Lovely But Deadly (1981)

"You're always around when there's trouble, Mary Anne Lovely." - Detective

A teenager fights back against the drug dealers ruining her school.
Starring: Lucinda Dooling, Michael O'Leary, Richard Herd, Rick Moser, Mark Holden

Link to IMDB

Mary Ann "Lovely" Lovitt is a girl on a mission. Her brother recently died of a drug overdose, and now she's decided to take action against all the drug dealers and pushers that are overtaking the local high school. Lovely is trained in karate, so she has no problems literally kicking the ass of any dealer she finds.

She befriends a guy named Steve who wants to help her, and her boyfriend, Javelin, also supports her fight against crime. The police aren't too happy that she's messing around, but their hands are tied-up in red tape that prevents them from cracking down on the drug dealers.
The big dealer at school is the football quarterback, Mantis, and the school protects him from the law because winning at sports is more important than a drug problem.


It seems like every authority is working against Lovely, so after beating-up the entire cheerleader team she decides to try a different approach. Lovley's going to do some spy work to infiltrate Mantis' social circle and find where the drugs are coming from. A sleazy man named Honest Charlie is the head of the operations, but as Lovely gets closer to him she realizes that she's getting into more danger than she can handle!

Steve                             Javelin                                Mantis                         Honest
                                                                                                                        Charlie

They actually crammed a lot into in this movie, with a dozen side characters that just needlessly complicate things and don't seem important. It mostly takes itself serious for the first half so it's easy enough to follow along, but half way is when the spectacular mess begins. The movie becomes more and more ridiculous as it goes, and things start to get pretty damn funny.

Cheerleaders ready to rumble

All of the various story threads and characters do eventually come together and add to the big picture, but it sure is a sloppy time. This might sound crazy, but the general tone of the movie is like Degrassi and James Bond mixed together. All of the music sounds exactly like Bond music, set alongside high school politics, romance and humour.

There are many points of interest that I didn't even mention, but overall it's quite a bit of fun and Lovely makes a great heroine, and despite the jumbled script being super confusing at times the story remains entertaining.


Be sure not to miss:
- Lovely has a jump suit that looks like it's from Star Trek.
- Steve disappears for half the movie, only to show up later with an unexplained broken arm.
- "Mackerel on my Guccis... I'll kill her!"
- Anything that the goon named Gomorrah does. Including a bonus scene during the end credits.

Internet review:
"A genuine classic of drive-in trash." - Cato

Should I watch it?
Yes.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Lovely But Deadly gets...