Angel of Destruction (1994) 

Best Lines- (Brit Alwood to the thugs who kidnap and try to rape a prostitute, as she saves the girl) "The nose job is for the girl, the vasectomy's free"

 (Delilah to Brit as she tries to hire her as a bodyguard and Brit explains why the police are better equipped)
Brit-Why don't you like cops ?
Delilah-My father was a cop.
Brit-So was mine.
Delilah- Did your father rape you ?
Brit is speechless !

This is a enjoyable movie starring the 'queen' of B- films Maria Ford in the lead. As is the case with most movies of its genre and budget, there is not much of a story to recount. After presenting a threadbare plot involving bi-sexual singers, psychopaths, undercover cops and an atmosphere of eroticism, the events in the movie just unfold without much logic, and have only to be seen without trying to believe.

The story relates the search of  Jo Alwood( Ford) for a vicious psychopath who has murdered Jo's sister, Brit. Brit was an undercover cop who was called to protect the Controversial rockstar Delilah, the person who is being stalked by the psycho named Robert Kell. After Brit's death, Jo is hired by Delilah to protect her against the psycho and all other present or imminent dangers to her life. Well, the obsession of Kell over Delilah seems to be that she resembles his dead mother with whom Kell was apparently having an incestuous affair. However, Kell is really more unhinged that that 'mother' fact would suggest, for he has a fancy of dressing his victims-to-be in wedding gowns and then declaring the marriage vows to them, before killing them gruesomely by slitting their throats. At each crime scene, he leaves the victim's finger with a ring on it. It is the pattern on the ring which leads Jo and her partner Aaron Sayles( her lover, and ex-boyfriend of sister Brit) to a bar which has the same logo on its entrance. After beating up a few men present there(including the bartender) she manages to extract the relevant information, that the person who she has been looking for( her sister's murderer) is the Kell guy. The bartender also informs Jo and Sayles that Kell was a mercenary in Angola who managed to save a few men who were left for dead by someone, and now these men have become his henchmen and stand by Kell for everything he may do. This Angola angle also has a presence during the beginning of the movie when Kell and a girl proceed to a hotel room. There, Kell leaves the girl and reaches another room, and here he attacks seven men and then last throws a man called Carl from a window by stating-"You left my men to die in Angola. I didn't like that". Whatever that means, it at least shows that Kell is not an easy guy  to fool with.

About one-third into the film, another plot to kill Delilah is disclosed, this time by Delilah's music producer. Lusso. Here at least is a reason we can understand, namely that this Lusso person is angered by her "bad girl Peggy Lee shit" and wants her to change her image to "regular rock and roll". However, since he becomes convinced that Delilah would not cooperate, he hires a group of thugs to murder her, so that he claim the insurance money he has invested in her !

Next, we see this murderous gang enter the house of Delilah and head to her room. This seems a bad time for everyone, a time when Delilah and her girlfriend( meaning her romantic interest, thus the 'controversial' tag) are getting ready for bed, and Jo has just put on only a thong. Well as luck has it, Jo has to combat these intruders in the thong, and she does a brilliant job in it, knocking all men dead with just her wrists. Kell appears too in the house, but it seems his motive was to protect Delilah, and he is keeping her safe till a specific time or event, when he would eventually kill her. Thereafter, Delilah's girlfriend is abducted by Kell, and he demands a price for her safe return- that Jo perform naked on-stage ! This indeed is not too difficult for Jo, for earlier, before she ended up as a cop, she had been a stripper to make ends meet.

Immediately after the performance, Lusso sends more men to kill Delilah, and Jo finishes off all of them. Then comes Lusso himself, and he too meets a similar end. The scene shifts to Delilah's home where her boyfriend and manager Tony( yes, she is dating a woman and man both at same time, and as per her own words "Tony manages her in more ways than one") visits her and they make up for their misunderstandings. Jo walks out to the front gate and is knocked out by one of Kell's men, Kell appears and takes Delilah away. When Jo gains consciousness, Delilah's girlfriend who has been "returned" safely as per Kell's promise informs Jo where Delilah has been taken. Thus, Jo follows the duo to the "Honolulu State Prison"( truth to speak, this particular location reminded me of an abandoned massive public lavatory, what with its peeling broken walls and grafitti, and fact is that the whole film was shot on location in Philippines, yet the idea was to project the occurrence of its events in the US state of Honolulu). There, Kell has already made preparations for his bizarre "bride ritual" by having Delilah tied up. When Jo enters, he is amused and says that "the maid of honour is here". 

Jo demands Delilah to be released, but Kell provokes her to a fight. Jo does manage to defeat Kell( with timely help from boyfriend Sayles) and he falls to his death from the stairs. Then Jo, Delilah and Sayles walk out of the supposed prison, and Delilah proposes drinks for all of them. 

As a Maria Ford fan, I could not miss this one. It is sheer brainless delight where Ms. Ford shows her ample martial acts skill( she is a black-belt in Karate). Also, this movie is a virtual copy of the 1992 "Blackbelt" starring "Dragon" Wilson, made by the same director Charles Philip Moore, only difference being that in that movie, the lead was male, while here we have a female detective. Watch it when you have an hour and half free( running time is 86 minutes) and want to indulge in some silly entertainment.

Showgirl Murders (1996)


Even if you are a fan of Maria Ford, it would be difficult to enjoy this movie. The story is incredibly stupid, the characters are even worse, and even the antics of Maria become annoying after a time, with the relatively short  running time of 82 minutes seeming a torture.So to begin, the plot is about a seductive and mysterious woman Jessica Cross( obviously portrayed by Ford) who is apparently on the run after having fleeced her gangster boyfriend of his money and having left him for dead. She enters the lives of Mitch and Carolyn Goodman, a couple who own and run a nightclub which is almost out of  business. She convinces Mitch to take her in and allow him to manage the club, even though his wife has her doubts as to the motive of Jessica. As it turns out, Jessica is an angel in 'disguise' for she helps the Goodman couple to rake in substantial money by turning the club to a strip joint. Soon, the club starts teeming with people eager for a glimpse of the beautiful Jessica parading semi-naked on the makeshift stage created within the club premises. What follows is a series of unnecessary scenes showing Jessica in her striptease 'act'. However, these scenes establish an important fact, that Mitch has become deeply enamored of Jessica and increasingly distant from his depressive, nagging wife ( it is revealed that Carolyn, the wife, has insomnia and drinking problems because she has caused the accident of a young child some years earlier). It does not prove difficult for Jessica to completely captivate and bring Mitch under her control, and then she incites him to murder his wife so that the two can be happy together in their new-found love. The first try fails due to Mitch's weakness ( call it his humane nature), but in the second attempt, things go according to plan and Carolyn is killed by Mitch with some help from Jessica. Next, the police come questioning about the murder and probe links of Jessica with the gangster who' was' her boyfriend. Mitch becomes disturbed that Jessica has hidden her past from him and shows his suspicion towards her, however she manages to convince him that she had a troubled past and that she loves him.
 Mitch and Jessica marry, and the money they made earlier has been invested as insurance for the club, in the name of Mitch. Then comes the 'dead' ex-boyfriend of Jessica, and it turns out that he and Jessica have conspired to trap poor Mitch and kill him later after taking his money. After this, things are simple. Mitch is killed when Jessica and her boyfriend set fire to the club,and then Jessica claims the club insurance money to emerge rich. Though the police investigating the murder of Carolyn and the 'accidental' death of Mitch is doubtful of Jessica, he has no evidence and has to let the matter drop. Towards the end, Jessica again shows her duplicitous nature when she shoots the boyfriend dead in a remote place. The reason is simple- she has no wish to share the money with him. The last scene shows Jessica in an exotic island setting, enjoying her new found independence and importantly, richness. This scene was reminiscent of the end moment of "Body Heat" where a similarly treacherous wife is seen celebrating after having betrayed two men, although the plot and characterization of "body Heat" come nowhere close to the mess that is "Showgirl Murders". And by the way, if you are expecting a movie with murders of striptease performers in the line of "Stripped to Kill", as the title suggests, then you would be sorely disappointed.

For fans of Maria Ford, I suggest that you stay away from this stinker, and instead watch the brilliantly entertaining " Angel of Destruction(1994)" or the sensible "Naked Obsession(1991)" .