Bonnie's Kids (1973)

You won't be disappointed!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

BONNIE'S KIDS is a low budget grindhouse-style exploitation thriller of the 1970s, about a pair of siblings who are perved and preyed upon by their pervy stepfather. Eventually they snap to exact a violent revenge, before going on the run with some mob money. It's a road trip style movie with plenty of female nudity thrown into the mix, alongside a little bit of graphic violence. The film is acceptably entertaining for its time, although it's one of those movies that sorely lacks a sympathetic character for the viewer to get on the side of: everyone here is out for themselves, which limits the viewer's empathy somewhat.

Family bonds were meant to last a lifetime. But in the movie "Bonnie's Kids", it's a whole new story. Two sisters Ellie(Tiffany Bolling) and Myra(Robin Mattson) are stuck in a town where nothing exciting goes. They lost their mother, Bonnie. They have a stepfather who's a total jerk. He crossed the line with Myra when she was on the phone, and tried to rape her. Kellie comes home in time, and blitzes him with a shotgun. They would later travel to Texas, find their uncle who works for a fashion company, and takes the two under his wing. Unbeknownst to them, he's involved in shady business. If you think that's bad, the uncle's wife Diana(Lenore Stevens) goes through enough abuse from him, she takes a liking towards Myra, while Ellie is away on business. Ellie meets the private detective, and falls for him. Then the sister bonding begins to break slowly between them. When Diana began to comfort Myra, she takes it to a whole new level. And in that case, Myra wasn't cool with it. She berates and exploits her hard and fast. It was funny when she said, "You're Disgusting!" after Diana shot herself. Ellie wanted to have a better life, but her greed just got the better of her. A very classic movie, with a lot of humor to go along with. A little exploitive to say the least. 2 out of 5 stars

Brassy, sharp-witted, take-charge vixen-on-wheels Ellie (leggy, beauteous 70's B-movie perennial Tiffany Bolling at her most trampy and tantalizing) and her adorable, dewy-eyed, flirtatious younger sister Myra (cute, tiny, girlish Robin Mattson, who served her time in such grind-house schlock as "Candy Stripe Nurses" and "Return to Macon County" before moving on to more respectable work in the soap operas "All My Children," "General Hospital," "Ryan's Hope," and "Santa Barbara") are a pair of delectable, no where near as "innocent" as they seem country babes who live in relative squalor with their gross, irritable, lecherous step-dad Charlie (a memorably vile Leo Gordon), a real scuzzbucket who gets blasted by a shotgun-hefting Ellie after he attempts to rape Myra. Ellie and Myra hightail it to the big city and hole up with their wealthy, crooked Uncle Ben (the ever-gruff Scott Brady), who's elbow deep in assorted illegal activities. Ben's shady sleazeball partner Eddie (a sensationally slimy performance from consummate hambone thespian Alex Rocco) and Eddie's equally no-count libidinous pal Digger (a coolly vicious Timothy Brown) hire dopey, wishy-washy private eye Larry Evans (an amiably addle-pated Steve Sandor) to pick up a valuable suitcase full of mucho stolen loot; Ben sends Ellie along to make sure the pick-up goes smoothly. Naturally, Larry and Ellie become an item, acquire the package, and decide to keep the hot cash all for themselves. They hightail it to Mexico. Eddie and Digger give chase.Graced with an appropriately amoral, cold-blooded tone, several suitably mean and jolting plot twists, languorous, but steady pacing, a nice streak of bitch-black humor (Digger and Eddie accidentally blow away the wrong couple at a seedy motel!), and generous offerings of sex, violence and nudity, "Bonnie's Kids" makes for a really enjoyable, fairly surprising and pleasingly junky nickel'n'dime crime melodrama which nicely fits into the then faddish film noir tradition (Bolling in particular makes for a marvelously bitchy and conniving femme fatale). Arthur ("J.D.'s Revenge") Marks' solid direction and the clever script carry the day with commendably brisk, no-frills efficiency, capably abetted by Carson Whitset's funky, insouciant, rumbling jazz score, Robert Charles Wilson's adroit, animated, occasionally leering cinematography (Mattson takes a welcome nude bath at the very start of the picture and Bolling is first seen in an eye-catching rear end sticking up at the camera shot, looking mighty desirable in a tight, clingy hash slinger uniform), a gritty subtext which explores with stark frankness the grim reality concerning greed and betrayal, a wonderfully wicked surprise bummer ending, and top-rate cameos from veteran character actor Max Showalter as a sludgebag traveling salesman and a pre-"Cagney and Lacey" Sharon Gless as a weary greasy spoon waitress. An unjustly neglected little sleeper which was often double-billed with the fantastic "The Candy Snatchers" at drive-ins back in the day.

I remember seeing this movie on a triple bill with "Policewomen" and "Superchick". "Bonnie's Kids" was typical drive-in fare; lots of killings, lesbianism, rebellious teens, self-absorbed/hedonistic pleasures; about the only topic it didn't touch was getting high. One thing that always bothered me about this movie: What was the cash for? Drugs? Blackmail? Extortion? Protection? Funny Money? That in itself should've merited a sequel! The other notable thing was that NOBODY in this "epic" (I use the term loosely) went on to bigger success. The intro indicates that this was Robin Mattson's first film, whoever she is!On a scale of 1-10...hmmm...maybe a 7.25.