Cover Girl Models

Though it's competently-made (for the most part), this otherwise tacky action-comedy from producer Roger Corman and New World Pictures is meant to be a sexy T&A spy flick--but neither the T nor the A is very enticing. In a cameo as the leggy editor of Ultra magazine, Corman-mainstay Mary Woronov gives the picture its best five minutes. She sends her photographer to Hong Kong to shoot three girls for the next cover; he's assigned two professional models and another girl of his choosing--a naïve, clumsy fashion assistant with a bad perm. The movie cobbles together stray ingredients--a roll of secret microfilm, a travel agent trained in karate--with fashion shoot montages (in slow-motion!), as well as the three ladies in and out of their clothes. Frankly, I kept waiting for Woronov to fly to Hong Kong to give this turkey a kick in the A. NO STARS from ****

Before Roger and wife Julie Corman's full-fledged New World production SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS, tall blonde beauty Pat Anderson and intense brunette Rhonda Hopkins played COVER GIRL MODELS...

Which wasn't made but distributed by Corman, who sent many production companies (including his own) to the Philippines for low-budget exploitation ranging from female prison flicks to what COVER GIRL MODELS quickly shapes into...

A kind of James Bond flick with chicks in the lead, and not really a spoof since the microfilm plot involving villain Vic Diaz vs helpful karate hero Tony Ferrer can get dangerous while the most lightweight aspect's in Corman regular Tara Strohmeier (quickly replacing the diva-like Hopkins): beginning as a naive, endearingly sweet and clumsy model's assistant before becoming one herself, attached to handsome photographer (and her TRUCK TURNER co-star) John Kramer...

Yet the real scene-stealer's future spunky TV-actress Lindsay Bloom (who'd play Stacy Keach as Mike Hammer's secretary Velda), not fitting as much as either Pat Anderson or Tara, both usually game for lots of Corman nudity...

During the central overseas photo-shoot and fashion show, Bloom's quirky peroxide-blonde keeps trying to land a role for a fat-cat producer, who said models cannot be actresses, a kind of in-joke since she's particularly natural and effective: accidentally going undercover before winding up a hostage to gun-wielding thugs...

Making COVER GIRL MODELS both a three-women Corman style sexy-adventure (actually produced/directed by Cirio H. Santiago) and a crime flick exploitation hybrid, that, backed by a groovy xylophone lounge-jazz-score, works much better than intended or expected.

"Cover Girl Models" is one film without much of a plot it's just a vice a feel good story of action and skin with some sexy nude female scenes and sex. Three Young fashion models go to Hong Kong with hopes of shining in a fashion show only to be crashed upon by bad guys. The action is okay still the eye candy of attractive ladies and skin scenes dominate. Overall a cult picture to watch if you enjoyed this kind of stuff from the 70's otherwise it's nothing really great.

When the name of Cirio H. Santiago is listed, you know it'll be bad exploitation trash. If you're lucky it's action-packed and entertaining bad exploitation ("Death Force", Equalizer 2000", "Stryker"), but most of the time - alas - it's just plain bad exploitation; - period ("Demon of Paradise", "Future Hunters", "Vampire Hookers"). Based on my 2/10 rating, it's needless to say "Cover Girl Models" belongs in the plain bad category. There's absolutely nothing remarkable about this dull flick. A photographer takes three beautiful models to Hong Kong for a series of nudie shoots (and that's exactly the footage Santiago uses as filler for about ¾ of the film) and they accidentally become involved in a criminal espionage network. Mary Woronov has a sexy cameo at the beginning and Vic Diaz appears as one of the bad guys, like in every flick ever shot in The Philippines, but nothing helps to make it even remotely interesting. Maybe it was a must-see in the late 70s, because our leading ladies Pat Anderson, Lindsay Bloom, and Tara Strohmeier have luscious curves and show plenty of bare skin, but you can find that all around the internet nowadays.

This movie is quite simply horrible.

I only watched it because Mary Woronov was in it. Barely in it.

It's mostly shot overseas -- Singapore. No on can act and the story is just too silly to keep your interest.

Besides Mary, there is another woman, whose name I can't place but whose face is familiar from Grind house flicks of the 70's.

Unfortunately this movie isnt really grindhouse by any standard. It's just a dull exercise in bad acting, bad directing and bad writing.

I'm not familiar with the director but apparently, based on some other reviews, he has a history of making slow tiresome movies.