An early starring role for 70s cult fave Claudia Jennings, an attractive, leggy red head who enlivened several drive in classics before dying in a car crash. Here she plays a cannery worker who quits her job to become a roller derby star – but she gets a big head and won’t fit into the team (years before Top Gun). Only her team do celebrate her first game by ripping off her clothes which is a bit off. Also off is Jennings’ Wayne Newtown-look-a-like love interest, who is going out with one of her teammates, and roughs Jennings up.
There are some great scenes – Jennings strutting around defiantly while topless in a bar; the full-blooded sport sequences (like the finale with Jennings skating outside the rink), Jennings doing a strip in a roller derby rink late at night (with a little more attention this could have been a classic). Jennings is tough and fearless, loyal and supportive to her best friend (a stripper with a thief boyfriend).
However the filmmakers never seem to focus on the drama i.e. the conflicts within Jennings’ character. She never really gets a chance to interact with anyone or show why the way she is – they set up characters (best friend, mother, false love interest, rival) and never really develop them or do anything interesting with them. In particular, Roberta Collins is shamefully wasted, and there are too many repetitive scenes of Jennings’ teammates thumping her.
As a web reviewer of this pointed out, the film manages both to be accidentally funny (crummy acting, over the top scenes) and intentionally funny (bright satire of the roller derby industry).
Martin Scorsese was “supervising editor”.
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