The Unholy Rollers

..as in 'bad fashions,' 'bad hairdos,' and just plain old tackiness.

The movie isn't really interesting. A woman who is being harassed by her employer (even through she's annoying as hell) and goes into the rollerderby. Despite the fact that all her teammates hate her, she somehow succeeds by her viciousness alone and spends the latter half of the movie beating down her opposition and getting beaten in return. At the end, she just goes around beating the hell out of people, shows her tattoo for some reason, and all this nonsense ends.

It was basically the last half of a drive-in triple feature and it shows. Nudity is sparse, violence is all around, and the movie tries to be gritty but only succeeds in being extremely goofy and annoying. There is no real plot and nobody will care at the end. I have a feeling this was designed to GET people out of the theater or to give teens in the '70s extra time to makeout or get their clothes on before the drive-in closed.

Be warned. It's a long ride to nowhere.

This was an attempt by American-International Pictures to cash in on the publicity for the highly publicized KANSAS CITY BOMBER, also released in 1972. Actually, it's more like Roger Corman's attempt to do so, because while A.I.P. footed the bill, it was a Corman show all the way (even though he had already started his own movie company/distribution outfit, New World Pictures, two years earlier.) In fact, it has the same look and sparse production values as New World movies of the earlier '70s, making you wonder if A.I.P. gave Corman little to spend, or if Corman pocketed a lot of the budget.

Whatever the case, the end result is pretty boring to sit though, despite the showcased sport (roller derby) and the presence of B movie queen Claudia Jennings. The first few minutes aren't bad, promising an energetic and wacky look at the behind-the-scenes of roller derby, but then the movie suddenly takes a turn to the deadly serious. Sure, there are catfights, nudity, and clobberings on the roller ring, but there's no feeling of fun to it all. Actually, much of the movie focuses on boring bickering and chattering between the characters. To make matters worse, the print of the movie currently playing on cable eliminates the original music score and substitutes bland muzak that results in the viewing experience becoming more of a slog to get through.

"A locker room look at the toughest broads in the world!" That's the poster tag line for "The Unholy Rollers" and it pretty much sums up what the makers of this film were aiming for, a leering behind-the-scenes action/comedy about roller derby. Claudia Jennings ("Death Sport" "Gator Bait") gets fed up with her job at a cannery after brazen 1970s sexual harassment and decides to join the roller derby. This results in comedy, romance, and ladies in various states of undresss, as you might expect from a Roger Corman produced film of this era. Corman's New World Pictures were having great success with their cycle of women-in-prison films and their nurse and co-ed films, so why not branch out into sports comedy films? And believe it or not, this wasn't the first roller derby film of the time. "Derby" came out the year before and Raquel Well appeared in "Kansas City Bomber" the same year. Roller derby even found it's way into the plot of of Disney's "The Shaggy D.A." so derby was HOT during this time. As for this film, it's a typical Corman raunchy sex comedy and the quality is about what you'd expect, which is it's not terrible, but nothing all that great either. Still, I will say I was entertained and I did enjoy seeing an oddly young Victor Argo as the team trainer. FUN FACT! Martin Scorsese was a supervising editor on this film, the year before "Mean Streets" was released.

It's a shame that Claudia Jennings, Playboy playmate of the year, died at age 29 from a traffic accident, and made a series of low budget, forgettable films. Many of these films still appear on TV from time to time, but not Unholy Rollers, her best film. Another shame. Unholy Rollers is about Claudia joining a roller derby troupe and because of her personality and strikingly good looks, never being accepted into the group. The film is low budget all the way. Probably did well at drive-ins and rural markets, but got swamped by Kansas City Bomber released the same year. I never cared for the roller derby, it's quite stupid, but this "inside story" is quite decent. Just don't expect to find it.

From the dank sub-sub-basement of athletic entertainment, somewhere beneath 1970's "Big Time Wrestling", came the sweaty phenomenon known as "Roller Derby". Combining elements from wrestling, roller skating, and Australian football, this "sport" barely made a blip on the radar screen of life.

However, it did have its own particular audience, including a 9 year old yours truly, tuning in every Saturday night to watch these raucous rollers' riotous escapades! Especially entertaining were the females of the game, as their violent behavior was quite shocking for the era.

In 1972, ever vigilant for the next $1.98 exploitation vehicle, Producer Roger Corman made THE UNHOLY ROLLERS for the hordes of drive-in devotees.

Starring the unbelievably-hot Claudia Jennings as Karen Walker, ROLLERS excels at recreating the cheeeze-tinged, white trash goodness of actual derby competition.

When Karen quits her job at a cat food factory and tries out for The Avengers RD team, she's accepted immediately. Horrible rock and roll music, nudity, and mayhem ensue.

It's important to keep in mind that this movie is not a Greek tragedy. So, don't go into it looking for anything other than painful dialogue, heinous acting, and general idiocy.

Claudia Jennings fans fear not, for she's in almost every scene!

While nowhere near as exciting as ROLLERBALL, nor as dramatic as THE KANSAS CITY BOMBER, this movie does capture the low-rent spectacle in all of its half-wit glory.

Be sure to remain seated for the smash-bang-boom of the "wild in the streets" finale...