User reviews

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.

"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.

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...

Unholy Rollers is AIP cinema verite, a true American film classic that peels the facade away from the cult of sports celebrity. Claudia Jennings is outstanding as the roller queen whose place on the pedestal is about to be taken by the next one in line. She plays the role with utter conviction, and the film's low budget limitations lend added authenticity to its depiction of this seedy American pastime.

Fed up with being sexually harassed at work "Karen Walker" (Claudia Jennings) quits her job and auditions for a spot on the local roller derby team. She quickly recognizes that she has found her life's calling but in the process manages to alienate the rest of her team because of her unquenchable desire to steal the spotlight from them. Her unstable mental condition and total lack of discipline certainly don't help either. Now as far as this film is concerned allow me to say that it boasts of three very attractive females in Roberta Collins (as "Jennifer"), Candice Roman (as Karen's sister "Donna") along with the aforementioned Claudia Jennings. Unfortunately, even with this great lineup the film contained some rather dull scenes along with very little cohesion between them which resulted in an overall cheap atmosphere. In comparison with a similar roller derby movie made the same year, "Kansas City Bomber" was clearly the better of the two films as it was much more polished and entertaining. In short, while this movie clearly had plenty of spills it had very few thrills and I give it a point for each of the three ladies mentioned earlier. But no more than that.

A Roger Corman production from the 70's so you know it's funny, sleazy, plot less and gratuitous but never boring, there's always something happening on screen. Claudia Jennings dominates as Karen Walker, a cat food factory worker who gets cheesed off and becomes a roller derby queen. She gives a tough-as-nails performance, spitting her lines in a manner not unlike the actresses in John Waters' early films. Other stand-outs include Louis Quinn as a cynical promoter and Alan Vint doing a hilarious take on the "roommate's boyfriend" character. It's an obvious attempt to cash in on Kansas City Bomber (apparently started while KCB was still in production) replacing Raquel Welch's vulnerability with Claudia Jennings' unapologetic approach and ladling on plenty of sleaze. So what's not to like?

The description of this movie is totally off. The "beautiful woman" with a "competitive spirit" seems like a hardcore victim of lead poisoning, a really angry idiot - like a thirteen year old with behavioral issues, but she's at least 20. I was rooting for her in the beginning when she takes revenge on her gross boss but she charges through the whole film like she's a homophobic female Sid Vicious. A rebel without a clue. This is proto-punk rock meets someone's nostalgia for Fifties roller derby.

It's a fun movie to maybe watch once but I would never recommend this seriously to anyone under any circumstance.

A masterpiece of bad taste ! An exaggerated celebration of the roller derby lifestyle. I liked the lowbrow sport of roller derby when I was a youth growing up in the 70's ! I was a very accomplished roller skater in my own right in 1974 -1979 . I had a special blue Roller Rink Jacket from the rink that was embroidered Skate City .

I was also an alpine ski-racer and bigtime skateboarder . My point is that I took my Kryptonics from Boulder Co. Was founded in 1965 and originally manufactured polyurethane products for the mining and computer industry. In the mid-1970s, the company introduced the Kryptonics Star Trac line of wheels that drastically changed the functionality of skateboards. I put my Kryptonics wheels on my roller skates and would jam out of the Skate City in door rink at a local hard core cement skate board park ! My wheels that outperformed the competition. I was an extremely ballsy preteen 😝 These Roller Derby Jam Straps/Skate straps would help with control of fast torque and speed.

Unholy Rollers..... Raunchy , violent , hard, fast, and vulgar ! This is trash cinema at its finest !

"A locker room look at the toughest broads in the world!"

The film's low budget limitations lend added authenticity to its depiction of this seedy American pastime !! Loved it 7.5/10 Karen wants more action out of life and quits her job at the cannery to become a skater in the roller derby. She encounters friction from the other skaters - especially Mickey, the current number one star of the team. Karen proves herself a feisty competitor but refuses to be a team player. As she skates her way to roller stardom, she incurs the wrath of jealous team members and the owner of the team.

FUN FACT! Martin Scorsese was a supervising editor on this film, the year before "Mean Streets" was released.

Roller derby became popular in the 1940s and 1965, and by the 1970s, the International Roller Derby League (IRDL) was at its peak. The IRDL featured regional teams like the Midwest Pioneers and Northeast Braves, and in 1971, over 19,000 people attended a championship game. However, the league ceased operations in 1973, and roller derby eventually became scripted entertainment with predetermined outcomes.

Just Orderd DVD !!!

Respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer, pmtelefon, who says this film "runs out of gas" in the last half hour. Sorry, but in my opinion it never runs into gas. Scenes that should have an impact...the conflict between Karen and Mickey, Karen's troubled relationship with a male skater, her visit to her mom, her best friend choosing not to live with her, and the final denouement where she cracks up...fail to deliver on any emotional level due to the general lack of acting, writing, and directorial ability. So what we're left with is Claudia Jennings' bod, which is sexy as hell, a well depicted atmosphere of working class raunchiness that is as essential to roller derby as the smell of hot dogs are to baseball and a few laughs. Give it a C.

Karen (Claudia Jennings) is an angry, trashy woman who is sick of bosses hitting on her at her job at the cat food factory. After quitting, she answers a call for folks interested in joining a roller derby queen. She makes the team and is very good....but her nastiness and lack of team spirit make her a pariah on the team.

This Roger Corman production is just plain trashy. There is a lot of gratuitous nudity, violence and awful people. In fact, you probably won't like ANYONE in this film. It isn't helped by the nonsensical ending where Karen runs amok...a scene you just have to see to believe. Overall, the film is full of amateurish acting, lots of boobs and is pure cheese. For a better derby film, try the original "Rollerball" or, perhaps, "The Kansas City Bomber".

(1972) The Unholy Rollers DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, a roller derby movie released three months later after "Kansas City Bomber" starring Rachel Welch, except "The Unholy Rollers" is an exploitation film executive produced by Roger Cormon. And like all exploitation films, the acting are always secondary as opposed to the action, nudity, the corny tough dialogue and shocking moments. In this one it's the nudity and objective rough scenes how the central character had been treated by others.

At the opening show cases a roller derby competition, showcasing the roaring crowd, with a blonde woman being one of the amongst the spectators. And we then see this same young woman, Karen Walker (Claudia Jennings) back at work chatting with a co-worker about her experience, at a cat food factory, she is then being sexually harassed by her supervisor after pushing for a raise. Because her supervisor made more unwanted physical advances toward her she then rebels and wrecks the canning line before walking out of the factory for good. When she comes home, we then see she lives with a young couple, Donna (Candice Roman) and her boyfriend, Greg (Alan Vint), and she tells them she has just quit her job and wanting do a try out with the derby. And by the time Karen makes it in, she begins to clash or create hostility with fellow teammates, particularly with Mickey (Betty Anne Rees) as she used to be the current front runner of the team called "LA Avengers" who they often battle it out with the San Diego Demons. Besides being involved with an already married man, named Nick (Jay Varela), she begins to let her ego get the better of her pushing her friends as well as love ones aside, who continues to push the envelope.

When it comes to an exploitation movie, I think I liked it as much as the other exploitation movies can be whether it be "Foxy Brown", "Dolemite or "Caged Fury" to name a few where the exploitation themes is supposed to stand out than the acting and production budget, waking this one I was able to watch throughout. Interesting enough is the Martin Scorsese on screen credit where the version I saw says that the movie was edited by him but upon looking at the credits on here, it says he was part of the editing department as supervising editor.

How can anyone not like this super cheap, corny, down-market effort riding on the success of Raquel Welch's big studio "Kansas City Bomber"? But this is the raw, real deal. Playmate and B movie queen Claudia Jennings is a young working-class girl with ambitions of fame and fortune as a roller derby queen. To do so she must fight to the top, both figuratively and literally, desperately looking for love along the way. Of course, all of her competition is equally attractive. Louis Quinn is amusing as their manager, obsessed with "Showmanship" above all. Kathleen Freeman (Mother Superior in "Blues Brothers") plays Miss Jennings' mom, briefly and beautifully, and Alan Limt (Macon County Line) is her girlfriend's boyfriend. Lots of mirth and mayhem on the rink from a rogues' gallery freakshow of secondary characters . No SAG paid extras here, all the audience are honest to goodness real life rabid derby fans. The poster says "A Locker Room Look at the Toughest Broads in the World" Damn straight!

Karen Walker is tired of the grabby pervert supervisor at her crappy cannery job. She quits and joins the roller derby. She clashes with team leader Mickey Martinez.

This is a bit of the exploitation genre. It's cheesy, amateurish, and surprisingly funny at times. There is only so much before it gets boring. The story is nothing special. The acting is strictly amateur hour. Former playmate of the year Claudia Jennings has the prerequisite energy to lead but not much in terms of acting skills. They try for inventive camera work. This is probably better than most exploitation films but that's a slight compliment.

ROLLERBALL was too pretentious and KANSAS CITY BOMBER was too lightweight. This is the real deal! If you love the lowbrow sport of roller derby or are just a fan of Minnesota-born Claudia Jennings (in her first starring role) then this film is a must-see! Raunchy and violent just like the women-in-prison films that Roger Corman was also pumping out at the time (in fact many of the supporting cast were also appearing in those WIP films). Sure this film has the novelty value of having Martin Scorsese's name in the credits but there's much to enjoy in the film besides looking for his editorial hand with an anarchic non-ending that just seemed perfect.

The first hour of "The Unholy Rollers" is a lot of fun. I'm a fan of roller derby (flat track). I go see the Long Island Roller Rebels play once a year. (It's not crazy like it is in this movie but it's still a fun night out.) Most of "The Unholy Rollers" is a hoot. It has a pretty story and a ton of nudity. Even though I wasn't really sure what was going on anymore towards the end, I'm still glad I saw it. "The Unholy Rollers" is now my third favorite roller derby movie behind "Whip It" and "Kansas City Bomber". Honorable mention: a dreamy Claudia Jennings' topless speech.

Unholy Rollers is an action-packed drama, spotlighting the sport of Roller Derby. When this film was released in 1972, Roller Derby was at the zenith of it's popularity with the public.

Be forewarned, this definitely doesn't qualify as a P.C. movie, by any means. Like most B movies from the 70s, it's chocked full of stereotypical characters; lecherous male chauvinist pigs, dumb blond women, a lust-crazed lesbian, negligent store clerks, etc.

The film has B movie queen Claudia Jennings in the starring role, as Karen Walker. Karen is a gorgeous, buxom young woman, working at a dull job in a cat food cannery. For fun, Karen loves going to see her favorite local Roller Derby team, the LA Avengers.

Meanwhile, Karen gets tired of fending-off the unwanted sexual harassment, of her sleazy supervisor. Fed-up, she throws a can of cat food in his face, then quits in disgust. Without any other job prospects lined-up, Karen decides to try out for the LA Avengers team.

Karen makes the team, then reports to the team doctor, for her physical. The doctor turns-out to be mainly interested in ogling Karen's bod, after she strips-down to her undies for the physical. The doc gives Karen a clean bill-of-health. She then gets her Avenger uniform, and reports to the rink for her first game.

Karen gets off to a rip-roaring start, during her first game as an Avenger. She displays lots of colorful showmanship. The team Owner, Mr. Stern, likes Karen's skating style. In the locker room after the game though, Karen's teammates caution her to skate according to the team rules.

The Avenger's star skater, Mickey Martinez, gleefully teases Karen about her skirt that she wears. Mickey eggs-on the others, including the team's coach, to join in. Karen takes offense. But she's told by another teammate, Jennifer, not to take it seriously. Jennifer then invites Karen to join the rest of the team, for drinks at a local seedy bar. Wanting to be accepted by the others, Karen goes along.

Once at the bar, Karen is approached by Mickey again. Mickey is the lesbian character, and she makes amorous advances towards Karen. Karen gets belligerent with Mickey, telling Mickey to get lost. Feeling insulted, Mickey wants to 'teach Karen a lesson'. So, Mickey and some of the other Avengers, pin Karen to a pool table, tearing off all of her clothes. Naked and furious, Karen gives them all a brutal tongue-lashing. Especially Mickey, who she vows to get even with.

With vengeance, and a thirst for fame driving her, Karen quickly rises to the top of the Avengers team roster. Karen even beats Mickey's scoring record, eclipsing Mickey to become the Avenger's new number one skater. But fame and glory go to Karen's head. She refuses to be a team player, or follow orders by the team's Owner. Soon, Karen is headed for a fall. And she learns the hard way that, star or not, she's as expendable as any other skater in the league.

This film is jam-packed with lots of flashy skating footage, ribald humor, violent fights on the track, and an overall sense of raunchy debauchery. The bitter rivalry between Karen and Mickey, is the meatiest plot-line in the film. There's just not much else about the movie, that holds the viewer's interest.

Claudia Jennings performance as Karen Walker, is brilliant. Claudia had a wholesome, all-American cheerleader kind of beauty. Yet she manages to make the violent, ruffian qualities of Karen Walker completely believable.

Betty Anne Rees, was the perfect choice to play Karen's nemesis, Mickey Martinez. Betty was born with the face of a villain. It has lots of severe, razor-sharp angles, and looks like an abscessed tooth feels-painfully evil.

Unholy rollers is wild roller-coaster ride, through the rough-and-tumble world of 70s Roller Derby. It's destined to go down in history, as one of the biggest cult B movies, of all time. It's a must-see, for any 70s B movie fan.

Perhaps the greatest B movie ever made, "The Unholy Rollers" skates in the laughs and thrills in one tacky whoop. Who knew roller derbys could be such fun? Chicks in skimpy clothing going in circles tormenting each other, babes undressing each other violently, luscious nudity, sexy groping, romping sex, delightful political incorrectness and you got American trash culture at its finest. A nice glimpse too at '70s America with its comely beauties, wide and long cars, tight and flared clothing and that laidback well-meaning vibe that these soulless times painfully miss. The late Claudia Jennings struck a memorable and even haunting legacy with her delectable appeal and somewhat offbeat beauty. A well-paced and well-acted flick for its plot and budget this is one cheapie you may never forget.