HELL DIVERS (1931)

There was a number of military aviation films back in the late 1920's/early 1930's...THE FLYING ACE (1926), WINGS (1927), THE FLYING FLEET (1929), HELL'S ANGELS (1930), THE DAWN PATROL (1930) and HELL DIVERS featuring top-billed Wallace Beery and a young pre-mustache Clark Gable.

Wallace Beery is the top dog in a fighting squadron of dive bombers, so when a new guy (Gable) comes in and wins the "champion machine gunner" title he gets butthurt.  It also doesn't help that Wallace is a total screw-up.  Always drinking and partying, borrowing money non-stop, lying, randomly punching people.  He's not a pleasant guy to be around.  Because of this, Gable and Beery are constantly butting heads.

Life goes on.  The squadron train in their dive bombers and eventually fly down to Panama to do some more training over the water.  Throughout it all Beery and Gable are at eat others throats.  It's tiresome.  After awhile you learn that the story is unimportant and the real entertainment is in all of the vintage footage of the old airplanes, Navy ships and even a Zeppelin!

Moderate pace, severely dated story, annoying "Aw, shucks!" acting by Beery (who I usually like), exciting aerial scenes.  Overall, it's a watchable movie, just very dated.  Aviation and military nuts will get a kick out of the planes and stuff but the average moviegoer will probably be bored.

Would make an interesting double-feature with 1941's DIVE BOMBER.  It even looks like they used some of the same filming locations.  Also planes in both films feature a top hat painted on the side.

Somebody is dangling off the side.

Jack Pennick

THE UNHOLY ROLLERS (1972)

Claudia Jennings, who you might remember from 'GATOR BAIT or THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE, is sick and tired of her lame job at the cat food factory so she tries out for a local roller derby team, makes the team and somehow parlays that into "making lots of money".  Of course, fame has it's drawbacks (especially when you are slightly insane) and soon Claudia goes off the deep end.

I didn't know what to expect from UNHOLY ROLLERS, but with the words "unholy" and "rollers" in the title I was hoping for some sort of Satanic rollerskating action...that didn't happen, but it would have been cool!  Has there ever been a movie about a successful roller derby team that owes it's prosperity to Satan?  If not, there should be.  Anyway, UNHOLY ROLLERS is your standard Roger Corman-produced 70's movie: low budget, quick pace, female nudity, light on story, heavy on cheap thrills, mediocre acting.  That's really about it.  I honestly just kinda sat there watching the whole thing in a trance.  The story is unimportant and Claudia's character goes through life with zero concern for the consequences of her actions.  Example: after being attacked by some lesbians who strip off her clothes on a bar room pool table, she leaves with a dude on a motorcycle.  She finds a gun in his bag and immediately starts firing it off at random signs and people on the street.  This is just a normal event in her life!

Overall, it's a mildly entertaining film, but nothing worth going out of your way to see. On the positive side, there was a quick glimpse of Princess (MUDHONEY) Livingston in a crowd scene and a brief appearance by Kathleen Freeman as Claudia's mom.  Also a young Martin Scorsese was the Supervising Editor.  How strange is that?

Holy fook...it's Princess Livingston from MUDHONEY!

Kathleen Freeman