Timothy Farrell (a character factor who was especially good at playing sleazebags) plays Umberto Scalli, a mobster who runs a variety of rackets. He uses women’s wrestling as a front for his operations. Farrell played the same character in the very entertaining Dance Hall Racket a couple of years later.
Scalli has been skimming off a lot of money from the rackets and now he’s in big trouble with the local Mr Big of organised crime, known as Mr Big. Mr Big wants Scalli to repay $35,000 pronto but Scalli doesn’t have the money and that could be real bad for his health if he can’t come up with a solution.
He tries various schemes to fix horse races and wrestling bouts but he discovers that lady wrestlers are proud women and they’re incorruptible.
Scalli has other problems. While he’s been cheating Mr Big his own employees have been cheating him. And his book-keeper is informing on him to Mr Big. So the last thing he needs at this point in time is to be dragged before a Senate committee but that’s the next misfortune that befalls him.
Scalli has just bought the contract of a buxom lady wrestler named Peaches Page (played by Peaches Page). Although the other girls try to warn Peaches she falls for Scalli anyway. She’s a nice girl but maybe a bit naïve. Scalli’s approach with women is painfully obvious but I guess that a lot of the girls who come into contact with him want to believe his lies.
A criticism often made of this movie is that there’s too much footage of women’s wrestling, or women practising their wrestling in the gym. What on earth is wrong with some people? The whole point of watching a movie like this is to see lady wrestlers wrestling. You just can’t please some people.
The acting is terrible of course (this was a true exploitation movie and thus even further down the food chain than Poverty Row B-pictures) but it’s the right kind of terrible acting for this sort of movie. It works for me. And Timothy Farrell is awesomely slimy. Peaches Page can’t really act but she has a certain presence, and she has the kind of body that men went nuts for in the 50s. The cast includes actual champion women wrestlers (or so we’re told and they certainly seem to know their stuff).
There are only about three sets and they’re basic to say the least. This is another odd criticism levied at this movie. These exploitation movies were made for next to nothing, certainly far less than even the cheapest Poverty Row B-movies, and on absurdly tight shooting schedules. Of course they look ultra-cheap. If you enjoy the exploitation movies of the 30s to the 50s then you’ll find that the cheapness is part of their charm. It makes them more fun.
This is the kind of movie that relies on promising subject matter that is more lurid and more sensational than the movie can actually deliver but that’s what exploitation films were all about. There’s zero nudity. There is however an atmosphere of hard-boiled sleaze which is rather appealing.
Writer-director Robert C. Dertano also helmed the absolutely fantastic 1954 juvenile delinquent flick Girl Gang (which is an absolute must-see and also features Timothy Farrell) so this is a guy with a definite knack for exploitation sleaze. That’s my kind of guy.
Alpha Video’s DVD release offers a very basic VHS-quality transfer and the sound is kinda scratchy at times. Given that it’s not very likely this movie is ever going to get a Special Edition Blu-Ray release and it’s not likely to ever get any restoration at all then if you want to see it the Alpha Video DVD is your only option. And it’s not like you’re missing out on appreciating any visual brilliance or any stunning cinematography.
Pin-Down Girl combines gangsters and lady wrestlers. Serious, what’s not to love about that? OK, as wrestling women movies go maybe it doesn’t have the inspired craziness of Mexican masterpieces like Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy but it’s still a great deal of disreputable fun. I recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment