Blast-Off Girls

Blast-Off Girls
Theatrical poster to Blast-Off Girls (1967)
Directed by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Produced by	Creative Film Enterprises Inc
Written by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring	Dan Conway Ray Sager Tom Tyrell Ron Liace Dennis Hickey
Distributed by	Box Office Spectaculars
Release date(s)	1967
Running time	83 minutes
Language	English

Blast-Off Girls is a 1967 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Plot

In Herschell Gordon Lewis's take on A Hard Day's Night meets Wild Guitar, a ruthless and greedy talent manager named Boojie Baker (Dan Conway) "discovers" then exploits unknown rock bands. The film opens in a nightclub with one of Boojie Baker's protégé acts, a band named Charlie, who have clearly been put through the grind already, they begin griping about the royalties they've been fleeced out of, then walk out on him.

Undaunted, Boojie and his loyal, but dim-witted assistant Gordy (Ray Sager) walk into a local bar for some cheap drinks and they discover a new band performing, played by real-life Chicago garage band The Faded Blue. Promising them a recording contract and ensuing fame, Boojie renames the five-man group 'The Big Blast,' outfits them in designer suits, and sets about to prime them for stardom. This is done by utilizing a bevy of attractive and loose women to seduce a recording engineer, photographing him in the heat of the moment, then blackmailing him into letting the Big Blast cut a single. The group cuts their big hit, and Boojie presumably uses similar tactics to promote the record and garner airplay. However, it doesn't take long before the band begins to wonder why they aren't receiving any money for their labors.

A hard line negotiator, Boojie refuses to budge in that respect, and welcomes the boys to seek fame in fortune in other avenues. To show there are no hard feelings, he even invites them to a party at his apartment.

Turns out this party, replete with liquor, women, and marijuana, is a setup, and a "police detective" shows up to raid it. Coincidentally, this is before Boojie arrives, and when he does, it seems that he also has some pull in the "police department". As it happens, he is able to bail the boys out of this serious legal jam... if they agree to sign new contracts. One by one, each of the five members concedes to Boojie's demands. Incidentally, after they leave, the "detective" hits up Boojie for some of the grass.

Back in the studio, the group begins to unravel, internal bickering starts to swell, and they just can't seem to cut their follow-up hit. In the climax, the group decides instead to bring down Boojie at the expense of their own fame and fortune by sabotaging a television appearance Boojie has lined up by showing up drunk and singing a thinly-disguised musical flipping-of-the-bird to him. Having humiliated Boojie, the group then rips up Boojie's contract to them. Angry and defeated, Boojie and Gordy storm out of the studio, presumably to go look for another rock and roll band to manage and manipulate thus starting the cycle all over again. "Oh well, that's show business," one band member says.

The film ends with a zany MOS montage of the band running around various Chicago landmarks which was clearly inspired by the comic stylings of Richard Lester's films, even if the end result falls a bit short.

Production notes

Most notable in Blast-Off Girls is a cameo appearance from real-life KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders. Lewis was able to enlist Sanders for the film through his connections in his advertising firm.

Other

• Just For The Hell of It/Blast-Off Girls Special Edition DVD, audio commentary by Herschell Gordon Lewis
• Herschell Gordon Lewis and His World of Exploitation Art by Daniel Krogh and John McCarthy

External links

• Blast-Off Girls at the Internet Movie Database