The Working Girls

A very obscure low-budget "oddity" that I picked because Sarah Kennedy's in it, her second and last film before she started doing only voice-over stuff.

The female director unfortunately didn't realize what a cute gem she had in Kennedy hence perhaps why there are so few close-ups of her, if we can call them that. Most scenes were shot from a distance, as if this mediocre writer-director actually thought she could ape Altman, Kubrick or whomever. This results in disappointingly few shots of Kennedy in which her face is clearly visible - which in turn reduces the entertainment factor of a film whose sole recommendation is that she (and Cassandra Peterson) are in it.

It's a lame, fairly pointless little film that probably made $30 dollars and 50 Cents for its confused "auteur".

The dialog is quite corny, outdated, occasionally verging on lower-tier B-movie fluff. Not much better than porn film dialog, either, but the semi-competent cast help "elevate" it a bit.

The "semi-competent" does not apply to Kennedy, however. Given the proper vehicle she could have been a "minor" movie star. She can definitely act, isn't "just" mega-cute.

I can't quite put my finger on what Rothman was going for, what style she was aiming for, what message or point she was trying to convey. Or was she merely happy to be making a movie - ANY movie? "They gave me some money, so I'd better hurry up and write something - anything!" That's how it appears to be.

This movie begins with a young blonde woman named "Honey" (Sarah Kennedy) coming to Los Angeles with no money and looking for employment. Luckily, she manages to rent an apartment on credit from another young woman named "Denise" (Laurie Rose). Likewise, living in that same apartment is another young woman by the name of "Jill" (Lynne Guthrie) who goes to college and works as a waitress in a nightclub on the side. And it's at this nightclub that Jill meets a young stripper named "Katya" (Cassandra Peterson) who convinces her to become a stripper there as well. In any case, as these young ladies struggle to make ends meet they encounter various people along the way who change their lives in a very dramatic manner. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although this film is billed as a comedy, I didn't seem to find too much humor in it. But it did have a couple of attractive actresses in Cassandra Peterson and Laurie Rose to grace the screen so I suppose it wasn't a total waste all things considered. In short, this was a low-budget movie made for drive-in theaters. Nothing more and nothing less and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

This is one of a number of Roger Corman produced drive-in movies from the 70's that focused on the lives and loves of various "career" women and attempted to take the traditional T and A sexploitation formula of the time and inject it with half-a**ed feminist themes. Like many of these other films (i.e. "The Student Teachers", "Candy Stripe Nurses") this movie offers some incredibly mixed messages. The main heroine, Honey, for instance, is a complete bimbo with a truly annoying voice. In a normal T and A flick she'd only be there to take her clothes off, but she doesn't here. Instead she flirts with contract killing, gets paid to talk to a reclusive billionaire (I'd pay her NOT to talk to me), and eventually reveals a talent for the stock market (even though she is as dumb as a box of rocks). Her roommate is a struggling artist, and in an interesting role reversal, it is her various male models that have the nude scenes. The third roommate, Jill, becomes a waitress and stripper (it is her and another stripper, played by Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, who provide all the female nudity). She eventually becomes manager of the club and has a torrid affair with a handsome mafioso who is shaking the place down. He beats her up (when her roommates ask he her what happened, she says she was "fighting on the Italian front"), but incredibly, they part on good terms. Talk about mixed messages.

In its defense, however, this movie really isn't that bad or all that unbelievable (aside from the annoying Honey character). It does honestly portray a lot of the confusion that was being experienced at that time in the so-called Sexual Revolution. And while it's mixed messages probably didn't endear it to either feminists or the male raincoat brigade, it is vastly preferable to Corman's later "feminist" films which usually feature Maria Ford or Julie Strain beating up muscular guys while wearing nothing but a g-string. (This film is a cinematic feminist thesis by comparison). It was also directed by Stephanie Rothman, one of the first female exploitation directors who helmed a couple of interesting WIP flicks, "Terminal Island" and "Sweet Sugar", and one honest-to-god good movie, "The Velvet Vampire". You could do worse I guess.

This movie was one I have never even heard about. But stumbling upon it here in 2025, I opted to watch it, as it was a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Writer Stephanie Rothman, whom also directed the movie, put together and okay script and storyline, though I have to say that it wasn't anything outstanding. Watchable, for sure, but hardly something you'd write home about.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actress Cassandra Peterson. The acting performances in the movie were good.

"The Working Girls" is a movie that you watch once, then bag and shelf, never returning to for a second viewing.

My rating of writer and director Stephanie Rothman's 1974 movie "The Working Girls" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Supposedly the only appealing thing in this movie is that Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) gets naked for the first and only time in her career. So they released this film on video calling it 'Elvira Naked'.Unfortunately, she is only in this movie for one scene and the naked appearance does not last long. Not to mention that she does not look as sexy as she does on her show and in the movies. The rest of this movie isn't even worth a shot on Mystery Science Theater 3000. And the other actors in this film should get jobs that fits their skills and intelligence.