User Reviews

There couldn't be more perfect MST3K fodder if Mike and the Bots directed it themselves. Lame and directionless plot, unapologetic and endless reuse of footage, molasses-in-January pacing, production values that would make Roger Corman wince, gratuitous sexuality from intensely unsexy women, ultra-doofy characters...oh yeah, and it's a SPECIAL INTEREST PICTURE ABOUT WOMEN'S WRESTLING IN THE FIFTIES.

Well, at least it starts that way. You will catch nary a glimpse of dull-witted, mammoth-chested "protagonist" (the movie doesn't really have one) wrestler Peaches in the closing act, as the screenplay (like a rambling, senile old man) has decided to focus its attention on the sleazy promoter and his downfall at the hands of a gangster scintillatingly named "Mr. Big." Thus, the film degenerates from campy fiftiesdom into grade-Z noir.

I bestow upon this picture the greatest of all honors--a 1 out of 10. Plenty of schlocky black-and-white pictures get compared to the illustrious Ed Wood's work--this is the rare one that actually merits the comparison. It's pure gold.

You would think that although "Pin Down Girls" (aka "Racket Girls") would be a cheap exploitation film, it would have a lot of excitement and perhaps some sexy action. Well, this assumption would be 100% wrong, as the film is far from exciting and about sexy as watching your granny getting a sponge bath!

The film stars 'Peaches' Page (as more or less herself) and Timothy Farrell (an actor in such prestige pictures as Ed Wood's "Glen or Glenda" and "Jailbait"!). Peaches is a wrestler who comes to work for Mr. Scalli (Farrell)--not realizing he's a cheap crook who owes the mob big time. There really isn't much more to the plot than that. In fact, the plot, such as it is, only takes up a tiny portion of the film. Most of it consists of lady wrestling matches--very, very dull ones. The matches lack dialog or narration and there is no incidental music during these scenes. Instead, there are lots of sound effects which seem to be random and having nothing to do with wrestling! Also, if you are expecting lots of sexy ladies and hair pulling and the like, don't hold your breath! It mostly consists of unattractive ladies tossing each other about with absolutely no sense of showmanship or style. If this is what the sport looked like at the time, I can't see how it was one of the most popular shows on early television (which it was).

Aside from being very dull, the film is a technical mess. Too often, shots appeared random and irrelevant. The acting (when there was any) was pretty bad and the whole thing looks like an Ed Wood sort of picture--cheap, dull and non-professional. Sadly, this is a bad film but not an enjoyable bad film to watch. There is no spark or excitement to reward the viewer--just lots of nothing of any particular interest. Amazingly bland and stupid.

"Racket Girls" purports to be a searing inside look at the seamy side of Women's Professional Wrestling. So instead of "High School Confidential", we get "Head Lock Confidential".

Heh, I slay me.

Anyway, "Racket Girls" features a whole lot of mannish women rassling the hell out of each other. This might seem like an intriguing prospect to those of you (I won't name names - you know who you are) that found erotic possibilities in those goofy soft-core 'catfighting' picture collections that were on the newsstands 30 years ago.

Naaah. Imagine Captain Lou Albano vs. Mad Dog Raschon, only 150 lbs lighter and with boobs. Film it in grainy black and white and subtract all the showbiz gimmicks and any decent stunts. You would watch this kind of action in order to punish yourself for having indecent thoughts.

The plot? Well, "Racket Girls" follows the career of up-and-coming wrestler "Peaches" Page as she struggles for success and recognition. Peaches has a nice hair-do, a huge rack, impeccably plucked and shaped eyebrows, and an expression of amiable and invincible stupidity. She is the best thing about the film.

"Racket Girls" also follows the antics of her new manager "Sculli" and his stereotypical immigrant Italian sidekick "Joe" as they wheel and deal in the shadowy world of gambling while using Women's Wrestling as a front. Supporting Sculli in his efforts are a turtle faced grandma with the body of a 20 year old, an accountant named "Monk" who obsesses about other peoples' apartments, the enigmatic "Mr. Big", who sends Micheal Stipe to threaten Sculli at random moments in the screen play, and an assortment of stone faced women in undergarments who do the actual wrestling.

But Sculli overreaches himself - he 'buckets' too many bets, and he tries to bribe "World Champion" Clara Mortenson into throwing her match, and this brings punishment swift and merciless. Peaches bails out on him 10 minutes before the end (never to be seen again) and Sculli comes to a bad end in a hail of bullets and "Hop Along Cassidy Run Away Stage Coach" music. (Or alternatively, as Mike and the Bots would have it, "the Ukranian National Anthem").

I'm making it sound better than it is, believe it or not. This little nugget was hermetically sealed to prevent any trace of actual emotion or humanity from reaching the celluloid. Cast members declaimed their lines as if they were reading them from cue cards for the first time, and you get a sense that there weren't a lot of 2nd takes or film left over on the cutting room floor when the editors were done.

I never would have seen this, except as an episode on MST3K, and their coverage adds a desperately needed element of humor and irony to watching it - in fact, I feel this is one of their best "post Joel" sessions. I can't imagine anyone watching "Racket Girls" for any other reasons - if you have a yen for old school B-and-W epics, there are dozens of better Republic serials and gangster flicks to choose from. In fact, of all the MST oldies, only "I Accuse My Parents" would be of less interest to a modern day audience.

Still, Peaches is a striking figure, and we will never know what happened to her, or whether she was really as uncomprehending and cement-brained as she appeared here....so in empathy for a mysterious, possibly tragic film figure (not you, Dick Contino), I give it an extra couple of stars. 3 out 10.

And there you have it, in one of the choicer remarks from the MST3K version, one of their proudest moments. (God, I miss them.) A bad movie that opens up the possibilities of bad movie-making to other bad movie makers, featuring large-breasted but decidedly unsexy female wrestlers stranded amid a ridiculous sports-crime milieu. Timothy Farrell, the lead, was in fact a member of Wood's stock company, and his performance is actually one of the movie's more professional -- though Muriel Gardner, as his hard-bitten secretary, actually manages to get something like a performance going, and Peaches Page, a real-life wrestler, at least seems like a nice lady. With stock footage, stock music, and even inept camera setups, it would be a laughfest even without the MST commentary, but their bon mots transform it into something special. As Crow opines during an endless scene of a large-breasted female wrestler throwing a ball over and over: "This movie is refreshingly itself."

Schlock film producer George Weiss (High School Confidential, Glen or Glenda) covers the women's wrestling game in this crass clunker that opens with an overlong 15 minute match that pads the running time upfront before the lady grapplers get to go thespian. It gets pinned early.

Loathsome Umberto Scalli ( Tim Farrell) fronts for the mob, pimps and fixes wrestling matches. Along with assorted flunkies he's built a sleazy empire but is in a bind with the mob at the moment for some heavy dough. Meanwhile the girls continue to work out at the gym and wrestle in the ring as Scalli looks for ways to get some fast cash. He attempts to turn one young lady out while in another scheme tries to bribe the wrestlers into throwing matches.

Sloppy, unintentionally ironic and comic Racket Girls features actual champs Clara Mortensen and Rita Martinez taking umbrage at the slithering Scalli trying to get them to actually throw a match. Mortensen rails at him for trying to besmirch the dignity of the sport and its sense of fair play but later in the film after winning a match decides to kick her beaten opponent while down. The Amazonian Peaches Page is also on hand to be ogled and chauvinistically toyed with by the boys, a group of crumb bum wise guys out sleazed by Scalli. The character it seems turned out to be Tim Farrell's Rambo who would play him in two other films despite the handicap of being killed in all three; kind of like Heath Ledger as the Joker in one Batman. Racket Girls is a movie making mess that makes no apologies and does not have to since it already has your ticket money.

As Trace said it best, "I feel so wrong that this movie has stirred my loins for women who are long dead..."

This $1.98 production tells the story of one Peaches Page, an aspiring female wrestler whose two ginormous breasts give the best performance in the film. Peaches Page, played by Peaches Page, has her wrestling contract bought by Scalli (Timothy Farrell), a shady promoter who uses his gymnasium for illegal gambling activities. Scalli owes local hood Mr. Big (Phil Bernard) thirty five large, and has Scalli's accountant Monk (Paul Martin) spy on Scalli. Peaches falls for the oily Scalli, ignoring the advice of former gal-du-jour Ruby (Muriel Gardner). Scalli is ordered to testify in front of a Senate committee, and threatens to expose Mr. Big, leading to a resolution- not a shocking resolution, but a resolution.

This plot and subplots are padded little stories that serve to fill in the gaps between female wrestling footage- and watching Page's peaches undulate as she jogs, jumps rope, and works out on a rowing machine. The wrestling matches are hilarious- stilted and rehearsed. Scalli and his creepy henchman Joe (Don Ferrara) get most of the screen time, making you wonder who the audience is supposed to cheer for. Real life wrestling champs Clara Mortensen and Rita Martinez pop in for some dialogue with Scalli, and the viewer realizes their best acting was done in the ring. The film is a technical nightmare. Actor Farrell is given a tiny desk to sit behind and run all his money-making scams. The background noises heard during the wrestling matches sound like they were recorded on an elementary school playground. No screenwriter is credited, it is assumed this was tossed together by the film's director/editor. The Senate investigative hearing, broadcast live on the radio, consists of one guy sitting in front of an American flag. The women working out at the gym look directly into the camera. If your fetish consists of black and white footage of doughy middle-aged gals halfheartedly rolling around on a mat and pulling each other's hair, then here you go. Otherwise, this is an awful B-flick, easily forgotten. Also known under a ton of other titles- "The Blonde Pick-Up," "Pin Down Girls," and "Pin Down Girl," possibly more.

Man. What a terrible movie. Ugh. Even with the MST3K riffs. People who claim "Manos" is the worst movie ever really need to watch this. It is on par with "Starfighters" as the most boring episode, mixed with LONG sections of boring wrestling, mixed with butter-faced women and their attempt at what can only be described as retro-soft porn. Avoid at all costs. If you must watch make sure it is the Mystery Science version. I would watch "Manos" 20 times before watching this excrement again.

And 1951? With the "editing" and everything else in this movie, it feels like one of those early, silent, turn-of-the-century films. But those would defiantly be better.

Racket Girls: 2 out of 10: I want to talk about Bridget Jones for a minute. No not the fictional character portrayed by Renee Zellweger but the writer and occasional actress on MST3K.

Though she never got the recognition that fellow female comic Mary Jo Pehl received, she had some incredible star turns. While she is best known as that sociopathic Roman aristocrat with a touch of sex appeal Flavia as well as that singing dancing sensation Nuveena, Girl of the Future, it is in the MST3K version of Racket Girls that she reaches her thespian pinnacle. She plays Lisa Loeb. Who am I kidding she is Lisa Loeb. It is a highlight of a very good MST3K episode.

Alas, Bridget Jones is lost to us now. She married a temp by the name of Mike, bore him two sons, and is no doubt singing "Waiting for Wednesday" while toiling in the kitchen of the future.

Oh yeah the movie. Large woman wrestlers, who clearly block most blows with their face, deal with a sleazy promoter who is trying to fix the fights. Peaches Page is the lead rassler who has a pair of large... well peaches and a winning, if simpleton, personality. The other female wrestlers look like they run a prison laundry.

Plenty of shots of these women grappling each other interspersed with a winning performance by Ed Wood alumni Timothy Farrell. When an Ed Wood alumni gives the best performance that should be all she wrote.

The "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Racket Girls (Season 7, Episode 16): 9 out of 10: Really good riffing considering the challenging material. Moreover, it has gay robot marriage and Lisa Loeb. This is one of the better episodes for seasoned veterans of the series.

I like b&w films, because those are two colours like any others, and have the merit of being better than current blockbusters showing a dark blue image on a black background to mask the poor acting, set decoration, and cinematography.

I also like films that have some historical value, and Racket Girl does. It was one of a kind in terms of sexploitation; it covers extensively the novelty of post-war time, women engaging in athletics, and "men's sports" such as wrestling; it shows extensive wrestling matches with real life women wrestlers; it has a sexy mature gym trainer and masseuse, and a peachy blonde, Miss Peaches, to please male (and female, as lesbianism was implied then) viewers of all age brackets; the film was impounded by the police for the fact at least one person cast in it was on bail, and should no be working when he did it.

I like re-editions of films that serve both the entertainment, and the historical documentation of the film's production, and this Special Edition from Something Weird Video does. The original Racket Girls was announced at 70 min, this edition has 67 min and does say so, which is commendable; it's only my guess, but the missing scenes would be a shower, and more of the body massage of Miss Peaches. To compensate for the loss, you have the long original trailer, and an audio commentary by Johnny Legend, a wrestler promoter himself, and a couple of other people who give some interesting background and critical views of the film. The DVD option of audio on is for the second or third viewing of the film, and will be of interest to film and wrestling fans.

The quality of the print is not excellent - but as I have tried VHS copies, legit and bootleg before, I'd say this one is the best restoration available outside a major studio.

All the above are reasons to put this on the shelf at home; one shall return to it for the extras: six other assorted matches of women wrestling from the 8mm silent films, also in good digital transfers, four little amateur cat-fights on a park lawn, and a large gallery of women wrestlers from the Forties to the Sixties, and last but not least, a segment on Roller Derby girls, when the girls skated fast, pushed, shoved, elbowed, and punched to prevent their rivals from passing through the mêlée.

Note for feminists: I know that women wrestling is supposed to be politically incorrect these days, but please see this feature. Discard the four apartment wrestlers in bikinis that end up by showing four breasts in the only colour segment of the DVD - and please note that I did not count THAT among the pluses of this edition... Watch carefully the dialogue of REAL wrestler Clara Mortensen with the shady promoter, when she says, and she sounds like she means it, "Wrestling is one of the few clean sports, and I intend to keep it that way." Next, she is having a talk from pro to tyro with Miss Peaches, the big asset the promoter had just signed in, and she takes her away from the racket even before she does her match with another rough-and-tumble champion, Rita Martinez. Isn't it a beauty? That back in 1951 the only assertive, positive views on wrestling comes from two women (Mortensen and Martinez)? It's better than equality - it's supremacy of ethics in the work environment.

One of the best MST3K send-ups of all time. It's hard to imagine a movie more primed for satire.

It's all there: the ineffective hoods, the Michael Stipe lookalike; the short, ethnic sidekick; "Monk", who gets off some killer lines when he's not coked-up, and of course Peaches, the disturbingly Amazonian wrestler with a room-temperature IQ and the build of a Greyhound bus.

Check out Rita Martinez doing a killer Gilda Radner imitation, as she declares in a pre-NAFTA time, "You theenk you can take advantage of me because I am Mexican!" Well, her agent clearly did.

As the ad copy usually says, "It's an experience you'll want to watch again and again!" And you will - laughter is truly the best medicine.

Racket Girls (1951)

* (out of 4)

Produced under the personal supervision of George Weiss, this exploitation film is certainly one of the worst ever made but it's also so weird that you can't help but slightly be entertained if you're a fan of bad movies. Peaches Page plays pretty much herself, a wrestler who goes to work for promoter Scalli (Timothy Farrell) but she doesn't realize that he's just a low thug. RACKET GIRLS, also known as PIN-DOWN GIRL and probably several other titles, is a bad film, there's certainly no question about that but I think bad movie fans will be intrigued by it. I think the most interesting thing is that the producer was obviously trying to pass this off as a sexploitation picture because a lot of the running time is devoted to the women wearing very little or very tight clothing. Mrs. Page has rather large breasts and quite often she's in a right outfit or being rubbed down. I'm sure this was meant to pull guys in because of the sexuality but when viewed today you really can't help but laugh. There are other scenes of various women working out, which are just as funny. The wrestling matches, including three very long ones, are incredibly boring and really kill the film. The performances, as you'd expect, are pretty bad but I must admit that I'm a major fan of Farrell who appeared in a few Ed Wood films. I've always loved him in these "C" movies and I thought he was fun here as well. Anyone expecting anything well-made or good are certainly going to be disappointed. But then again, I'm really not sure how many people would watch this and expect anything good.

This movie is an hour and ten minute long. A sizeable chunk feature rather big boned women in boy shorts and wife-beater shirts wrestling in the gym. Maybe that was hot back in the 50's but it's pretty darn borning today.

Produced by a guy who has a history of making explotation movies that completely defied moral codes of the day.

The acting of the professional wrestlers is attrocius. Full disclosure, I've always thought wretling was kind of dumb and female wrestling even dumber. But I guess there are dudes who find it exciting.

The movie takes a lot of time ot get to the point. Way too much time is spent cutting to women wrestling in what looks more like cat fighting. Or taking their clothes off to go to the showers.

And then there are these random cuts to ingenues working out alone -- rowing, lifting weights, biking, etc.

I was bored out of my mind.

A fifth of the movie is over before you actually get to the plot. And then 5 minutes later it's back to the women!

Oh, and btw, the wrestling scenes that are supposedly before an audience are actually filmed silent with the area where the audience would be blacked out and a sound effect track added afterward!

Ed Wood supposedly filmed Plan 9 in this studio. He should have made this picture too. It's that bad.

This film was riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000 which is most likely how most people have even heard of this film. A film that seems to really go all over the place, of course, it is a movie primed for riffing! Seriously, this film has random scenes here and there and lots of stuff to fill in the time between the wrestling bouts, but the film is sort of not even primarily a women's wrestling film. Well, maybe it is! Who can say? The film has just so much packed into it that if a scene is boring you, do not worry, it will be gone before you know it was even there. That is, unless it is one of the wrestling matches. They do go on the longest, so maybe this film is more about women's wrestling and less about racketeering and training and everything else that was thrown in the pot to make an incredibly busy, but bad tasting stew! Sure, it has some cleavage, but there are only a couple of girls in this movie whose cleavage you would want to see. Still, it did not linger much on anything except for the matches so at least if a scene was boring you could blink and it would be over!

The story, well a guy that is into illegal gambling uses women wrestlers as a front for his crimes, because as we all know, women's wrestling is a clean business. Well, he recruits a young lady by the name of Peaches to be the newest girl in his gym. Unfortunately, Mr. Big thinks the guy is holding out on him and he wants his money. People are betrayed left and right and matches between to cat girls go on right before the main event between the American champ and Mexico's champ and we get to see Peaches train and then kind of just exit the movie without being an important character like she seemed to be setting up for and all this happens in like less than an hour!

This one made for a pretty funny episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the short that preceded the film was pretty good too. Both were ripe for riffing! The film is all over the place which gives you a wide range of riffs and showcases why I enjoy Mike as host a bit more than Joel. We get a film that has more going on that all the Hercules films that Joel did combined! The jokes about the strange crowd noise during the matches, the strange addition of music near the end and the strange courtroom with the huge American flag made for easy targets in this one and the film did not linger on anything except, well, you know.

So the film is not good by any standard, I am sure a non riffed version of this film would not have any additional footage that would make the film a winner by any stretch of the imagination. This film seemed to sort of promote women's wrestling, but just did so in very poor fashion. The matches were very drawn out and rather boring, but this is a time before more high impact moves and finishers. Back then, a body slam probably was on of the big time moves a wrestler could do. The film just seemed to fill the rest of the film with so much stuff, that it did not seem to go together at times. The main guy went from being okay to evil, to being someone you could sympathize with to someone who you wanted to see get taken down. An uneven film that was sort of a women wrestling film.

Timothy Farrell is a promoter for women's wrestling. He also dopes horses and is an intermedary in bookmaking, holding out money on Mr. Big aka Phil Lennon..

It's an excuse to turn about fifteen minutes of women's wrestling into a story film, but it's done in such a cheap manner that it's laughable. The actors can't read their lines convincingyl, and the big finish, where Farrell tries to run with the money and Mr. Big's hoods come after him is shot wild. It's Mystery Science Theater 3000 material, and was given the treatment in the seventh series.

Farrell's life reads like a character out of a James Ellroy novel. Besides playing sleazy characters in sub-B movies, was also a bailiff for Los Angeles County. This caused him some embarrassment when one of the movies he was shooting was raided. Eventually he was appointed County Marshall, and was almost immediately indicted and convicted on felony charges. He died in 1989 at the age of 66.

This title seems to be a bit underrated. Of course i do picture the majority of IMDB reviewers living in a home full of cats, but lets look at this movie a bit more realistically, shall we? :) does this title truly deserve a 1.7 review score? I think not.

This is clearly in the 4s or even low 5s. Solely as entertainment for men.

What this movie strives to achieve, it does well, surely dear reviewers, this must account for something?

This is a bad movie, but its subject is interesting. Many decades ago, women's professional wrestling was once a business (briefly). The matches were fixed to benefit promoters and gamblers, so it was a sleazy operation and never a real "sport." The film tries to portray the dirty reality of women's wrestling, but as is often the case in the film business, the producer added other things to the mix, such as the wrestling manager's drug dealing and bookmaking. Yes, these wrestling promoters were crooks, but we've seen hundreds of cheap crime films. Why not just focus on the lives of the (exploited) women wrestlers? This story could have been used to make a classic film noir.

Many reviewers have compared this to an Ed Wood film, but as bad as "Racket Girls" is, it is a MUCH better film than anything he did. And the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version is excellent.

Finally, if you know a college student who's taking a history of film course, and wants to do a paper on women in film, this "bad" movie is actually very good subject material, especially for a feminist analysis. There is nothing subtle about the sexism that flows through this film like the Mississippi River.