Blazing Stewardesses

I first saw this film during a Saturday matinee at the Pequa Theatre in Massapequa Park, NY. It was on a double bill with "Girls for Rent". Since it was R rated, my friends and I had to sneak in to see it, which made it even tastier. OK....this is a VERY bad film. It will never make any ten best lists, and it probably wouldn't interest 9/10ths of the current population, BUT for lovers of low budget fun this is the proverbial jackpot. Firstly, it features a cast of old timers: Yvonne DeCarlo, Donald "Red" Barry, Bob Livingston, and best of all, the two surviving Ritz Brothers (their brother, Al, had passed away in 1965). It also features musical numbers (Miss DeCarlo sings a HORRIBLE song at a barbecue, and the Ritz's follow her with one of their patented dance numbers.). It also has a western plot right out of Gower Gulch. Cowboys, Arabs, goggle eyed comics, oldtime movie stars, busty broads, and all on a budget 0f less that 70 grand! Brother, this is living!

Terribly depressed after finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman, "Debbie Stewart" (Connie Hoffman) goes home to her apartment to have a drink. While there she gets a phone call from an old friend named "Ben Brewster" who has a proposition for her. He wants to convert his dude ranch into a gambling casino and to do that he has invited a number of gamblers to his place. To get there he has chartered an airplane but he needs stewardesses to cater it. So he offers Debbie and any other stewardesses she can get two free weeks at the dude ranch as payment for their services. What none of them realize however is that there are some masked riders who will stop at nothing to prevent Ben Brewster from accomplishing his plans. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I honestly expected more from this movie. Unfortunately, it wasn't sexy, suspenseful or in the least bit funny. As a matter of fact, about the only thing going for this film was the presence of Connie Hoffman and even then it really didn't help matters that much. In short, this movie wasn't very good and I have rated it accordingly.

Are good ole boy Al Adamson. Quite a cheap man and laid to waste some of the most sought after genre's. Such classics as Dr. Dracula, Black Heat, I Spit On Your Corpse, Blood Of Ghastly Horror, Cinderella 2000, and on and on. He made a crap load of movies lets put it that way. This double dose of Adamson exploitation is served up in one juicy booby platter.

Lets get this started with The Blazing one, a Mel Brooks wanna be after his success with Blazing Saddles. One thing you have to keep in mind when watching a flick like this one. Don't expect much to happen. There is so much filler in this movie that it doesn't even really go anywhere. It painfully hurts to watch the whole thing without putting on the fast forward. The best thing is the usual Yvonne De Carlo as the titular star of this, and Naughty. She hobbles around in scenery meant for a vacation promo video. On and on the scenes drag of horses, her walking up and down the streets to find cute knick knacks at local vendor shops in the islands of whatever. Sure the woman are hot, put nothing happens. I think the music holds the entire movie with its swinging' jazz, 70's style baby. Loads of old school actors that unfortunately, ended up in a film like this. The Ritz Brothers (Old time slap stick favorites), just not in this. Very weak and could not stand the test of time. Back in the 30's, yes. Now, tits and Spike Jones comedy just don't mix. Just leave it up to Adamson to mix the genre's appeals and not make it work.

Naughty on the other hand has a little more action and not too much dragging filler. A little more in the nudity department to boot. Yvonne is back and trying to find the right guy. While on her travels, she holds the love pocket back while every one else she encounters on her new job (which happens to be a stewardess) lays out the red carpet and gives it all they got. A little more soft core action to keep your pants off. Just stinks when Yvonne hooks up with an old school fart, ruins the look of her when she becomes a little intimate.

Anyways, this DVD is jam packed with goodies to appeal to the drive -in crowd. DVD 1 Feature film: BLAZING STEWARDESSES (1975) English audio Interview: MARILYN JOI (a.k.a. T.A. KING) Rare Combo Trailer Commentary: Producer SAM SHERMAN / historian ED HULSE Full Color Booklet featuring Liner Notes .DVD 2 Feature film: NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES (1974) English audio Never-Before-Seen Outtakes Commentary: Producer SAM SHERMAN Original Trailer / TV Spots Retro-Seduction Cinema Trailer Vault. So you can expect a crap load of juicy info from Al himself . You pretty much expect nice looking ladies. Just not a whole lot of meat.

I rented out this DVD set with both Blazing Stewardesses and Naughty Stewardesses because I expected some cheap fun exploitation flick with a cast of recognizable names. Something like 1979's 'Gas Pump Girls' made in the 70s that included Huntz Hall from the old Bowery Boys movies, or 1976's Won Ton Ton - The Dog That Saved Hollywood, which brought out a lot of stars from the 30s to 50s.

There are tons of rotten films that seem made for drive-in theater dates during the 1950s through the 1980s. There's absolutely no reason to actually watch these movies because of lack of plot and continuity. There might be a flash of flesh but overall they were disappointing, so you might as well focus on your date in the back seat. But to see actors with 30+ years of film and stage credit to their names take on roles for this crap is flat-out sad. Either the money had to be good or Don Barry, Robert Livingston, Yvonne DeCarlo, and the Ritz Brothers were blackmailed or coerced. These films were so bad that if you have the chance at a convention or wherever to meet the idiots responsible for this mess - seems as though writers John D'Amato and Samuel Sherman are still alive, while director Al Adamson is dead - punch them in the nose.

Blazing Stewardesses (1975)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Semi-sequel to THE NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES finds Ben Brewster (Robert Livingston) asking Debbie (Connie Hoffman), Lori (Regina Carrol) and Barbara (Marilyn Joi) to come help him on a ranch he's getting off the ground. This family-friendly location comes under attack from some masked bandits and it might be from the jealous Mike Trask (Don 'Red' Barry).

BLAZING STEWARDESSES comes from Al Adamson and like most of his movies it's pretty much a complete mess but I will admit that there's quite a bit here for film buffs to enjoy as long as they're in the right frame of mind and don't mind seeing some veteran actors making fools of themselves at times. This is a pretty strange flick because the title is clearly meant to capitalize on BLAZING SADDLES but it's also being sold as a sequel to Adamson's 1974 film. Those expecting a sexploitation movie are going to be disappointed because outside of one scenes, there's very little nudity on display and one has to wonder why they even bothered connecting this movie to THE NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES.

This film is really just a throwback to the 1930s Hollywood. This film clearly means to pay homage to the comedy and westerns from that era and that fully explains why you've got people like Livingston and Barry on hand. There's also Yvonne De Carlo from The Munsters series as well as Harry and Jimmy from The Ritz Brothers. If you're a fan of any of these people then you'll probably get a small kick out of seeing them in their elder days playing up against their previous characters. I must admit that I've always enjoyed The Ritz Brothers and I found some of their acts here to be funny. Hoffman isn't nearly as good here as she was in the previous film but then again she's not given much to do.

In the end, BLAZING STEWARDESSES is simply too boring to be fully entertaining. Once again there's way too much stuff going on and none of it is written all that great. If you're a fan of the vetaran cast members then you might want to check it out but others should avoid.