![]() Less busty than most 60’s Playboy models, Jennings had a healthy, all-American cheerleader type of good looks and was crowned 1970’s Playmate of the Year. Born in 1949, Ms Jennings took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in 1968, was discovered there and became Playboy’s Miss November 1969. UNHOLY ROLLERS has achieved cult status thanks to the presence of its sexy star Claudia Jennings. UNHOLY ROLLERS has aged much better than KANSAS CITY BOMBER, which has good action sequences and a wonderful turn by Helen Kallianiotas as Welch’s nemesis, but the PG-rated off-track stuff was dull TV-level drama. I’m not sure if Corman got his film out first or not but neither film was a hit so perhaps the fad had already run its course (Roller Derby was also the subject of the 1971 documentary DERBY and 1974’s ROLLERBALL was basically an berserk futuristic version of the game). Carr and Jodie Foster as her daughter (?) was produced by MGM the same year and was expected to be a huge moneymaker. ![]() KANSAS CITY BOMBER starring Raquel Welch as K.C. ![]() ![]() UNHOLY ROLLERS was hastily produced by B-movie maven Roger Corman in an attempt to not only cash in on the Roller Derby craze, but to beat a major studio film on the subject into theatres. and the actors often shout their lines annoyingly and are constantly bickering with each other. Loud and unsubtle, UNHOLY ROLLERS is full of stereotypical bad-taste characters horny male chauvinist pigs, horny dim-witted blondes, horny lesbians, etc. Some of the hand-held shots, edited by a young Martin Scorsese, using roller-skating cameramen are especially impressive. The roller derby sequences themselves especially deliver with realistically brutal kicks, punches, and brawls that seem authentic. Vernon Zimmerman’s (who would later helm the cult item FADE TO BLACK in 1981) crisp direction from a dense but crude script by screenwriter Howard Cohen (who would go on to write the DEATHSTALKER and BARBARIAN QUEEN movies) keeps things charging along at a breezy pace, with location filming capturing the working class surroundings in colorful detail while not holding back on the requisite nudity and violence. UNHOLY ROLLERS is a 70’s drive-in schlock masterpiece, filled with interesting detail, both visually and in the dialog, and it has a dynamic sense of action and fun. Karen gets increasingly batty, leading up to a riotous finale where she finally goes off the deep end. When Stern starts sending Karen to endorse products in bad TV commercials the rest of her team gets so jealous they beat, stomp, and whip her with a car antenna. She refuses to be a team player and is soon headed for a fall. But the fame and glory go to Karen’s head. Karen gets revenge on Mickey by upstaging her as the Avengers’ star player and quickly becomes the audience favorite, habitually brawling on the track with members of the Avengers’ arch enemies, the San Diego Demons and generally grabbing all the attention. Karen is rescued from further humiliation by Nick (Jay Warela) with whom she develops a romance. When Karen rebuffs the lesbian advances of the Avenger’s star skater Mickey (Betty Anne Rees), Mickey and other team members pin Karen down on a nearby pool table and rip her clothes off. Karen’s showy style impresses Avengers owner Mr. In UNHOLY ROLLERS Claudia Jennings plays Karen, a hotheaded cat-food factory worker so fed up with her lecherous foreman that she hurls cans of cat-food at him and storms out, heading straight for roller derby auditions with local team, the L.A.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |