The Working Girls (1974)

Director:

Stephanie Rothman

Writer:

Stephanie Rothman (writer)

Release Date:

October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

They'll do anything for money!

Plot:

Honey comes to Los Angeles to seek her new lifestyle, but is flat broke. She gets a place to stay with Denise and Jill...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Roommate | Money | Beautiful Woman | Apartment

Cast

Sarah Kennedy	...	Honey
Laurie Rose	...	Denise
Mark Thomas	...	Nick
Lynne Guthrie	...	Jill
Ken Del Conte	...	Mike
Solomon Sturges	...	Vernon
Gene Elman	...	Sidney
Mary Beth Hughes	...	Mrs. Borden
Lou Tiano	...	Lou
Cassandra Peterson	...	Katya
Bob Schott	...	Roger

Also Known As:

Elvira Naked (USA) (video box title)

Runtime:

USA:81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:R

Movie Connections:

Featured in Famous T & A (1982) (V)

Soundtrack:

It All Depends on Me

Mixed Messages

This is one of a number of Roger Corman produced drive-in movies from the 70's that focused on the lives and loves of various "career" women and attempted to take the traditional T and A sexploitation formula of the time and inject it with half-a**ed feminist themes. Like many of these other films (i.e. "The Student Teachers", "Candy Stripe Nurses") this movie offers some incredibly mixed messages. The main heroine, Honey, for instance, is a complete bimbo with a truly annoying voice. In a normal T and A flick she'd only be there to take her clothes off, but she doesn't here. Instead she flirts with contract killing, gets paid to talk to a reclusive billionaire (I'd pay her NOT to talk to me), and eventually reveals a talent for the stock market (even though she is as dumb as a box of rocks). Her roommate is a struggling artist, and in an interesting role reversal, it is her various male models that have the nude scenes. The third roommate, Jill, becomes a waitress and stripper (it is her and another stripper, played by Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, who provide all the female nudity). She eventually becomes manager of the club and has a torrid affair with a handsome mafioso who is shaking the place down. He beats her up (when her roommates ask he her what happened, she says she was "fighting on the Italian front"), but incredibly, they part on good terms. Talk about mixed messages.

In its defense, however, this movie really isn't that bad or all that unbelievable (aside from the annoying Honey character). It does honestly portray a lot of the confusion that was being experienced at that time in the so-called Sexual Revolution. And while it's mixed messages probably didn't endear it to either feminists or the male raincoat brigade, it is vastly preferable to Corman's later "feminist" films which usually feature Maria Ford or Julie Strain beating up muscular guys while wearing nothing but a g-string. (This film is a cinematic feminist thesis by comparison). It was also directed by Stephanie Rothman, one of the first female exploitation directors who helmed a couple of interesting WIP flicks, "Terminal Island" and "Sweet Sugar", and one honest-to-god good movie, "The Velvet Vampire". You could do worse I guess.