Movie Ad of the Week: SEDUCE AND DESTROY w/ ANGELS' BRIGADE (1982)

The Aaron Spelling/Leonard Goldberg series CHARLIE'S ANGELS enjoyed three wildly successful seasons on ABC before the ratings went south at the start of the fourth, mostly in response to the departure of Kate Jackson (whose Sabrina Duncan character was certainly our favorite Angel). The show ran for another two seasons but was gone from prime time for almost a year when this cash-in double feature rolled into six Atlanta-area theaters on March 12, 1982. Ironically, SEDUCE AND DESTROY is a retitling of Ted V. Mikels' THE DOLL SQUAD (1973), the snail-paced tale of an all-girl commando team's mission to stop a rogue government agent from stealing U.S. missiles, which Mikels claimed for years was the uncredited blueprint for the Spelling/Goldberg show (One of the characters is even named Sabrina). The second feature, Greydon Clark's ANGELS' BRIGADE (a.k.a. SEVEN FROM HEAVEN) -- about seven young women in a customized van who wage war against drug dealers led by Peter Lawford and Jack Palance -- was sold as a CHARLIE'S ANGELS knock-off when first released in 1979, but it also predates the hit TV show. Announced in the trades in January 1973 as a blaxploitation film titled SEVEN SOUL SISTERS, it was originally to star R&B singer Ginji James in the role that eventually went to leading lady Susan Kiger (Playboy's Miss January 1977), and Aldo Ray as a corrupt cop in business with the drug dealers.