...All the Marbles (1981)

Iris (Vicki Frederick) and Molly (Laurene Landon) are the California Dolls traveling the country with their hard-nosed manager Harry Sears (Peter Falk) to wrestle in rundown events. The girls try to do it seriously but money is tight and life on the road is a struggle. Sleazy promoter Eddie Cisco (Burt Young) shorts the girls $20 and Harry takes a bat to his Mecedes. In the end, he comes to them with a title fight.On the surface, one would think this is a simple T&A B-movie of the era but it's actually a good movie about an unconventional family. I really love their relationship. The actual wrestling isn't quite as interesting. It's questionable whether that many people would watch serious women's wrestling. It would be more like a carnival sideshow or WWF in the old days. All that aside, this is a great family unit to watch.

How can you not enjoy Peter Falk carting around two very feisty lady wrestlers? Robert Aldrich directed this witty cross between ROCKY & THE KANSAS CITY BOMBER. Falk is the not very good but extremely enthusiastic manager of sexy wrestlers Vicki Frederick & Laurene Landon (aka The California Dolls). The three travel from one dingy arena to another as the Dolls try for the big time in Reno. Falk is hilarious, basically acting like Peter Falk. Landon, and especially Frederick are not only sexy, they're smart, funny and tough as nails, both in and out of the ring. They're never made to look anything but smarter than the rowdy audiences who come to see them. They're in on the joke! This is a very funny, very affectionate road film with very likable characters. Burt Young is a mean-spirited & ruthlessly stingy wrestling promoter. Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi from THE GODFATHER & a one-time wrestler himself) gets a lot of laughs as Young's morally superior bodyguard. The script by Mel Frohman and others is full of priceless one-liners.

No need to recap the plot since the movie's really a character study.The girls, Iris and Molly, are sure a long way from the helpless female. I pity any mugger who tries to mug one. Those body slams on canvas sound like hammers hitting anvil, and catch how effortlessly they pick one another up. Oh sure, I know it's all choreographed, but still the girls are real athletes. Can't say the same for their manager Harry (Falk). His main job appears to be checking them into flea-bitten motels, driving a smog belching junk heap, and touring the girls through every tank town in the country. That is, when he's not cursing somebody out. They're quite a team, but despite it all, kind of admirable in their dedication.This is the American Dream at the lowest level of show biz, so we know why they have to be tough. However, I'm still wondering whether to call this a comedy or not. It's got its funny moments, but it's also sad at times and poignant too. Two-thirds of the time, the girls are bitchin' at Harry for his latest scam, but somehow they're all hitched to the same uncertain star and they know it. There're times, however, when the screenplay rambles enough you may think it was put together in the dark. Nonetheless, these are characters you won't soon forget, and if the movie's beyond categorizing, it's also oddly entertaining.All in all, it's an unusual swan song for that fine macho movie-maker Robert Aldrich to go out on.

Nice film with Peter Falk (RIP) ...I had seen it before, years ago, didn't remember it though...except the mud wrestling scene and that hot "Iris" aka Vicki Frederick - wow!I wonder why Frederick didn't make it to a bigger star, she certainly had the looks and talent to be a real 80's sweetheart/hottie...The movie is a sort of a mixed bag, divided between t&a of female wrestling scenes and story about them trying to make it...perhaps with too much wrestling/backstory depending on one's point of view... The last wrestling scene was something like 20 minutes long, a bit too much perhaps. But I have to say wrestling was well made and ladies were fit, so no big problem, entertaining fair nevertheless.I liked the 70's feel of it, reminded me a bit about Rocky...well it did have "Paulie" in it. And Columbo, in quite a different role, pulling a fine performance as a sleazy manager. And of course according to this film, wrestling is all real, not a show. Ha! Wonderful find.7.5/10