June 12: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is New World! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

Directed by Greydon Clark, a lot of critics made fun of this movie for ripping off Charlie’s Angels. But you know, that’s exploitation. This time, you get seven girls — policewoman Elaine Brenner (Robin Greer, Satan’s Cheerleaders), high school teacher April Thomas (Jacqulin Cole, Clark’s wife), martial artist Kako Umaro (Lieu Chinh), stuntwoman Terry Grant (Sylvia Anderson, Record City, Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway), model Maria (Noela Velasco), Vegas singer Michelle Wilson (Susan Kiger, who was in Seven, Death Screams, Galaxina and H.O.T.S. as well as being the January 1977 Playboy Playmate of the Month) and Trish (Liza Greer, Robin’s sister) — going up against drug dealers that have put Michelle’s brother Bobby (Mike Gugliotta) in the hospital.

Yet this movie never feel seedy and the ladies all have their own jobs and independent lives instead of just being giggle. Yes, they are gorgeous. But they’re also pretty intelligent and drive a great 70s van. It’s nearly a cartoon, as the seven women all get special costumes and even the transition between screens is closer to Wonder Woman than Charlie’s Angels.

The bad guys include future Andy Sidaris leading man Darby Hinton, Jack Palance and Peter Lawford. Yes, that’s star power. And there’s even more, as Jim Backus (as a right wing militia leader!) and Alan Hale Jr. (as Michelle’s manager) somehow get off the island and appear in this. Perhaps the wildest casting is Arthur Godfrey as himself. At one point, he was heard on radio and seen on television six days a week with nine different CBS shows. Yet the end of his popularity came when he publicly fired singer Julius La Rosa on his radio show before going on a spree and letting more than twenty employees go in the next few years and the public began to see through his public image. But here he is in a low budget Greydon Clark movie. And I nearly missed Pat Buttram!

Best of all, the The Angels get a Charlie and it’s Neville Brand. Did I cast this movie?

It looks way better than it should — it’s an early Dean Cundy-shot effort — and as for that van, well, Darby Hinton bought it when they were done with the movie and put a hot tub in it. I bet his mustache got one heck of a workout.

Clark would work with Palance later in one of my favorites of his films, Without Warning. This is also one of four movies Jack would make with his son Cody. The others are God’s Gun, Young Guns and Treasure Island.

A lot of reviews get upset that this was so cartoony and had a PG rating. Then, they make fun of the acting. Have they ever watched a drive-in movie before?

You can watch this on Tubi under its other title Angel’s Revenge. It also goes by Seven from Heaven, which is probably the best title.