Ça cogne et ça rigole chez les routiers

"Anna" (Lieux Dressler) operates a truck stop in rural New Mexico which doubles as a small brothel. She and her daughter, "Rose" (Claudia Jennings) have also taken up hijacking some of the trucks and selling the cargo to some organized racketeers in Los Angeles. However, because they are so successful other racketeers decide to move in and take over. And they won't take "no" for an answer. What they fail to realize is just how adamant Anna is about keeping what is hers and the plans that Rose has for the truck stop once her mother finally relinquishes it to her. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that it was a bit heavy on action but rather light on reality. Of course, as a grade-B, drive-in movie it was never meant to be taken seriously anyway so I guess that's okay. Be that as it may, the acting wasn't great and it was clearly lacking in badly needed drama and suspense. Even so, Claudia Jennings looked great and the surprise twist at the end certainly didn't hurt either. Unfortunately, neither of these assets were enough to adequately zero-out the balance sheet and I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

When there's 3 murders and 2 nude women before the opening credits end, you know you're in for a treat. This was the first movie I saw in a long time where they re-used a chase scene. I always love when that happens. This movie is definitely worth watching.

After the infamous bubble bath slaughter sequence, TRUCK STOP WOMEN begins.

Rose (Claudia Jennings) is just a fun-loving gal, working for her mom, Anna (Lieux Dressler) at her truck stop / brothel.

Uh oh!

Mob types are trying to muscle in for a piece of the action! They can't resist the allure of the truck stop industry. Also, it seems that Rose has joined forces with these gangsters!

Now, it's the sex-starved country folk vs. The malevolent mafia! Much naked frivolity ensues.

If topless lasses are your forte, then you've just pulled into heaven! If instead, you're looking for a deep film, full of philosophical discussions, then you should have looked more closely at the title!

Fans of Ms. Jennings rejoice! She appears, and the angels doth sing! Is it hot in here?

PLUS: The theme song and soundtrack music are toe tapping awesomeness! And, who among us would pass up a chance to see any movie with Dennis Fimple in it?

EXTRA POINTS FOR: Anyone who can count the number of times the mobster known as Smith says, "Fuggettaboutit!"...

This is a pretty decent 70's drive-in flick featuring the undisputed queen of 70's drive-in cinema, Claudia Jennings. Claudia and her hard-as-nails mother run a truck-stop brothel in New Mexico which they use as a base to get information on valuable loads that they can later hijack by pretending to be stranded female motorists (the sight of Jennings in short-shorts or hot pants is obviously enough to make any male driver slam on his brakes), hitting the poor guys over the head, and stealing their trucks. Jennings grows tired of her domineering mother, however, and teams up with a slick East Coast Mafioso who is trying to take over the operation. This leads to a violent show-down between the rural hicks and the "citified" urban mobsters.

This movie contains a lot of violence, exciting car chases (actually semi-truck chases) and general rural mayhem. There is plenty of topless-ness (if an unfortunate dearth of bottomless-ness) by Claudia and her female cohorts. For some reason the main mobster played by John Martino is named "Smith" (perhaps because this was the era of the so-called "Italian-American Anti-Defamation League",ironically created by infamous mob boss Joe Colombo), but he is nevertheless still the complete Italian Mafia stereotype("Fuggedbaboutit"!). Busty bimbo Uschi Degert has her best role ever--she isn't fully dressed for one minute of it but doesn't utter a word of dialogue (lest viewers wonder what a thickly-accented Swedish immigrant is doing in rural New Mexico). Director Mark Lester does a good Cormanesque job of combining feisty feminism with gratuitous sexism (and frankly it's a lot more believable to see a woman like Jennings use her feminine wiles so she can conk a guy over the head with a crowbar than it is to see Peta Wilson or some other 100 lb. fashion model beating up musclebound guys three times their size with martial arts like in today's version of these faux feminist movies).

I would recommend ANY movie with Claudia Jennings, but this is one of her best

Don't expect this sleazy Drive-in gem to show up at a high-brow awards ceremony. Nonetheless, it's got everything needed for a camp classic: naked women, non-stop action, monster trucks, some high-speed fornication, and even a few surprises. And, wow, where did actress Dressler (Anna) come from. Her gargoyle boss-woman dominates the screen like none of the many ugly guys, and kept me wishing for more of Jennings' lovely eye relief. And how about all that dry New Mexico scenery with its ghost-town from heck- I sure hope the crew took a canteen with them. So, will Anna be able to keep her truck-stop brothel locally owned or will the eastern Mafia gobble it up. After all the long-haul guys do need occasional relief. More importantly, which side will Rose, Anna's rebellious daughter, end up taking, now that she's charmed by a snazzy eastern suit. Anyway, I didn't see the ending coming and a provocative one it is. In my little book, a zany flick like this is hard to rate, but if you're in the mood to dodge monster trucks, duck flying bullets, shower with naked girls, and follow a pacing that never drags, then give it a try.