The California Dolls

This is overall an entertaining movie,but I have to admit...the real interest here for me is watching 2 very sexy women wrestling. I've always enjoyed catfighting,and this is one of the few mainstream movies that has that in it. I would someday like to see a racier version of this movie,but i know I'm probably just dreaming. Its been awhile since I've seen this,but i believe there was also a jello wrestling scene in it. One thing I had a little trouble believing was that the lead dark haired wrestler was sleeping with the Peter Falk character...ewwww....highly doubtful. I recommend watching this movie to see if you like it.

VHS long-since expired; bring-on Blu-Ray. Peter Falk, dishevelled here too, sleazy-manager of two seriously-hot 'girls' takes-on a series of very-nasty venue-owners to ensure his tag-team are Number-One. Love the parts where having won on-the-night though NOT paid he performs a 'stress-test' on venue-owners foreign-car & the consequences of using his 'special' dice. For the benefit of 'young-uns' Liberachi was a famous piano-player parodied by a now-defunct furniture-store, famous for it's LA Law style song 'See You All In Court'.

This was a fairly interesting movie with a different topic: women's wrestling. It also features a couple of hot-looking ladies (if you can call them that) and has the usually-likable Peter Falk of Columbo TV-fame in the lead. However, this is typical '70s sleaze with lots of profanity and nudity, particularly the latter and mainly to attract a male audience. I like looking at these "babes" as much anyone but, hey, to be honest, films like this made us learn the meaning of the word "gratuitous." The wrestling scenes were decent but the last one went on forever. Actually, it went on for 20 straight minutes which seems like forever in a film. That, and a cast of sleazy characters, made this too unappealing and down for the count.

Iris (Vicki Frederick) and Molly (Laurene Landon) are the California Dolls traveling the country with their hard-nosed manager Harry Sears (Peter Falk) to wrestle in rundown events. The girls try to do it seriously but money is tight and life on the road is a struggle. Sleazy promoter Eddie Cisco (Burt Young) shorts the girls $20 and Harry takes a bat to his Mecedes. In the end, he comes to them with a title fight. On the surface, one would think this is a simple T&A B-movie of the era but it's actually a good movie about an unconventional family. I really love their relationship. The actual wrestling isn't quite as interesting. It's questionable whether that many people would watch serious women's wrestling. It would be more like a carnival sideshow or WWF in the old days. All that aside, this is a great family unit to watch.

I saw this movie in Chennai(then Madras),India way back in the early eighties while in college.I remember the movie vividly for its vibrant wrestling action and its handsome women.Peter Falk I remember at his leering best and it still remains one of my favourite movies though I've never managed to lay my hands on a DVD as yet ! I remember it running to a packed house for many weeks at a theatre called LEO which being close to our college used to be filled with a raucous crowd of chanting guys who just loved the movie.I guess we must have seen the movie no less than 5 times! It would be great to get a copy of California DOLLS(it was'nt called ALL THE MARBLES when it was released here)for old times sake. Laura really was a looker and we just loved her!

A strange underrated film. brilliant acting and wonderful fight sequences. The film lives in a curious world of endless motel rooms, dislocation and transit (Harry's grubby car/opera soundtrack ...) A curious feature is also that we are asked to believe that pro tag wrestling is "for real." the photography throughout is excellent and the performances are very strong (Falk is superb!)another wonderful, tantalising element is the scant detail we are given of the central characters. Molly = "junkie" ex secretary, Iris = ex lover of Harry, and Harry himself = opera loving ex teacher. the tone of the film is of these (and other) exploited girls, literally fighting for a better life, on the "eternal road" both strong, but a million miles from "independent". occasional comic moments, and moments which bring enormous sympathy and empathy. a classic film. and sadly, I believe, Aldrich's last. P Hancock. Kent, UK

Talk about buried treasures, this is such a one: A tough, gritty movie that has the feel of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Aldrich has produced a no-holds barred roadmovie about a female freewrestling tag team, marvelously played by drive-in favorite Laurene Landon and Vicki Friderick and Peter Falk plays the girls greasy manager, a perfect role for him. The team wrestles in rundown industrial towns in hardhitting, brutal battles. Amazing choreography is sure to keep you at the edge of the seat However many are likely to find this movie too brutal for their taste, so if Rollerball is you cup of tea, step right up. If you taste more goes in direction of Driving Miss Daisy, this may not be the movie for you. Overdue for DVD release. 9/10