Las Vegas Lady

You would have to say that this Crown International Pictures feature sounds like it would have to be a winner. After all, a 70's era Las Vegas heist movie revolving around a foxy lady sounds like it cannot truly fail. In truth, Las Vegas Lady doesn't really live up to its potential and under-plays its hand a little too much. Its story focuses on three women who carry out a robbery of the Circus Circus casino in Vegas after taking instructions from a shadowy mystery figure. Their objective is to steal $500,000.

Heist movies are generally quite a bit of fun but this one is sadly a somewhat uninvolving crime caper where the heist itself is achieved with very little tension and what seems to be the minimum of effort. The trio of women include a trapeze artist and showgirl; the former is utilised to climb the vertigo inducing outer building in order to help execute the mission. While the villain of the piece is a casino boss who is a nasty bit of work with a penchant for roughing up women. So there are pretty decent characters in this one but they exist in a story which could certainly have been presented with a little more effort. Given the good set-up this could have been good movie if it had put more emphasis on generating tension and with better plot development. Still, I didn't mind it too much due to its 70's time capsule elements. 70's Las Vegas sure looks great in any case and it's really the time and place captured on screen that ensures this one is worth a look.

In a wild west park, Lucky (Stella Stevens) meets a mysterious man where she's given a plan to steal $500k in Las Vegas. Lucky and two friends showgirl Carol and trapeze artist Lisa try to rob the sadistic manager of Circus Circus Casino Eversull who is also secretly an illegal gun dealer. Lucky's boyfriend Victor is 5 months from retiring as a security officer at the casino. Carol is in debt to the thug A.C. who suspects she's making a run for it. Lisa is suffering from bouts of vertigo.

Stella Stevens is not necessarily a bad actress but the other two are pretty close. The heist isn't that impressive and it takes way too long to get there. The production is poor although somebody hanging outside of the casino is fun. The movie oscillates between functional to badly made.

This film essentially begins with an attractive woman by the name of "Lucky" (Stella Stevens) working in a Las Vegas casino with two other friends named "Carol" (Lynne Moody) and "Lisa" (Linda Scruggs). Although each of them have different duties they all share a special dislike for the owner "Mr. Eversull" (George DiCenzo) who is cruel and mean. To that effect, when the opportunity to steal over half a million dollars from him comes their way they decide it's worth the risk and come up with a daring plan. The only problem is that the security is extremely tight and the smallest mistake will result in severe consequences for everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an adequate crime-drama which certainly benefitted from the location. Likewise, having the three aforementioned actresses certainly didn't hurt the scenery either. Admittedly, this film could have used a bit more suspense and some better action scenes but I suppose it was sufficient for the most part and for that reason I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

With a title like "Las Vegas Lady", and being released by Crown International Pictures, one might understandably think that this movie is some kind of sleazefest. But surprisingly it's far from that. For one thing, the movie barely warrants a PG rating, with some very brief nudity and a couple of harsh words. Plus, the movie aims to be a caper movie. Nothing wrong with that aim - caper movies can be fun - but the execution of this caper movie is almost totally botched. The first half of the movie is almost totally made of low energy scenes that seem to serve no purpose except to pad out the movie. Viewers will get really impatient quick. And when the caper is executed, there is absolutely no tension and no energy. There is a "twist" in the final few minutes of the movie, but it's a twist that you'll guess in the movie's first ten minutes! On the positive side, there is actual filming on Las Vegas and surrounding Nevada locations, which helps the look of the movie. Also, Stella Stevens and Stuart Whitman have welcome presence, and generate some chemistry in their (limited) scenes together. But this positive material won't prevent you from falling asleep long before the end credits start rolling.

Stuart Whitman made one of his very best movies in 1976 (Magnum Special per Tony Saitta, Una), the same year as Las Vegas Lady. I was hoping for a couple of things from LVL; a little of that kick-butt Stu and some cheezy 70's Vegas sights. I got a little - very little - Vegas cheez and virtually no Stu action. He hits a fat guy in the stomach.

This hang dog production is simply an embarrassment. We're talking Amateur Hour, folks, in all departments. There's a little swimming pool near-nudity, some implied violence, and a lot of non-suspense.

Stella Stevens' two female cohorts in crime are Lynne Moody (pretty bad) and Linda Scruggs (really bad) and the main evil guy (George DiCenzo) is severely lacking in menace.

Don't bother.