I'm something of an amateur devotee of low budget, grindhouse films. From flicks of the 60's to the present, I've seen my fair share. However, "Vice Squad" is one that will probably always standout to me, both in good ways and bad.

The basic plot is that a prostitute named "Princess" (played by Season Hubley) helps a seasoned vice cop (played by Gary Swanson) to take down a violent and deranged pimp named "Ramrod" (played by Wings Hauser), after he kills another prostitute friend of her's (played by Nina Blackwood), but soon becomes the target of the pimp's homicidal rage, after he escapes custody. Now the race is on between the vice squad and Ramrod, as to who will get to Princess first!

The film is certainly not for the faint of heart, or those who easily offend. No punches are pulled in the violence and degradation that is shown. It has a sort of gritty realism to it, but it doesn't quite make it over the hump to where you totally buy it. This is due to the stretching of credibility in some key moments. I mean, would an entire vice squad really go all out to find a single prostitute, even if her life were in danger? No, probably not. One cop, maybe two, but not the whole squad. And the violent pimp, who seems to constantly flip from calm to psychopathic at the drop of hat, would he really be able to intimidate all the hard players of this underbelly of civilized society? Again, probably not. So, when such instances happen, it takes you out of the moment and costs the film a lot of the dramatic tension it's trying to build.

Director Gary Sherman certainly does a nice job of portraying the seedier side of the big city (in this case Hollywood), as the grunge and sleaze of society's "forgotten people" is well displayed almost constantly. Sadly, though, there is little shown to us beneath that grimy surface. You never get into the minds of any of the players. You get a brief scene with Princess sending her daughter away, to show she has a softer side, but you never get much context on it. Even worse is Gary Swanson's play at the vice cop who gives a damn. Besides a very wooden performance, you never really get any insight into his reasons for being a vice cop. As he is asked at the film's end, "Why do you do it, Walsh? The streets are never going to change." The question is never answered, either to the character in the film or the audience.

The one solid bit here, is Wings Hauser's turn as the ultra-violent Ramrod. He plays it up for all he's worth here. He is certainly one of the perennial heavies of the 80's, both in film and television, but he steps things up a notch here, going from mean to downright brutal. His use of a coat hanger to whip up on prostitutes, shows a level of darkness that goes beyond ordinary misogyny. While most of the other actors just sort of plod along in their roles, Wings uses his to be a force of nature in the story, which is where most of the drama and action stems from.

The film is certainly not what one would call "classic," either in the award-winning sense or otherwise, but despite it's many flaws, it still manages to hold your attention and stick with you long after you've watched it. Whether that is due to it having that special 80's vibe, that made many less-than-stellar films give you that sensation, or merely the fact you can't look away from the sometimes over-the-top slimy nature of it all, I can't say for sure. All I can say is that, for good or ill, this is one film you won't soon forget.

Vice Squad seemed to have all the right ingredients for being a truly memorable thriller. Something seems to have gone wrong, however, and the film never really takes off like you expect it to. The story centers around the Hollywood Vice Squad attempting to arrest a dangerous pimp by using a classy working girl as bait to lure him into confessing about another prostitute's murder. The film has plenty of interesting characters, but it doesn't always develop them as much as you'd hope. The film also misfires in the sense that it makes the cops the focus of the story. Either the pimp or the main hooker should have gotten top billing.

The fact is it's the lead detective who gets top billing. The actor who plays him hardly has any screen presence. The thing you'll remember most about him is his maroon Members Only jacket! Season Hubley is very good as "Princess". She's a high end call girl who is forced to help the Vice Squad nail a nasty redneck pimp known as "Ramrod". Ha ha!!! Wings Houser gives a nice performance as the dangerous hustler who dresses like an urban cowboy and drives a huge Ford Bronco around Hollywood. For a character as interesting as this, they should have given him much more screen time! The scenes he has are by far the most memorable. Most of the film deals with Ramrod tracking Princess down after he escapes from police custody after she sets him up.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The film has its strengths. The sleazy side of Hollywood Blvd is wonderfully filmed by legendary cinematographer John Alcott. The acting is generally passable if not very good. The film knows its an exploitation pic, and it never gets pretentious or overbearing. There are more than a few problems with this film, though. First of all, the film meanders a bit too much. It almost looks like a project where they all went out and started filming before the script was even finished. Some scenes, like one in a mansion, are well done yet they almost don't seem to belong in the final cut. Some scenes just don't play realistically. Take the scene of Ginger's death. Notice how everyone is standing around her, and nobody even tries to revive her when she flat lines! Hello! They're in a hospital! There are doctors all around! Wouldn't they at least try to save her?? The conclusion is poorly constructed, as well. There is an army of cops waiting to storm a warehouse where Ramrod is torturing Princess. They seem to take forever to get into position, and all this does is give the man more time to torment her. The whole scene just rings false. Also, the resolution would have been much more satisfying if Princess had been the one to finally kill Ramrod off. The cop just isn't an interesting enough character to take that honor.

Go ahead and try this film if you stumble across a copy. Don't be surprised if you think you could have written a better script, though. 5 of 10 stars. Oh, and props to Wings Hauser for singing the neat song during both the beginning and ending credits!

The Hound.