The Roommates

I came across a blu ray double feature with this and A Woman For All Men (havent watched that 1 yet) and went in without knowing anything about the film, outside of the description on the back of the box. Overall the film looks remarkable, with vibrant colors, and good cinematography. Cast is all adequate-good as well. The plot is where things stumble, with a general incoherent sense about it, and far too many long takes of girls just awkwardly dancing to the 70s tunes (the music itself, while cheesy, was fun). Once things pick up, at about an hour in, it is definitely a fun ride, and sadly the violent finale is somewhat more poignant today, however the film as a whole was entertaining, and thus I give it a passable 6/10.

Tl:dr: looks good, cast is quality, jiggling ladies, and a wack ass story. Thumbs up, recommended.

The first time I saw Roommates a few weeks ago I thought it without merit and deserved only a 3. Probably this was due to having seen the eye-popping (don't ask) Beach Bunnies (1976) a couple of days before. Packaged as a sex film, it's hardly more daring than a 1960's Elvis Presley movie, a bit of a swindle. One reviewer reckons it has more sex than comedy, from which I can only surmise either he thought it entirely devoid of comedy or there are two versions and he saw the uncut one. On the second, more cerebral viewing I better appreciated the good points. Enjoyment of older low budget films can be blighted by that grainy, out of focus look, this picture is so sharp it could have been shot last year. And, like the scenery, the girls are easy on the eye, especially Brea and Carla. I rather felt the others were there to make up the quorum, though of course this is highly subjective. To digress, I only recently started reviewing films and by now all but the most abysmal or obscure have garnered at least a dozen reviews. This can make it hard to think of anything original to say. On the other hand it's likely someone has already delineated the story in some detail, obviating the need for any humdrum descriptive writing. That being the case here I will make just a couple more observations. While the story is not far fetched, neither is all of it believable. A real life Brea, taking the reputational and possibly legal risk of bedding a teenage boy, would surely have picked the confident and better looking (albeit conceited) Aaron over the mousy, tongue tied Harold. I guess we were supposed to think Harold rather sweet and so deserving the girl of his dreams. Which provokes the contrarian in me to see him rather as a bit of a wimp. I wonder if I'm alone in suspecting that elements of the murderers' modus operandi owe more to a famous Hitchcock scene than mere coincidence - no names, no spoilers.

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.

Carla (Marki Bey), Heather (Pat Woodell), Beth (Roberta Collins), and Brea (Laurie Rose) are four absolutely lovely young co-eds who head to the community of Lake Arrowhead for some R & R. The story mostly consists of their amorous adventures, while the activities of a psycho on the prowl form a major subplot.

Written by director Arthur Marks and actor John Durren (who plays the small role of Socks the biker), this is good, straightforward exploitation entertainment that has its cake and eats it too. By that, this viewer means that Marks & Durren combine some enlightened sexual politics - the four main characters are independent women who know their own minds - with diversions of the far more lurid kind. The script has some surprising wit going for it, although there are some pretty silly lines as well. The assets of the female cast are stressed whenever the opportunity presents itself. Also, our actresses are engaging and intelligent as well as being fine eye candy. Bey, in particular, shines.

Many of the men in this series of episodes are not exactly portrayed in the most flattering light. Lee (Ben Pfeiffer) is especially sleazy, the kind of guy who has no more need for a woman once he's gotten what he wants from her. David Moses is very likable as Mike, the rural cop who becomes instantly smitten with Carla (you can't blame him).

This is a very nicely shot movie that is simply gorgeous in more ways than one; Harry J. May performed the cinematography duties.

Look for appearances by Connie Strickland as a victim of the killer, and Juanita Brown & Uschi Digard in the orgy scene.

Seven out of 10.

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.