard as acting stands by itself. I'd rather watch this film over again than anything coming out of my local theater.
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321 weeks ago