The Roommates (1973)

That was an excellent one.

So much average

Absolutely the worst movie.

A Disappointing Continuation

This movie begins with two attractive young ladies by the names of "Beth" (Roberta Collins) and "Carla" (Marki Bey) in their bikinis on the beach and talking. The next scene introduces two more young ladies named "Heather" (Pat Woodell) and "Brea" (Laurie Rose) taking a shower prior to meeting Beth and Carla to discuss their plans for their upcoming summer vacation. Eventually, they all agree to go to Lake Arrowhead but not necessarily together. Heather has invited her cousin, "Paula" (Christina Hart) to spend some time with her at her house near the lake while Brea has accepted a job as a nurse at nearby Camp Wanachee. Beth, on the other hand, wants to spend time at the lake with her new boyfriend "Nick" (Daryl Stevens). Likewise, although Carla has accepted a summer job at the local library she also plans on spending some time at the lake as well. Anyway, as things are progressing like one might expect, the movie takes a sudden turn at around the 40-minute mark and the comedy morphs into a slasher film when a serial killer emerges and begins to kill some of the females at the beach. Although it was all rather sudden and unexpected, I suppose it was a turn in the right direction as the comedy wasn't too sharp to begin with. Even so, the director (Arthur Marks) wasn't able to keep the mystery going for too long and as a result the movie regressed even further from there. The worst part, however, was the dialogue which was about as bad as anything I have ever witnessed. This clearly affected the acting as only Pat Woodell managed to turn in anything resembling an adequate performance. That being said, about the only thing going for this film was the presence of the lovely actresses just mentioned and I have rated this movie accordingly as it simply lacked cohesion.

Unlike other reviewers here praising THE ROOMMATES, I was a regular drive- in fan in the early '70s and can attest to the fact that not only was this Arthur Marks film not successful in that market, but it was not competitive at all with the other distributors' fare.This was an era when often sleazy but very entertaining R and Soft X movies were being released by prominent companies like New World (Roger Corman's at the time), Crown Intl. (later to hit big with THE POM POM GIRLS), Hemisphere (lots of Filipino-lensed exploitation films), Harry Novak's Box office International (and its Buckalew titles) and of course AIP. Below I will enumerate many of the shortcomings of ROOMMATES.First, its overwritten script is mired in previous decades: the key subplot of a mother persecuting her young son ("introducing Gary Warren Mascaro as Arnie") is right out of the '50s, poorly played and when finally revealed as a maniacal killer just a ripoff from Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert's Z-Man of BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.Scenes of untalented bands and cast dancing around look like an early '60s movie, and much of the action set around a camp is puerile crap reminiscent of beach party movies from AIP a decade earlier.The heroines are poorly used, and the pederast daddy of Arnie bedding down two of them is really a throwback. Except for a peeping scene and a mercy- hump (by beautiful Laurie Rose), the campers get lost in the shuffle.Light and airy tone suddenly and unconvincingly turning to melodrama with the serial killer is climaxed by an extremely poorly staged massacre and neutralization of Arnie by the kindly deputy who is lead Marki Bey's lame black-on-black romantic interest. The red herring (previous closeup emphasis) of "lady" killer with orange nail polish = Arnie was particularly irritating.After the massacre, this poorly directed, way overlong film goes immediately back to business as usual, with the heroines' reaction to mayhem being one of idle bemusement. I was fortunate not to have this stinker from unsuccessful distributor General Film Corp. booked anywhere near me in the '70s, and catching up with it on DVD, replete with self-serving comments by the director, was merely a reminder of dozens of far better movies that delighted us fans in cars (as well as the many bikers who populated the front of the Drive-In parking area) back then.

This movie has been unavailable in any form for many years. Short of driving down to the original Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas when they did the occasional repertory showing, there has simply been no way for most people to see it. Now that has changed with a long-awaited DVD release. And it was actually worth the wait. It isn't that this is a brilliantly conceived movie by master filmmakers, or conversely, that it's one of those largely mythical "so-bad-it's-good" films, but it's one where all the elements just happily gel together in a near-perfect exploitation romp.The format of the story involves four sex college-age girls, who are not all technically "roommates", but are spending summer vacation together in two lakeside houses. The girls each have individual adventures. The black girl (Marki Bey) works at a library and is torn between two lovers, a jealous white stud and a heroic black sheriff's deputy. The blonde girl (Roberta Collins) has a fling with a recent divorced older man. The brunette (Pat Woodell) is supposed to be "babysitting" her younger cousin (Christina Hart), but they BOTH get involved with a middle-aged womanizer and his troubled teenage son. The last and sexiest girl (Laurie Rose) becomes a nurse at a boy's camp where she helps out a bullied male virgin (although not so much with the bullying part). These separate stories follow the formula established by Roger Corman/New Line in the early 70's with his "Nurse" movies, but this film does not have the ham-handed attempts at humor or the dated and often annoying faux-feminist politics of the Corman-produced films. Instead it has a giallo-esque killer wandering around picking off the secondary female characters--which is actually a lot more fun.The movie actually spends more time creating various red herrings than it does on the murders (they should have called the lake Lake Red Herring), and the identity of the murderer ends up being rather perfunctory and obvious. But the mystery-killer plot does avoid some of the borderline misogyny that mars some of the other films produced by Arthur Marks in that era like "Centerfold Girls" and "Bonnie's Kids". This falls between the pseudo-feminist preaching and the sleazy misogyny of the low-budget 70's era into a happy medium of truly enjoyable exploitation.The five girls, of course, really make the movie. Marki Bey is the best actress. Roberta Collins would have the most substantial exploitation career (although she is somewhat wasted here). TV actress Pat Woodell is serviceable. The best two though are Laurie Rose and Christina Hart. Rose is probably the closest to being a purely softcore sexploitation actress, so not surprisingly she has the most nude scenes, but her acting is actually quite good here. Christina Hart plays a character that alternates between a naive innocent and a malicious young tease (similar to Robin Mattson in "Bonnie's Kids"). She is incredibly sexy even with her clothes on. I'd highly recommend this one.

Heather, Beth, Carla, Brea, and Heather's cousin Paula are five lovely and carefree young ladies who decide to spend their summer vacation at Lake Arrowhead. While at Lake Arrowhead the women hit the local party circuit and get involved with various guys in the area. Things go awry when the gals find themselves the targets of a mysterious murderer.Director Arthur Marks, who also co-wrote the racy script with John Durren, keeps the eventful and entertaining story moving along at a zippy pace, neatly captures the breezy'n'easy vibe of the 70's swinging singles scene, maintains an engagingly playful and lighthearted sensibility for the first two thirds between switching to a more serious and gritty tone in the last third, delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty female nudity, and pulls out all the exciting stops for a wild climactic shooting spree. Moreover, it's acted with tremendous charm and zest by a topflight cast of 70's exploitation cinema starlets: Pat Woodell as the snippy Heather, the always delightful Roberta Collins as the sassy Beth, Marki Bey as the sharp and spirited Carla, an especially vibrant and personable Laurie Rose as the perky Brea, and Christina Hart as the bubbly Paula. In addition, there are sturdy contributions from Barbara Fuller as the bitter Sylvie, David Moses as the friendly Mike, and Ken Scott as smooth womanizing cad Marty. Connie Strickland has a small role as the ill-fated Alice while Uschi Digard pops up (and out) for a quick topless cameo. Harry J. May's sunny cinematography provides an attractive bright look. The funky-chillin' music hits the get-down groovy spot. A really fun flick.