It's got roller skating! And fighting! And sex! And ping pong! Wait, ping pong? Yes, shot from the table's POV, no less. Vernon Zimmerman gives it everything he's got for this tale of a hometown girl who wants to be a brutal roller derby star. He has to give it everything he's got because producer Roger Corman didn't give him any budget to speak of. Unholy Rollers (1972), is an epic roller derby comedy from the always reliable American International Pictures (AIP), produced by James H. Nicholson and Roger Corman. There may not have been much money on hand, but they delivered a finished product every time and, in the process, gave an onsite education to dozens of the most famous and successful filmmakers of the 1960s, '70s and '80s

Unholy Rollers stars Claudia Jennings, a former Playboy Playmate turned actress. Actually, she'd been acting for a while after first doing theater in high school. The Playboy gig only happened because she was a receptionist with the magazine and when she was offered several grand for a photo shoot, she saw it as an opportunity to pocket some cash and go to Hollywood. She did, although mostly Jennings got small parts on episodic television like Ironside and The Brady Bunch before landing film roles. That's when AIP came along. It turns out her gig with Playboy turned out to be bigger than expected. She became the top Playboy model of the decade and parlayed that into starring roles in low-budget movies like Unholy Rollers.

Unholy Rollers follows Jennings as Karen Walker, a girl with dreams of competing professionally in the roller derby. The sport was invented in the 1930s and saw a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s. Men and women in roller skates would race around a track smashing into each other while trying to lap the other team. They also beat the living daylights out of each other every chance they get. In fact, there's even a breakdown of where the fights take place in the movie. The players are reminded that all fights should take place in optimal viewing locations for the crowd. You see, no one really cares who laps who, they just want to see some good old-fashioned bloodshed. Ah, America.

Vernon Zimmerman came to Unholy Rollers with only a few credits under his belt but one of them, Deadhead Miles (1973), written by Terrence Malick, produced by Tony Bill, and starred Alan Arkin.. While Unholy Rollers, written and directed by Zimmerman specifically for drive-ins, he had greater success later with Fade to Black, a now classic horror satire made in 1980 starring Dennis Christopher and a young Mickey Rourke.

Claudia Jennings remained a popular model throughout the '70s but never crossed over into mainstream Hollywood roles. Late in the decade, producer Aaron Spelling was looking to replace Kate Jackson on tv's Charlie's Angels and Jennings was under consideration. She did not get the part but she did continue acting in B movies. Sadly, her life ended tragically when she was in a head-on collision on the Pacific Coast Highway in 1979 and died at the age of 29.

Director: Vernon Zimmerman
Screenplay: Howard Cohen (story and screenplay), Vernon Zimmerman (story)
Producers: Jack Bohrer, Roger Corman, James H. Nicholson, John Prizer
Music: Kendall Schmidt, Bobby Hart
Cinematography: Michael Shea
Film Editing: George Trirogoff, Yeu-Bun Yee Art Direction: Spencer Quinn
Costume Design: Cornelia McNamara
Cast: Claudia Jennings (Karen Walker), Louis Quinn (Mr. Stern), Betty Anne Rees (Mickey), Roberta Collins (Jennifer), Alan Vint (Greg), Candice Roman (Donna), Jay Varela (Nick), Charlene Jones (Beverly Brayton)

By Greg Ferrara