Stripped to Kill

Those of you (And myself included) that enjoy sleazy and low budget exploitation films will find it difficult to ignore this little gem. How can you not be interested in a film about strippers, murders, and a well known actress cast in the lead that also strips? Admit it, you can't! Story is about Detective Cody Sheenan (Kay Lenz) who along with her obnoxious partner Heineman (Greg Evigan) accidentally come across a stripper being burned to death but the murderer gets away. The dead stripper works at the Rock Bottom strip joint and Heineman gets an idea of convincing Cody to go undercover there and find out what she can. Cody can't dance and is not sure about her fellow cops looking at her topless but she decides to do it. Heineman makes sure that she wins amateur night that enables her to get hired by the club owner Ray (Norman Fell) who gives her an opportunity despite her terrible dancing.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Cody gets to know each of the girls and the dead stripper turns out to be the lover of Roxanne (Pia Kamakahi) who is also a dancer there. After time passes Cody starts to perfect her dance routines and actually becomes pretty good. Unfortunately her superiors tell her to stop but she doesn't want to because it seems to have liberated her and also she feels that she is getting closer to finding the murderer.

This film is directed by Katt Shea Ruben who is competent at making entertaining low budget efforts but one of the flaws in this film is the amount of dancing that takes place. Every stripper in this film has her routine shown and it's not cut down in length at all. Each of the dances goes on and on for countless minutes. This film was co-produced by Roger Corman and it never ceases to amaze me how Corman can get a popular actress in his projects and get them to take their clothes off. To this day people are still talking about Angie Dickinson's nude scenes in "Big Bad Mama". Kay Lenz gets topless here in a few scenes and she's absolutely beautiful to look at but she's also a very good actress even in low budget junk like this and she's pretty good here. One thing that I did not buy was the forced romantic angle of the film between her and Evigan. He comes across as a big sleaze bag and he actually lies to Lenz about her assignment to go undercover and get topless which turned out to be for his own benefit. She was never assigned and she got topless for nothing! Some partner! I don't want to knit pick too much on a film like this because it's too easy so I'll just mention again that Lenz looks great and does a good job and Fell is fun as the grouchy club owner. This film also has an ending that you won't see coming so there is enough going on here for me to recommend it.

Female police detective Cody Sheenan (Kay Lenz) goes undercover as a pole dancer to try and find out who has been killing the girls working at the Rock Bottom strip club (where all the profits are funnelled into elaborate stage props, smoke machines, neon signs and lava lamps).

With Stripped To Kill, director Katt Shea Ruben proves that women are just as capable of making voyeuristic exploitation as men, her debut film loaded with gratuitous female nudity solely designed to titillate the viewer. The majority of her film consists of expertly handled stripping scenes that benefit from glossy photography and stylish lighting, the girls showing off their toned and extremely flexible bodies in well choreographed dance routines.

While Cody is on stage proving that she has a rockin' bod to rival even the hottest stripper, her designer-stubbled partner Detective Heineman (Greg Evigan) is on the beat trying to track down suspect Mr. Pocket (Peter Scranton), a weirdo who has an obsession with the Rock Bottom performers.

Starting with the brutal immolation of one of the strippers and closing with a revelation that shouldn't come as much of a surprise (those who don't figure out the twist should be extra wary when chatting up women), Stripped to Kill is slick, consistently entertaining trash, unlikely to win any awards, but fun enough for the duration.

6.5/10, rounded down to 6 for the unnecessary romantic subplot between Sheenan and Heineman which is only there to pad out the runtime, and the fact that a couple of the girls qualify as butterfaces (nice legs, shame about the boat race, as The Monks used to sing).

My review was written in June 1987 after a screening at Cine 2 theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"Stripped to Kill" is a solid little thriller set in the world of topless dancing. Nearing the end of its regional theatrical run, pic is likely to do well in the home video market on the basis of its exploitation angles.

Kay Lenz stars as a policewoman in L. A. assigned by her partner Greg Evigan to go undercover, posing as a stripper to catch a serial killer of dancers at a local club. She gets a dancing job from club owner Norman Fell after winning an amateur sriptease contest there with help from an audience stacked with off-duty cops.

Scripters Katt Shea Ruben (former actress who also makes her helming debut here) and Andy Ruben play fair with the audience, offering legitimate clues and red herrings regarding the killers identity. Solution to the whodunit is ingenious; though very difficult to guess even by the alert viewer it is satisfying.

Lenz, firmly established as a sexy screen presence 15 years ago in her debut in Clint Eastwood's "Breezy". Is extremely effective here, faking several stripteases which substitute acting for professional dancing. Director Ruben stylizes the frequent strip sequences, using stylish pastel lighting effects and elaborate, acrobatic choreography by Ted Lin to create more traditional burlesque routines than the strictly sex approach. A cast of maily pro dancers perform well, ditto support roles by Evigan and Fell plus a funny turn by Diana Bellamy as a taciturn lady at police headquarters.

Ladycop Kay Lenz goes undercover as a dancer in a seedy strip joint to investigate a string of murders the club is linked to.

STRIPPED TO KILL is a fast-moving, occasionally clever, and overall above-par sexploitation thriller, and in a cheesy way, it's a pretty sexy one to boot. Unfortunately, some of the the girls playing the strippers are rather average looking(a couple of them might even bark if you offered them a Milk-Bone), and Ms. Lenz's male sidekick in the investigation is a grating character who gets a lot more screen time than he should. Still, this is buoyantly trashy fun, released just as the death-bell tolled for the grindhouse era.

5/10

A whiskey stream of consciousness review

Opening strip dance sequence is impressive skill. If only the opening song lived up to it. What?! Is that a Mr. Roper sighting? Outstanding. Mr. Roper owns the strip club. So that's where he went when he gave up being Jack tripper's landlord.

Movie includes a few extended strip sequences. Some of the sequences are of poor quality. Probably poor transfer from vhs maybe? As told film progresses, however, their routines grow more and more elaborate. All of the girls are quite talented and show off well. Kay Lenz is excellent as the undercover detective hero and downright cute and tough. And Greg Evigan is also good as punky sword-pierced ear ringed partner, Detective Heineman and their chemistry is surprising considering the low brow subject matter. Heineman drives a Suzuki Samurai- which is also a plus. I'm honestly surprised this doesn't have more of a cult following. There are heaps of entertaining moments, titillation, and a few grisly horror scenes to keep you interested to make up for the few slow takes. Stripped down with a dram of Old Soul select. Cheers!