Year: 1976
Duration: 01:22:38
Directed by: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante
Actors: Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, George Wagner
Language: English
Country: USA
Also known as: The Starlets, Leoforos ‘Hollywood’, Esas locas del cine
Description: Personal rip and my fave from Roger Corman. Fun flick showing a b-movie crew makin’ all sorts of cheesy/stupid/fun flicks, with…thee almighty Dick Miller (Delinquent School Girls) as the company owner! I highly recommend this, hands down. Produced by Roger Corman, this was Allan Arkush and Joe Dante’s first feature film. Country gal Candice Rialson arrives in Hollywood with stars in her eyes and falls in with the folks at Miracle Pictures. The skittery plot eventually settles down into a whodunit about stuntwomen getting mysteriously bumped off. Shot in ten days with stock footage stitched from such Corman classics as The Terror, Big Doll House and Death Race 2000.
Review: As reward for pumping juice into chintzy trailer after chintzy trailer, coming-attractions cutters Joe Dante and Allan Arkush got the chance to tag-team their own New World Pictures venture from padrone Roger Corman. The result was this raunchy, big-hearted spoof of grindhouse filmmaking, energized by tons of film-buff glee and ’70s porn goofiness, to say nothing of self-reflexibility. Country gal Candice Rialson arrives in Hollywood with stars in her eyes and falls in with the folks at Miracle Pictures (“If it’s a good picture, it’s a Miracle” ), including riding crop-toting helmer Paul Bartel and inimitable diva Mary Woronov, out in the Phillipines slapping together their latest opus, called Machete Maidens of Moratau. The skittery plot eventually settles down into a whodunit about stuntwomen getting mysteriously bumped off, though the stream of lowdown gags seldom slows down — starlets parading their tits, Dick Miller in hipster-sleazo mode, cameos by Godzilla and Robby the Robot, Rialson’s roll in the hay with put-upon writer Jeffrey Kramer serenaded by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airman. Shot in ten days with stock footage stitched from such Corman classics as The Terror, The Big Doll House and Death Race 2000, the film’s shared directing credits is hardly a case of dueling auteurs: much of its raucousness can be attributed to Arkush (Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), though its fondness for cultural detritus and Tashlinesque critique/celebration of American pop are easily traceable to the Dante of Gremlins and Small Soldiers. With Rita George, Richard Doran, Tara Strohmeier, and lots of in-jokey bits
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