The Roommates

It's a shame that Arthur Marks' THE ROOMMATES is for the most part verrrrry hard to come by because it's one of his best! It's a hell of a lot better than CENTERFOLD GIRLS, that's for sure, and while it's no BONNIE'S KIDS, it is a unique blend of beautiful girls and 70s drive-in elements. While the four leading ladies only share one or two scenes together, this is typical of the four-independent-and-beautiful-twentysomethings subgenre of the drive-in. New World's NURSES and TEACHERS films, as well as THE STEWARDESSES and Al Adamson's rip-offs, featured beautiful girls who were friends, but their individual stories were followed more closely. The social politics of the time (the sexual revolution, women's lib) also play heavily in character development, as in the aforementioned films.

Marki Bey, who would soon become SUGAR HILL before becoming a featured player on "Starsky and Hutch", gives probably her finest performance as a smirking librarian who makes no apologies when she jumps from one man to another who catches her fancy. Pat Woodell, besides contributing a little nudity in a shower scene, is given little to do despite her star billing. She was the only established star of the cast, yet she's obviously not the character Marks was most interested in. Laurie Rose had the most varied career of the girls, from David Friedman skinflicks (ADULT VERSION OF JEKYLL AND HIDE) to Lee Frost sleaze (POLICEWOMEN) to Filipino action pics (THE HOT BOX). Here she is given probably her most interesting and sensitive character. Today she is a professional bellydancer and doesn't look on her past too highly, but she should at least be proud of her work in this film. Roberta Collins is the most vivacious of the quartet, and as evident in most of her films, is an adept comedienne who totally endears herself to the audience. How could anyone watching her films NOT fall in love with her? One of the strongest actresses of the 70s drive-in, she also handles dramatic scenes astonishingly well. Unbelievably, she never graduated to the bigger and better Hollywood roles she so richly deserved.

Also on-hand are two more popular drive-in beauties. Christina Hart (THE STEWARDESSES, JOHNNY FIRECLOUD) is a seemingly innocent cousin of Woodell's who turns out to be a conniving little sexpot who plans on having the swingingest summer of her life. Connie Strickland, the blonde bombshell from BUMMER!, appears in a small role as a vacationing water-skier who is the killer's first victim. Strickland didn't get to star in too many films, usually in small character roles; Marks would use her again in CENTERFOLD GIRLS. Look fast for Uschi Digart in an orgy scene and Albert Cole (THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT) as a biker!! ROOMMATES is a little slow-going. The first 15 minutes set-up the four best friends, who have lots of dialogue discussing their personal politics and establishing the two goofball comediennes (Marki Bey and Roberta Collins) and the more serious lasses (Pat Woodell and Laurie Rose). Following a wild party where Rose beats a jock in a sit-up contest, the girls take off for their summer vacation at a lovely resort. And all of a sudden, a charming comedy in the vein of SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS becomes a twisted killing-spree-whodunit with beautiful girls falling dead left and right (very much like the Sebastians' THE SINGLE GIRLS from the same year, or New World's NIGHT CALL NURSES and STUDENT TEACHERS). All four gals manage to pair up with respective male partners in-between the murders, and the film successfully jumps back and forth between these two very different parts.

I think The Hoyk's review below is a little off; Tarantino probably never saw this film (which was never available on home video and is still near impossible to find) so its influence on him is zero. Hopefully some DVD company will come along to rescue this one from obscurity and release it with appreciative extras with Marks and the six featured actresses and the tender loving care it deserves. It's not a four-star, solid 10 exploitation feature, but there is still plenty here to keep fans of 70s drive-in fare happy.

This super-obscure movie was recently shown at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX as part of its "Weird Wednesday" feature, and it was well worth doing a little traveling to catch it (if I remember correctly, the last time this movie played in theatres was as part of a double-bill with THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS, so you KNOW it's been a long, long time!). I enjoy grindhouse/drive-in ("Joe Bob Briggs-type") movies from the '70s, and THE ROOMMATES certainly fits the bill. The movie starts off as a cheesecake romp with four lovely college coeds finishing the school year and getting ready for some fun in the sun during their summer break. They have the requisite wild party (described by some as an "orgy" but consisting mainly of binge drinking, heavy petting, a strip chess game and the aforementioned sit-up contest) then go off on their summer adventures (more or less separately, but all at or near Lake Arrowhead). Heather (Pat Woodell, the original Bobbie Jo Bradley from PETTICOAT JUNCTION) takes it easy at the family summer home along with her visiting younger cousin Paula (Christina Hart). They discover a young man camping out on the property and allow him to stay in a shed in exchange for chopping and gathering firewood. Carla (Marki Bey) works at a local library and catches the fancy of the deputy sheriff (not to mention some leering library patrons), Beth (Roberta Collins) works alongside a waterskiing instructor and pursues a relationship with a married man, and Brea (Laurie Rose) is a nurse at a summer camp and takes a somewhat sheltered teenage boy under her wing. As mentioned in other reviews, giving each girl her own separate story line was pretty much standard formula at the time for these movies, then once the summer adventures were well underway the film veers sharply and introduces a crazed killer who starts bumping off beautiful women at the lake. The individual stories continue as the summer goes on, leading to a frenzied climax at a country club gathering. Fans of '70s movies will love the wild clothes and hairstyles, and while the music is rather simplistic and minimal (reminiscent of background music from an early 70s diet cola commercial) it's still fun. Throw in some super-cheesy dialogue, a rather dysfunctional family who run a resort hotel, some biker thugs and several lecherous middle-aged men with a preference for jailbait and you've got one far-out, funky flick! THE ROOMMATES drew a pretty decent crowd at the Alamo Drafthouse (mainly college-age and mid-to-late 20s) and although the print was quite scratchy and the color didn't age well at all it got a pretty favorable response from everyone. It was great seeing everyone enjoying and really getting into a freewheeling movie from a bygone era, and they certainly don't make 'em like THE ROOMMATES anymore! Looking forward to the DVD release in 2009 from Dark Sky Films!

Near the opening, it shows two of the women in a public shower, showing some skin while having a conversation about how nature's natural beauty shouldn't be exploited... but that's exactly what they're of course doing by flashing their boobs for the camera in a cheap film, so the hypocrisy is quite funny. They probably thought if they showed two women at least sounding intelligent and talking about politics, then they could get back to the real business of showing their boobs and exploiting them. How weird but hey man, that was the 70's.

Pat Woodell is in it and is of course beautiful and smart. It's sort of too bad she never did more in the way of quality work because she had the talent and the looks, however she probably did the intelligent thing by getting out of showbiz.

I won't bother describing what happens because others have mentioned the details, but if you like funny, campy movies, then this one will probably not disappoint.

I mostly agree with The Hoyt's review except where he says initially that "this is not a very good movie" and that Arthur Marks had "low standards." Marks was, IMO, an underrated exploitation master and "The Roommates," while perhaps not as good overall as "Bonnie's Kids" or some of his other films, is nonetheless a great, lost drive-in classic that screams the 70's.

The 70s hair. The clothes. The beauty. The music. The drama. The sex. The murder. The comedy.

It's all there, in ample proportions. If only my summer jobs during college were half as exciting (LOL).

Entertaining and worth seeking out at any cost for fans of the genre.

Okay, right off the bat, this is not one of the better exploitation movies, even by the reliable standards of Arthur Marks as director. (See DETROIT 9000 or BONNIE'S KIDS or his numerous TV show episodes for evidence of his good work) But it's strangely endearing, despite the fact that it takes nearly half an hour for the actual plot of the movie to begin. Four very lovely, vivacious, and unrealistically loquacious college girls (five, if you count the visiting cousin) are off to their summer jobs. Despite the title, we rarely see any actual footage of any of these girls co-habitating. Then again, Bette Davis loved to point out that there were no whales in THE WHALES OF AUGUST, so what's in a title? And naturally, since this is the swingin' '70's, all those jobs put them in the vicinity of eligible men. So for the first half hour, it plays like a reasonably harmless, fluffy, "what I did last summer" romp. Then, two reels in, things take a curve, because people start getting killed. And by the rigid movie law governing murder mysteries, somebody, be it one of the babes or one of the beaus, is responsible. Of course, that little detail doesn't get in the way of the girls' continuing drive to party. In short, by our standards of irony, this movie is review-proof: you're going to be watching this for hot girls and archaic sexual mores, and you'll get 'em. I kinda wonder if Quentin Tarantino has seen this film and is a fan of it. He did acquire Marks' DETROIT 9000 for reissue, and his script for FROM DUSK TILL DAWN also starts out as one kind of movie and changes into another. I wouldn't be surprised if my hunch turned out correct.