Who runs your school?
Lovely But Deadly is a 1981 American Martial Arts Movie.
Mary Ann Lovitt is a cheerleader nicknamed "Lovely" for her beauty. After her brother overdoses, she starts investigating the local drug ring. Over the course of her investigation, she learns that the rest of her cheer squad is secretly hooked on the drugs. Infiltrating the gang, Lovely bides her time until she can use her martial arts skill for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
This film contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: When it comes to the drug problem. The school board refuses to take out the kingpin because he's a football star, the faculty are afraid of retaliation by either the school board or the gang themselves, and the police keep getting obstructed.
- Aerith and Bob: We have a high school where Mary Ann Lovitt, Denise, and Glora attend classes with Javelin Scott and Mantis Managian.
- Artistic License – Music: As the Rifftrax notes, the the drummer during the "Add It Up" scene is clearly playing something way better.
- Asshole Victim: Mantis is killed because Gilmarten thinks he sent Lovely after him. Fortunately, we get to see that he's a girl-exploiting, teacher-threatening drug dealer first.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: The main antagonists are drug dealers who specialize in minors and control entire schools.
- Drug-Induced Idiocy: Lovely's brother Arthur dies when he jumps into the ocean high as a kite and trying to catch a tuna.
- Betty and Veronica: Lovely befriends the Student Council president who used to be involved with drugs and is now a clean-cut kid who's working against the pushers at his school, and they seem to have an attraction; however, she's already seeing Javelin, a slightly older college student with a struggling singing career whose inheritance of a shipping business puts a bit of money in his hands. And turns out to have shipped the drugs that killed her brother. In the last few moments of the movie, after busting Javelin, Lovely and the Student Council president kiss.
- Big Bad: "Honest" Charley Gilmarten, the local drug lord.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Javelin's a nice, easygoing guy who's got a struggling singing career and is highly supportive of his girlfriend as she mourns her brother. Oh, and he secretly used the shipping company he inherited from his father to bring in the drugs that killed said brother.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Gamorrah, in spite of being a ruthless enforcer for a drug lord, has a number of odd quirks, including: an aversion to "mechanical things" like steam valves, taking drugs of any kind (including aspirin), has a shell collection that he needs help organizing, eats grapefruit like an apple, peel and all...the list goes on.
- Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Mantis and Cricket have a villainous one of these.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Mantis gets steamed to death.
- Designated Girl Fight:
- As Lovely tries to get into contact with Mantis via the girls he's trading drugs with for sex, their ringleader takes exception and Lovely (as well as her cheerleading/martial-arts coach) ends up having to fight six or seven of them.
- Later, Lovely and the Alpha Bitch head cheerleader fight during a party.
- Dirty Old Man: Warren Lang and "Honest" Charley use drug-fueled parties to pick up high school girls.
- Disc-One Final Boss: At first it seems like the mastermind of the drug operation is football star Mantis Managian, but it's revealed 40 minutes in that he's just a field operative for the real drug lord, "Honest" Charley Gilmarten.
- Driven to Suicide: After Lovely forces him to OD on his own stuff, Larry Burgess flips out and hangs himself in the hospital.
- Dumb Muscle: Gamorrah, one of Gilmarten's mooks is a big, dim, somewhat weird guy.
- Epunymous Title: The main character is nicknamed "Lovely."
- Even Evil Has Standards:Javelin gets very upset when Gilmarten decides to kill Lovely. For a moment he seems about to intervene, but then the drug lord brings up the fact that she could send him to jail, and he stops. He's still upset about it and after he thinks she's dead, and when he meets with his cohort Superintendent Van Dyke, they both sincerely lament the fact that people die because of drugs/gangs. So...zig-zagged?
- Evil All Along: Lovely's boyfriend Javelin is revealed to be the one who handles the drug shipments for the gang.
- Evil Teacher: Franklin Van Dyke is a school superintendent who's collaborating with Gilmarten to help sell drugs to students, and helping obstruct investigations.
- Family Business: Javelin, Lovely's boyfriend, inherited a shipping line form his father while still in college, but he'd rather focus on his music.
- Fantastic Drug: The drug that moves the plot is called "angel powder" (not PCP apparently), and it seems to be a powerful designer hallucinogen of some sort.
- Frame-Up: An unintentional one on Lovely's part. After she gets knocked out in Gilmarten's house, the drug lord thinks Mantis sent her, since as far as he knows Lovely is one of Mantis's girls. Thus, he's captured and killed.
- Heroic BSoD: Lovely's mother's naturally been hit hard by the death of her son, and briefly confuses a male friend from school for him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Lovely forces Larry Burgess to OD on the drug which killed her brother, leading to him killing himself in the hospital whilst freaking out.
- Working with Lovely a number of students get Javelin to hold an impromptu concert, lulling him into a false sense of security and keeping him in one place long enough to get arrested.
- Honest John's Dealership: The Big Bad is nicknamed "Honest Charley" despite being a drug baron, and he owns a chain of thrift stores that bear his name.
- Human Traffickers: The drug gang pimps out any women he gets hooked.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Javelin and Superintendent Van Dyke get along quite well, with Van Dyke having been a friend of Javelin's deceased father. Also, they're both working with the drug ring, which probably does wonders for male bonding.
- It's All About Me: Javelin's perfectly willing to ship drugs he knows are being sold to children so he can fund a singing career and live the good life with Lovely. When she finds out he tells her it was for "us", but clearly he wasn't thinking about how she'd react to learning this, especially in light of the fact that it made him indirectly responsible for her brother's death.
- I've Come Too Far: This seems to be how Superintendent Van Dyke and Javelin feel about their role in helping the drug ring. They seem legitimately upset that people have died because of their actions, but they're not doing anything about it.
- Karma Houdini: Gamorrah, who worked with a murderous drug ring and has personally killed people, is shown not to have drowned as implied. During the credits washes up on the beach and gives the ocean a long, contemplative look. Presumably he was spared because he was the comic relief.
- Love Cannot Overcome: A villainous version. Javelin really is in love with Lovely, and he isn't pleased at all about the prospect of his cohorts killing her. In the end, though, he'd rather let it happen than go to jail or get offed by a drug baron.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Well, horniness does anyway. Lovely asks for one last bang before she dies, and Gamorrah is more than willing to oblige. They go off to a corner and she tells him she could do a lot more if her hands weren't tied. So he unties them. And she does quite a bit.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Lovely looks to take out the people behind the drugs that indirectly killed her brother, and uncovers a major drug operation. Which includes her boyfriend.
- Ms. Fanservice: Mary Ann is so attractive that she's nicknamed "Lovely," and she uses her hotness to seduce the baddies she's after. She gets several scenes in a bikini.
- Only in It for the Money: Javelin honestly wants a singing career. But it takes money to break into the business, that's why he's shipping drugs for "Honest" Charley.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Javelin" has a real name, but you'll forget it as quickly as the movie did.
- Police Are Useless: Detective Domley seems to have given up after Mantis gets off, and has to be persuaded to do his job and follow up on a lead.
- Punny Name: Mary Ann Lovitt goes by "Lovely".
- Reformed Criminal: The student council president Lovely befriends during her investigation used to be a junkie, but he got out of it and changed his life. Unfortunately, some criminals think this makes him open to working with them.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A cheerleader who knows martial arts busts up her brother's drug dealers after he overdoses.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Mantis was arrested before the start of the film, but used his football star status to get released without any charges filed.
- Sex for Services: Mantis trades drugs to a bunch of (surprisingly protective) girls at his school for sex.
- Would Hurt a Child: The first drug dealer Mary Ann goes after primarily sells to middle-schoolers. The entire drug problem is among minors.
- Wretched Hive: The high school Lovely transfers into to investigate her brother's death is part of a big drug ring. Mantis, one of the top dealers, has enough influence to threaten teachers with physical injury/death if they cross him.
