Kansas City Bomber (1972).

[slaytonf]

Thursday evenings sometimes we would get in the car and drive down the Santa Monica Freeway to the Olympic Auditorium.  There we would see the World Champion Thunderbirds take on all comers.  Thrills and spills, they raced around the track, a roar like a freight train.  A synchronized chaotic melee.  Then times even the chaos would disintegrate, and there would be fights and the refs would struggle to break them up (not too quickly).  You can keep your football and your wrestling.  No other sport has anything like Big Jim using a bench from the infield to pin four of the opposing team up agains the rails.  Rollerball has nothin on this.

Kansas City Bomber (1972).  Thursday, 7:15 p. m., Pacific.

and also

Rollerball (1975), Thursday 5 p. m., Pacific.

[NoShear]

9 hours ago, slaytonf said:

Re: "Thursday evenings sometimes we would get in the car and drive down the Santa Monica Freeway to the Olympic Auditorium.  There we would see the World Champion Thunderbirds take on all comers.  Thrills and spills, they raced around the track, a roar like a freight train.  A synchronized chaotic melee.  Then times even the chaos would disintegrate, and there would be fights and the refs would struggle to break them up (not too quickly).  You can keep your football and your wrestling.  No other sport has anything like Big Jim using a bench from the infield to pin four of the opposing team up agains the rails.  Rollerball has nothin on this.

Kansas City Bomber (1972).  Thursday, 7:15 p. m., Pacific."

 Look for an appearance by announcer Richard "Dick"  Lane, the voice of lowbrow entertainment in Los Angeles for many years.

[slaytonf]

"Lowbrow"?!  The voice of the Thunderbirds. Only Chick Hearn was better. 

[Sepiatone]

Me and some of my buddies would sometimes watch roller derby for laughs.  That some people took it serious was the funniest part of it.   

Sepiatone

[NoShear]

36 minutes ago, slaytonf said:

Re: "Lowbrow"?!  The voice of the Thunderbirds. Only Chick Hearn was better. 

 Well, slaytonf, I wouldn't exactly describe the Olympic Auditorium as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

[NoShear]

4 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:

Re: "Me and some of my buddies would sometimes watch roller derby for laughs.  That some people took it serious was the funniest part of it.  "

 Reminded me of an awesome line that the noted sportswriter Jim Murray once got off: "Sure, pro wrestling's fake, but the fans are real"!

[slaytonf]

The Song of Envy is sweet to hear.  So much better when sung in chorus.

 

But I have to say, KC Bomber (1972) is a profound disappointment.  Though it's cheesy enough, and though I know they could not risk Raquel Welch in the skating, couldn't, with the budget they had, I say couldn't they have found a better wig for the stunt double?  And couldn't they have found a woman to double for her?  Can't say if I'll watch the whole movie, the cheese factor may not be able to overcome it.

[lydecker]

9 hours ago, slaytonf said:

The Song of Envy is sweet to hear.  So much better when sung in chorus.

 

But I have to say, KC Bomber (1972) is a profound disappointment.  Though it's cheesy enough, and though I know they could not risk Raquel Welch in the skating, couldn't, with the budget they had, I say couldn't they have found a better wig for the stunt double?  And couldn't they have found a woman to double for her?  Can't say if I'll watch the whole movie, the cheese factor may not be able to overcome it.

Watched about 10 minutes of this POS last night.  Seems as though it was incorrectly programmed in prime time.  Perhaps TCM Underground would have been more appropriate??  TCM "Spotlights" are now astrology and roller skating . . . Enough said.

[Det Jim McLeod]

I actually liked this one! I had seen it many years ago, on TV, so nostalgia was a part of why I liked it. 

Raquel looks beautiful of course, though this isn't one of her glamour girl roles. The film has some of that unsentimental, 1970s grit to it. The roller derby scenes are the best part of it, capturing the athletics aspect as well as the theatrics, sort of pro wrestling on wheels. I liked Norman Alden's performance as a naïve good ol' boy who plays up his lunatic character for the crowd. Jodie Foster has one quick scene as Raquel's tomboy daughter.  

[unwatchable]

Aside from Welch, who was always easy on the eyes, the only thing I found interesting about this film was Helena Kallianiotes showing up in it.

[Det Jim McLeod]

10 hours ago, slaytonf said:

And couldn't they have found a woman to double for her? 

She was doubled by a woman, Judy Arnold, a actual roller derby skater.

[slaytonf]

7 hours ago, Det Jim McLeod said:

She was doubled by a woman, Judy Arnold, a actual roller derby skater.

They fooled me!  She looks nothing like the other women skaters, let alone Raquel Welch.