VICE SQUAD
US, 1982, 86 minutes, Colour.
Season Hubley, Gary Swanson, Wings Hauser.
Directed by Gary A. Sherman.
Vice Squad has a sleazy atmosphere and portrays the ugly life by night of cities like Los Angeles as well as the hard work of the Vice Squad. The film focuses on a prostitute, ably played by Season Hubley, and her involvement with a psychotic pimp as well as the Vice Squad. The basic plot of police life as well as the killer pursuing the heroine is the basic staple of television series episodes. The film works well enough on this level - and has all the 'R' certificate material associated with night life. The emphasis is on violence rather than sexuality. Direction is by Gary A. Sherman who made such films as Death Ride and Dead and Buried.
1. The title, audience expectations, police work, crime, night life of the inner cities? The film as entertainment, expose? True to life, sensationalised?
2. Production values: colour photography of Los Angeles at night, the capturing of sleazy atmosphere, the streets, the hotels, the strip joints etc.? The sleaziness of the credits sequences? The title song and its lyrics? The streets, the bus stations, the hotels? Special effects and stunts? The pace of the film?
3. The film's action taking place during the night and ending at dawn? The symbolising of night to day? The ugly vision of the credits - and the life of a Los Angeles at night? The different appearance of the day? The heroine as a princess of the night? Her future? Her last ironic words that the cities and the streets could never be cleaned up?
4. The humane opening: Princess, her daughter, her love for her daughter? The bus station farewell and the transition to prostitute? The importance of the daughter - used as a threat by the police and by Ramrod? The symbol of her buying the doll and its bloodstains at the end? Princess and her story of being on the street - why, the effect on her life? Her independence? Style, dress, walk, make-up etc.? Her personality? Relationship with clients? Friends? The police?
5. The transformation of Princess at the bus station? Her picking the police trying to trap her? The range of clients - the wealthy man in the car, the timid man wanting a spanking, the convention-goer and his brutality, the wealthy man in the coffin, etc.? The strange types? Kinky behaviour? Money? Dangers? The effect of this kind of life on a woman? The sketch of the other prostitutes - on the beat, being busted, at the police station, with the pimps, their friendships, being bashed, etc.?
6. Ramrod and the picture of pimps? Ramrod as a psychotic? His persuading Ginger and then bashing her? His picking up Princess and being trapped? Vicious hatred? The vicious escape, the trail of violence? Getting his handcuffs off, the gay bar, the fat pimp, Mrs. Cruickshank, the taking of the garbage van, brutalising Coco? His capturing Princess and torturing her? The final chase? The eruption of violence? A credible character? Evil?
7. Walsh and the police: police types, lacking personal life, friendship with Princess and Ginger, protecting the prostitutes while threatening them, the set-up to trap Ramrod, his exasperation at the escape, the pursuit and surveillance, the chase. the rescue. the final shooting? Princess' observation that they were both in the same toilet?
8. The sketch of the squad, the office, the pick-ups, the range of personnel, the various covers?
9. The types presented in the Los Angeles night life from the people on the street, the prostitutes, the gay bar. the joints, the managers of the hotels e.g. Mrs. Cruickshank and her Chinese assistant? The clients?
10. Corruption in the streets, sleaziness, sadism? The reality like this?
11. The film similar to television episodes? The psychotic pursuing the heroine? The quality of the production? Its exploration of values - exploiting them or not?
