Ça cogne et ça rigole chez les routiers

Don't expect this sleazy Drive-in gem to show up at a high-brow awards ceremony. Nonetheless, it's got everything needed for a camp classic: naked women, non-stop action, monster trucks, some high-speed fornication, and even a few surprises. And, wow, where did actress Dressler (Anna) come from. Her gargoyle boss-woman dominates the screen like none of the many ugly guys, and kept me wishing for more of Jennings' lovely eye relief. And how about all that dry New Mexico scenery with its ghost-town from heck- I sure hope the crew took a canteen with them. So, will Anna be able to keep her truck-stop brothel locally owned or will the eastern Mafia gobble it up. After all the long-haul guys do need occasional relief. More importantly, which side will Rose, Anna's rebellious daughter, end up taking, now that she's charmed by a snazzy eastern suit. Anyway, I didn't see the ending coming and a provocative one it is. In my little book, a zany flick like this is hard to rate, but if you're in the mood to dodge monster trucks, duck flying bullets, shower with naked girls, and follow a pacing that never drags, then give it a try.

This movie is as authentic as it gets, as far as 70s B movies go. It's got plenty of gratuitous nudity, violence, tacky locales, slimy bad guys, and ubiquitous vulgarity. In other words, everything that makes these sorts of movies such a guilty pleasure.

The setting for this film, takes place in a dusty, out-of-the way town in New Mexico. A woman named Anna, runs a truck stop/diner/motel there. It's just a front though, for Anna's smuggling operation. With the help of her bodacious daughter Rose (played by Claudia Jennings), Anna and her henchmen waylay truckers on the road, steal their trucks, and then repaint them.

Anna does okay, running her smuggling ring for a while. But then some east coast mafia types, decide that they want to take over Anna's territory. The head mobster takes an interest in Rose, and tries to seduce her away from working with Anna. Rose is tempted by the city-slicker mobster, and his offer of a lucrative partnership with her.

Rose tries to undermine Anna and rebels against her, as Rose gets in deeper and deeper with her mobster beau. It's up to Anna and her partners, to try and turn Rose back to Anna's side, while fighting to keep the mobsters from taking over her smuggling ring.

Claudia is in a supporting role as Anna's daughter Rose. It's not her best movie. But Claudia sure has the physique and the fiery charisma, to portray the sexy, renegade Rose. Only Lieux Dressler as Anna, gives as compelling a performance as Claudia does. The rest of the cast is basically forgettable.

Truck Stop Women is tacky, campy, 70s B movie fun. It's a real loose-cannon, of a 70s low-budget film. Fans of Claudia Jennings, won't be disappointed.

This is a pretty decent 70's drive-in flick featuring the undisputed queen of 70's drive-in cinema, Claudia Jennings. Claudia and her hard-as-nails mother run a truck-stop brothel in New Mexico which they use as a base to get information on valuable loads that they can later hijack by pretending to be stranded female motorists (the sight of Jennings in short-shorts or hot pants is obviously enough to make any male driver slam on his brakes), hitting the poor guys over the head, and stealing their trucks. Jennings grows tired of her domineering mother, however, and teams up with a slick East Coast Mafioso who is trying to take over the operation. This leads to a violent show-down between the rural hicks and the "citified" urban mobsters.

This movie contains a lot of violence, exciting car chases (actually semi-truck chases) and general rural mayhem. There is plenty of topless-ness (if an unfortunate dearth of bottomless-ness) by Claudia and her female cohorts. For some reason the main mobster played by John Martino is named "Smith" (perhaps because this was the era of the so-called "Italian-American Anti-Defamation League",ironically created by infamous mob boss Joe Colombo), but he is nevertheless still the complete Italian Mafia stereotype("Fuggedbaboutit"!). Busty bimbo Uschi Degert has her best role ever--she isn't fully dressed for one minute of it but doesn't utter a word of dialogue (lest viewers wonder what a thickly-accented Swedish immigrant is doing in rural New Mexico). Director Mark Lester does a good Cormanesque job of combining feisty feminism with gratuitous sexism (and frankly it's a lot more believable to see a woman like Jennings use her feminine wiles so she can conk a guy over the head with a crowbar than it is to see Peta Wilson or some other 100 lb. fashion model beating up musclebound guys three times their size with martial arts like in today's version of these faux feminist movies).

I would recommend ANY movie with Claudia Jennings, but this is one of her best

A great piece of early 70's film: this gem has it all.

Some special moments:

•The beautiful Claudia Jennings in go-go boots or naked throughout most of the film!

•The truckin' music video inserted about mid film!

•The overt violence peppered throughout (from the opening execution in a bathtub, to the final battle featuring machine gun toting hookers and lots of tragic death)... all set to some great CB-era country music and a few bit that they had left over from "Land of the Lost"!

•The southern New Mexico locations that cradle our heroes in their struggle!

•The turncoat, Seago, getting trampled by 30 head of cattle in the back of a weaving truck!

Any way you slice it, this movie has it all. Sex, violence, bad acting, found locations, and a wacky plot that just keeps coming. I watch it often and inflict it on friends as a sort of, "bad-movie baptism".

As long as I can watch Truck Stop Women, Gator Bait, and Unholy Rollers, Ms. Jennings will not be forgotten.

I can't think of any titles that fit 1970s drive in movies better than "Truck Stop Women". It immediately brings to mind women, trucks, and bad acting. If it were not for Claudia Jennings, this film would have been long buried with the thousands like it. Besides the snappy title and Claudia Jennings, the movie does have some lively country and western songs, but that's about it. You get the expected nudity and truck chases, but surprisingly no explosions (guess it wasn't in the budget). "Truck Stop Women" is truly a 1970s curiosity, that has somehow survived. This will never be confused with a good movie, but is watchable right up to the surprise ending, due to the presence of Claudia Jennings. - MERK