Customer Reviews

The Doll Squad

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Female CIA agents perform as sanctioned assassins in this Action-Adventure. Starring: Michael Ansara, Francine York, Sherri Vernon, Tura Satana, Anthony Eisley, Rafael Campos and guest stars. Produced and Directed by Ted V. Mikels. A heartless arch villain plans to overthrow all the world's governments, by distributing RATS, infected with a test tube bubonic plague virus. Enter "THE DOLL SQUAD," an elite band of female commandos who are as dangerous and deadly as they are beautiful. (Where does Ted get all these girls?) The Doll Squad is skilled in martial arts and guerrilla warfare, and they use every trick in the book when they confront the evil madman on his isolated island fortress. As the forces of good and evil collide, all hell breaks loose in this explosive action adventure thriller! See if you can spot Ted V. Mikels in a cameo role as a murderous guard.

Great movie if you're into the campy 60/70's chick-superspy movies. Pretty obvious that Charlie's Angels was ripped off from this. The special effects are very amusing.

First, I must say that this isn't a bad movie. Sure, it's pure 70s cheeze, but that's a good thing! THE DOLL SQUAD is the perfect Ted V. Mikels (Astro Zombies, Corpse Grinders) picture. After all, we get a team of beautiful, bodacious babes, out to save the world from the nefarious Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara) and his bubonic plague plot! Led by Sabrina Kincaid (Francine York) and featuring the incredibly edible Tura Satana (Astro Zombies, Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!) as Lovell Samara, THE DOLL SQUAD gals kick, chop, and shoot their way into our hearts. We even get Ms. Satana doing her exotic dance routine, tassles and all! Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah, this is a personal favorite, quenching my thirst for chicks w/ guns who kick major buttocks! A must for the cult film fanatic...

The Doll Squad (1973) People often ask me "Why do you watch all of those weird/awful/strange/bad movies?" Because every once in a while I see a movie as terrific as this one! This low budget action flick from producer/director Ted V. Mikels hits all the right notes and entertained me thoroughly from first frame to last. Bad guy Michael Ansara (Star Trek) is a renegade ex-CIA agent with delusions of Bond villain: he topples a rocket launch to get the US government's attention and then blackmails them with threat of a new super-bubonic plague he'll release everywhere. His price: to be made leader of the world! The US government's response? Agent Anthony Eisley (Dracula vs. Frankenstein) gives the word: send in the greatest counter espionage force in the world: The Doll Squad! Led by redhead Sabrina (Francine York), these women (including the notorious Tura Satana-Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) live by the three B's: bikinis, bullets, and bombs! They launch an all out assault on Ansara's island base and the bad guys don't stand a chance! This is the most entertaining movie I've seen from the ever eclectic Mikels, with lots of terrible 70's fashions, action, bikinis, machine guns, stunts and explosions, all set to a hip and happening 70's score. It's especially fun to notice not one explosion is done live, every one of them is instead superimposed in. (Safety first must be Ted's motto.) Strangely, there is no full nudity, though Tura does get in one scene with pasties. On the violence side though, we got kung fu, gun fu, knife fu, cigarette lighter flamethrower fu, bottle busted over head fu, bazooka fu, electric cord on wet guy fu, sword fu and explosive Mickey Finn fu! Awesome! Now, a lot has been said and written, starting with Ted V. Mikels himself, that this movie might have influenced producer Aaron Spelling into creating Charlie's Angels. It is interesting that the smart leader of the Doll Squad is named Sabrina, the same as the "smart one" of the Angels. I see the similiarities (women in sexy clothes battling bad guys) but there are differences too. The Angels usually went undercover in sexy outfits to get evidence to bring the bad guy down. The Doll Squad takes a boat out to the island and lays waste to everyone on it. I can see both sides, guess I'll stay on the fence for this one. But in any case, if you enjoy fast moving 70's style low budget action, you have got to check this one out!

Ted V. Mikels has made some of the strangest and most entertaining low-budget movies in history. Who could not appreciate "The Astro-Zombies," "The Corpse Grinders," of best of all "The Corpse Grinders II?" 1973's "The Doll Squad" is a bit of departure from straight sci-fi, and capitalizes on the gadgetry so popular with the cold war spy genre of the era with a healthy dose of the always-popular bikini quotient thrown in for good measure. The premise is simple: a madman, Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara,) gets the attention of the US government by blowing up the "Starflight 12" rocket (think Apollo stock footage with really cheesy special effects.) There's a note sent by messenger pigeon from an island off the coast of Venezuela, demanding secret documents to assist in O'Reilly's conquest of the world...who will save the day?

Senator Stockwell (John Carter,) who is for some reason in charge of national space policy, calls in the top secret Doll Squad, headed, coincidentally enough, by O'Reilly's ex-girlfriend Sabrina Kincaid (Francine York) and her amazing mane of hair. They have lots of tricks (e.g. rings that squirt mace, etc.) up their jumpsuit sleeves, and the lethal firepower necessary to mount an attack on O'Reilly's island stronghold (Catalina Island and Zsa Zsa Gabor's house are stand-ins,) but not before Lavelle Sumara (Tura Satana) dances around for awhile. When the girls get to O'Reilly's place there's lots of action, lots of overblown B-movie dramatics, some extremely lame special effects (with a special guest appearance not only by Ted V. Mikels himself, but also Ted's portable clothes rack as an implement of torture,) and the big plot reveal about how the world domination is to occur. It turns out rat breeding is a key element in the plan, but weaponry, cunning, a really big sword, and an "altitude bomb" save the day, keeping the world safe for democracy once again.

While "The Doll Squad" isn't one of my favorite Ted V. Mikels films, it's still an enjoyable piece of 1970's B-movie history, and I recommend it to low-budget film connoisseurs everywhere.

The Doll Squad (1973) People often ask me "Why do you watch all of those weird/awful/strange/bad movies?" Because every once in a while I see a movie as terrific as this one! This low budget action flick from producer/director Ted V. Mikels hits all the right notes and entertained me thoroughly from first frame to last. Bad guy Michael Ansara (Star Trek) is a renegade ex-CIA agent with delusions of Bond villain: he topples a rocket launch to get the US government's attention and then blackmails them with threat of a new super-bubonic plague he'll release everywhere. His price: to be made leader of the world! The US government's response? Agent Anthony Eisley (Dracula vs. Frankenstein) gives the word: send in the greatest counter espionage force in the world: The Doll Squad! Led by redhead Sabrina (Francine York), these women (including the notorious Tura Satana-Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) live by the three B's: bikinis, bullets, and bombs! They launch an all out assault on Ansara's island base and the bad guys don't stand a chance! This is the most entertaining movie I've seen from the ever eclectic Mikels, with lots of terrible 70's fashions, action, bikinis, machine guns, stunts and explosions, all set to a hip and happening 70's score. It's especially fun to notice not one explosion is done live, every one of them is instead superimposed in. (Safety first must be Ted's motto.) Strangely, there is no full nudity, though Tura does get in one scene with pasties. On the violence side though, we got kung fu, gun fu, knife fu, cigarette lighter flamethrower fu, bottle busted over head fu, bazooka fu, electric cord on wet guy fu, sword fu and explosive Mickey Finn fu! Awesome! Now, a lot has been said and written, starting with Ted V. Mikels himself, that this movie might have influenced producer Aaron Spelling into creating Charlie's Angels. It is interesting that the smart leader of the Doll Squad is named Sabrina, the same as the "smart one" of the Angels. I see the similiarities (women in sexy clothes battling bad guys) but there are differences too. The Angels usually went undercover in sexy outfits to get evidence to bring the bad guy down. The Doll Squad boats out to the island and lays waste to everyone on it. I can see both sides, guess I'll stay on the fence for this one. But in any case, if you enjoy fast moving 70's style low budget action, you have got to check this one out!

Ted V. Mikels has made some of the strangest and most entertaining low-budget movies in history. Who could not appreciate "The Astro-Zombies," "The Corpse Grinders," of best of all "The Corpse Grinders II?" 1973's "The Doll Squad" is a bit of departure from straight sci-fi, and capitalizes on the gadgetry so popular with the cold war spy genre of the era with a healthy dose of the always-popular bikini quotient thrown in for good measure. The premise is simple: a madman, Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara,) gets the attention of the US government by blowing up the "Starflight 12" rocket (think Apollo stock footage with really cheesy special effects.) There's a note sent by messenger pigeon from an island off the coast of Venezuela, demanding secret documents to assist in O'Reilly's conquest of the world...who will save the day?

Senator Stockwell (John Carter,) who is for some reason in charge of national space policy, calls in the top secret Doll Squad, headed, coincidentally enough, by O'Reilly's ex-girlfriend Sabrina Kincaid (Francine York) and her amazing mane of hair. They have lots of tricks (e.g. rings that squirt mace, etc.) up their jumpsuit sleeves, and the lethal firepower necessary to mount an attack on O'Reilly's island stronghold (Catalina Island and Zsa Zsa Gabor's house are stand-ins,) but not before Lavelle Sumara (Tura Satana) dances around for awhile. When the girls get to O'Reilly's place there's lots of action, lots of overblown B-movie dramatics, some extremely lame special effects (with a special guest appearance not only by Ted V. Mikels himself, but also Ted's portable clothes rack as an implement of torture,) and the big plot reveal about how the world domination is to occur. It turns out rat breeding is a key element in the plan, but weaponry, cunning, a really big sword, and an "altitude bomb" save the day, keeping the world safe for democracy once again.

The film is enjoyable, though a bit more plodding than some of Ted's other movies. As always, the best part of the DVD is listening to Ted's commentary, which ranges from insightful comments about the locations, actors, etc., to mind-numbing trivia that is still part of the enjoyable patina of the film ("That couch, by the way, belonged to Barbara Hutton....") There's a lot of extremely obvious comments from Ted ("OK Tura, set those bombs...") and don't miss the seemingly never-ending sagas of how Ted lost a diamond ring in the ocean and how he once kept "Herbie in the closet" for over an hour. Despite all that, I really enjoy listening to Ted, and definitely recommend the commentary track. The DVD also has trailers and an extra featuring Tura Satana sharing her memories of "The Doll Squad," which I also liked.

While "The Doll Squad" isn't one of my favorite Ted V. Mikels films, it's still an enjoyable piece of 1970's B-movie history, and I recommend it to low-budget film connoisseurs everywhere.