stint at 20th Century Fox that yielded the successful Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and the widely 
ignored The Seven Minutes, it took filmmaker Russ Meyer four years to really come roaring back in grand style with Supervixens, a bold, colorful escalation of the sexploitation and violence that had defined his indie hits in the 1960s. With a title obviously recalling his 1968 smash hit Vixen (something he repeated with his last real feature, Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens), it's an episodic, cartoonish journey that's actually more shocking now than when it came out. Meyer obviously had a lot of energy pent up after aborted projects and his one unsuccessful film in between, Blacksnake!, and complete with a cast peppered with familiar faces and quite a few new stars in the mix, the result was a return to form that became not only a commercial hit but an enduring fan favorite. 
comes to a head when she forces him to leave work early and the cops show up during the ensuing fight. The responding police officer, Harry Sledge (Napier, back with Meyer after Cherry, Harry & Raquel), ends up spending the night with SuperAngel but is 
driven into a homicidal rage when he turns out to be impotent. Thanks to a vindictive bartender (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'s Haji), he has no problem pinning the blame on Clint (yep, this is pretty much the same setup as Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy!), which triggers a road trip bouncing our hapless husband from one sexually overheated scenario to the next. Among his encounters are run-in with a pair of violent swingers (Beyond the Valley's LaZar and adult film fave Sharon Kelly a.k.a. Colleen Brennan), a comical stay at a farm owned by Meyer mascot Stuart Lancaster and his libidinous wife played by the iconic Uschi Digard as SuperSoul, a deaf dune buggy fanatic named SuperEula (McGuire) and her overbearing dad, and finally friendly diner owner SuperVixen (Eubank again). Meanwhile the naked, fire-summoning ghost of SuperAngel follows in his tracks as an inevitable confrontation with Harry approaches.
particularly violent pulp noir novel. The infamous bathtub sequence manages to outdo the finale of Beyond the Valley as the roughest thing he ever directed, and it feels even more extreme given how it's surrounded with so much sunny silliness until Napier shows up 
again for a rough and tumble climax. Meyer himself described the film as a showcase for a new woman every ten minutes (which is more or less accurate), and all of the women here get to make a strong impression with music revue entertainer Christy Hartburg (featured on the beloved poster art) getting a small but nice showcase early on as the flirty SuperLorna. As you can probably tell, the idea of adding "Super" to a lot of earlier Meyer character names gives a good idea of what the agenda is here: take what worked before, but make it bigger, wilder, and faster. That approach continued for Meyer's next two films, which pushed the possibilities of film editing as far as it could go before he finally decided to call it a day. 
L.A., but it was usually a censored British print that omitted a big portion of the bathtub murder. After that it was a very, very 
long time until we finally got Severin Films' very welcome 2024 release, as a UHD and Blu-ray combo or standalone Blu-ray, featuring a gorgeous in-house restoration from the original camera negative. Interestingly, the presentation here is framed at 1.85:1 and far better composed than the ancient transfer we've had before; instead of being open matte with extra room at the top and bottom, it's that rarity that was composed to be cropped entirely at the bottom to remove tons of dead space. (See below for comparisons.) More info is added to the sides here as well, and this is so vastly superior in every possible way you'll never even think about looking at an older release again. As usual the DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono track sounds perfect and comes with optional English SDH subtitles. The Meyer commentary is here in all its glory, while the man himself also appears in "Russ Meyer Versus the Porn-Busters" (23m54s), a Mike Carroll interview covering the anti-sex protesters of the day including people angry about "Playboy at 7-Elevens" and Meyer's opinions about the societal role of sexuality among consenting adults in art and life. "The Return of Harry Sledge" (18m45s) is an interview with Napier about getting into acting after his time in the military and his path from stage work to the films of Russ Meyer and mainstream Hollywood, as well as the response of Alfred Hitchcock to seeing this film. Also included is the classic 1988 episode of the British series The Incredibly Strange Film Show (39m17s) with Jonathan Ross taking you on a tour through clips and interviews highlighting Meyer's entire career and importance within the cult film realm. Also included are new scans of the theatrical trailer and a TV spot that must have stopped family dinners in their tracks. SEVERIN FILMS (Blu-ray)
ARROW VIDEO (DVD)
