A rich girl from Beverly Hills and a poor boy from Venice Beach become partners to win a roller boogie contest and save a local skating rink from being torn down by unscrupulous developers.
ROLLER BOOGIE (1979) Cast: Linda Blair (Terry Barkey), Jim Bray (Bobby James), Beverly Garland (Mrs. Barkley), Roger Perry (Mr. Barkley), Jimmy Van Patten (Hoppy), Kimberly Beck (Lana), Sean McClory (Jammer Delaney), Mark Goddard (Thatcher), Stoney Jackson (Phones), Albert Insinnia (Gordo), M.G. Kelly (D.J.), Chris Nelson (Franklin). Directed by Mark L. Lester. Written by Barry Schneider, from an original story by Irwin Yablans. Cinematography by Dean Cundey.
Showtime: Saturday May 2, 2015, 11:00pm PST/2:00am EST
If you were, as I was, an 18 year-old American in 1979, you had your choice of roller disco movies. Oddly, neither came out during the summer, as might have been expected, but towards the end of the year. Premiering in October, SKATETOWN U.S.A. starred sitcom actors Scott Baio and Maureen McCormick, with a supporting cast that included comedian Flip Wilson, Ron Palillo (whose WELCOME BACK, KOTTER castmate John Travolta had enjoyed meteoric crossover success two years earlier as the star of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, the GONE WITH THE WIND of disco movies), and a young up-and-comer named Patrick Swayze, in his film debut. Unveiled for the Christmas rush, ROLLER BOOGIE tapped Linda Blair, six years out from THE EXORCIST (1973), to play a Beverly Hills trustafarian who falls for “a turkey boardwalk skater” and in so doing thwarts her parents dreams of Julliard.
Mind you, no one came right out and said that I had to pick just one of these two movies but I knew I hadn’t sufficient room in my heart for two roller disco joints. Being a Blair man, ROLLER BOOGIE had the immediate advantage. Having fallen love with the actress (who, like me, came from Connecticut) in THE EXORCIST, I had watched her endure all manner of miseries over the ensuing years: violated in girls’ prison in BORN INNOCENT (1974), drunk as a skunk and killing her favorite horse in SARA T: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE ALCOHOLIC (1975), kidnapped by Martin Sheen in SWEET HOSTAGE (1975), hijacked by terrorists in VICTORY AT ENTEBBE (1976), beset by locusts in EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977) and spotted with demonic impetigo in STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE (1978). Talk about paying your dues! Plus, she’d been arrested for possession of cocaine in 1977 so it seemed only fair and good for her to have some fun in something like ROLLER BOOGIE. The movie was her first tits-out performance, if you’ll pardon the expression (you don’t have to); though she is never nude in it, ROLLER BOOGIE is the first of her star vehicles to treat Blair like a woman, rather than as a child on the tender cusp of womanhood. She plays a spoiled but not unsympathetic Beverly Hills rich kid who meets more than her match in the denizens of Venice Beach. It was great for producer Irwin Yablans to give Blair a shot at comedy; I’m not saying she was particularly gifted at it, but it represented a nice change of pace. There was something about Blair that recalled Old Hollywood, a Deana Durbinishness or a later Shirley Templeanness and in fact ROLLER BOOGIE is a bit like an old Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movie, with the kids banding together to save the skating rink and defeat the local mobsters.
ROLLER BOOGIE made a boatload of money (somewhere in the vicinity of $13 million) and was swiftly forgotten, as was roller disco itself. Thirty-five years down the pike, it retains a measure of Psychotronic appeal, and not just because of Linda Blair. By some strange quirk of fate, both ROLLER BOOGIE and SKATETOWN U.S.A. originated with some of the same creative minds behind HALLOWEEN (1978). Nick Castle (who played The Shape in HALLOWEEN and has had his hand in a number of Carpenter’s subsequent films) wrote SKATETOWN U.S.A. and Irwin Yablans, who dreamed up the concept for HALLOWEEN (as THE BABYSITTER MURDERS), also produced and wrote the original story for ROLLER BOOGIE which, as had HALLOWEEN, was made by Compass International Pictures. Finally, cinematographer Dean Cundey, who gave HALLOWEEN its distinctive look, was also behind the camera for ROLLER BOOGIE. Beyond this talking point, it’s great to see Beverly Garland (who shot NOT OF THIS EARTH in Beverly Hills a quarter century earlier) and Roger Perry (COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE) as Blair’s inattentive parents and the cast is otherwise rich in familiar faces: Kimberly Beck would later turn up as the heroine of FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) but I knew her at this point as one of the kids on the Saturday morning sail-around-the-world series WESTWIND (starring Van THE GREEN HORNET Williams) and LOST IN SPACE alum Mark Goddard shot this after working on Jeff Lieberman’s BLUE SUNSHINE (1978), playing in both films someone far to one side of the angels.
Hollywood veteran Sean McClory (above, front, in a Guayavera shirt, no less), who has a small role as an old time skater who dispenses free advice and old world charm in equal proportions, had appeared in such classics as John Ford’s THE QUIET MAN (1952), Henry Hathaway’s NIAGARA (1953), Gordon Douglas’ THEM! (1954), and Fritz Lang’s MOONFLEET (1955) but by 1978 hadn’t made a feature in nearly ten years; relegated for the most part to television from 1971 on, the Dublin-born, Galway-raised Abbey Theatre graduate would pop up in another bit of 80s era disposabilia, MY CHAUFFEUR (1986), before capping his long and highly diverse career with a plum supporting role in John Huston’s final film, THE DEAD (1987). In blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em bits are Nina Axelrod (who went on to a lead role in MOTEL HELL) and Laurene Landon, who enjoyed a starring role in Robert Aldrich’s ALL THE MARBLES (1980) the following year and kept busy through the 80s as a stock player for Larry Cohen (I THE JURY, IT LIVES III: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE, MANIAC COP, THE AMBULANCE).
No less a character here is the actual Venice locations, which bestow upon ROLLER BOOGIE a certain historic pedigree. No, this is not the Venice of, say, DEMENTIA/DAUGHTER OF HORROR (1955) or TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) or NIGHT TIDE (1961) or CISCO PIKE (1971) but it’s still, on this end of the telescope, a Venice that no longer exists (apart from Small World Books, then only three years on the boardwalk and still going strong 35 years later) and for that reason this film retains a bit of nostalgic currency for me (being a resident of LA for some ten years now). I can’t say in good faith that any of this will make ROLLER BOOGIE, for you, more than a kitsch diversion, and perhaps that’s the best window through which to view it. Have a bit of fun, have a laugh at its gaudy expense, and enjoy yet another once-profitable/now risible sidebar in the crazyquilt experience of what we call Hollywood.
Chasing ROLLER BOOGIE in the overnight slot is ABBA: THE MOVIE (1977), in which none of the band has to fly the plane. Not even Agnetha Fältskog. #sadface