Hot-butt Karen (the gorgeous Claudia Jennings) works at a cannery and has a bad attitude about it. One of the bosses pisses her off so she sabotages the line, walking off her job. Looking for fun, looking for adventure, and looking for a good payday, she eventually auditions for and joins a roller derby team, The Avengers. Her ambitions cause her to run rough and wild, pissing off her new teammates as she vies for power. She gets it, become the star of the team, and soon she is doing commercials and endorsements. This should satisfy her, but it doesn’t, because she was born with a wild hair up her ass and can’t ever be contained. She spends her free time tooling around L.A. shooting a pistol, peeling the tires on her new hot rod, and sleeping with one of her teammates when she isn’t fighting with him. Her teammates resent her and plot their revenge, leading to one of the greatest brawls in roller derby history. And just like at the beginning of the film, Karen quits her job in spectacular fashion, only now she’s rolling away instead of stomping.
The Unholy Rollers is a wild little film from (producer) Roger Corman. It turns out that Marin Scorsese worked on the film as “Executive Editor,” whatever that means. It also stars Claudia Jennings, a superstar in her own right, so there’s a lot of pedigree to this one. Mostly the movie is a bit of a freewheeling mess, just like its lead character. There’s a ton of action in the roller derby ring, which is good because that’s really what we’re all here for. There’s also an ample amount of boobs and butts on display. Sunny southern California gets a few shout-outs, too. The plot just sort of rambles along, Karen getting into various types of trouble, living fast and hard and sleeping with whoever she wants. She drinks and carouses like a sailor, milking life hard in the process. If the film had a more streamlined plot, or some kind of point other than “live free,” it might have gone up a notch or two. As it is, the movie is silly fun with dangerous bits of exploitation peppered in here and there just to keep you on the edge of your seat (Karen riding on a motorcycle and shooting up L.A. is pretty wild, to be honest).
If you want to see some classic Drive-In fare that is pretty much just fluff, pull on over and park yourself and get to watching. This is the kind of movie that played on a triple-bill and allowed horny adults to neck for a while, take a break and eat some popcorn, and never lose the plot of the movie. It’s good fun, if inconsequential.
Two and a Half Stars out of Four