Roller Boogie

Last updated
Roller Boogie
Rollerboogie.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark L. Lester
Screenplay byBarry Schneider
Story by Irwin Yablans
Produced byBruce Cohn Curtis
Starring
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Edited by
  • Byron "Buzz" Brandt
  • Edilberto Cruz
  • Edward Salier
Music by Craig Safan
Production
company
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • December 19, 1979 (1979-12-19)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million [1]
Box office$13.3 million [2]

Roller Boogie is a 1979 American teen musical exploitation film [3] directed by Mark L. Lester and starring Linda Blair, Jim Bray, Beverly Garland, Roger Perry, Mark Goddard, Jimmy Van Patten, and Kimberly Beck. Set in the Venice suburb of Los Angeles at the height of the roller skating fad of the late 1970s, it follows an upper-class young woman (Blair) who falls in love with a working class fellow skater (Bray) while the two seek to thwart efforts from a powerful mobster attempting to acquire the land where a popular roller rink is located.

Contents

The film was developed by Irwin Yablans, head of Compass International Pictures, who had experienced notable commercial success with Halloween (1978), which was a major box-office hit the year prior. Filming took place in Los Angeles in the summer of 1979, and its elaborate skating sequences were choreographed by David Winters.

Released by United Artists on December 19, 1979, Roller Boogie received mostly negative reviews from film critics, who deemed it a shallow film exploiting the trends of disco and roller skating, though it was a box office success, grossing over $13 million. In the years since its original release, the film has developed a cult following for its campy style and focus on disco and roller skating culture. [4]

Plot

Bobby James and his friends ("Phones", "Hoppy", "Gordo", and several others) skate to work on the Venice beach boardwalk. Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills, Terry Barkley, a genius flautist is also heading towards the beach in her Excalibur Phaeton automobile. She also is joined by her snobbish girlfriend Lana.

Bobby is skating on the boardwalk with a female friend when he encounters Terry, but she remains aloof and spurns his advance. They later meet at a local roller rink called Jammer's. During a near catastrophic skating incident where Bobby saves the day, she gives in. Terry wants to pay him to teach her how to skate for the Roller Disco contest. Even though they share a flirty, romantic couples skate, later on she rebuffs him yet again.

The next day has both Terry and Bobby getting flack from their respected friends and family. She has had enough and goes to the beach. She finds Bobby there, practicing a jump and turns on the charm. He shares with her his dream to become an Olympic Roller Skater. They end up making out on the beach. Bobby asks her if she is going to pay him for sex as well, which garners a mighty slap in return and she takes off.

Terry goes home and has a row with her mother. She wants to give up her dreams of playing classical flute at Juilliard School and win a roller disco contest at the beach. Her mother is shocked by this, enough so that she begins taking Valium. Terry decides to run away. The next morning, she calls and invites Bobby to breakfast where she apologizes. He wants to skate with her, but on his terms: no money; he calls the shots. Through a series of outdoor scenes, they work together to form a routine.

Jammer's is about to be sold to a ruthless mobster land developer Thatcher, who is wrangling the rink's owner, Delany. Bobby and Terry are clued into this plot and unsuccessful attempt to get her father, a lawyer, to help. While Terry is performing at a lush outdoor party, some of the young men sneak up, causing chaos. As a result, a group of distinguished guests falls into the swimming pool. This ruins the concert, as well as the party and its ceremonial cake. Terry gets reprimanded and slapped by her father for her running away, as well as for hanging out with her radical friends. The skaters find evidence, in the form of a cassette tape recording of the invalid ordeal, to kill the deal. Through a wild chase on the streets near the canal zone of Venice, they race to get it to the cops on time. They do, the mobsters are hauled off and the Boogie Contest is on. Terry and Bobby skate their routine and win.

Later on, back at the beach Terry and Bobby share a sad goodbye. Both promise to write each other as she heads off to New York City and he heads off to the Olympics.

Cast

Production

Development

Roller Boogie was written by Barry Schneider with Irwin Yablans, who is credited with creating the story. Yablans' Compass International Pictures, founded with Joseph Wolfe, would distribute the movie. Compass International Pictures had unprecedented success the previous year with John Carpenter's slasher Halloween . In between Halloween and Roller Boogie, the company would distribute three other titles, Nocturna , Fyre and Tourist Trap , the latter the most successful of the three; Blair would go on to appear in Compass International Pictures' final film, the slasher Hell Night (1981).

In an earlier version of the script, Bobby James' primary interest was songwriting. In the movie, Bobby and friends were trying to write a new song by humming into a tape recorder. Once he meets Terry, she assists him in scoring it using her musical abilities. By the film's ending, Terry leaves for her music scholarship whilst Bobby pursues his musical career. There is no mention of the Olympics in the earlier version. Another scene that does not feature in the movie that was present in the script comes where Bobby helps Terry escape from her bedroom after she is grounded by her parents. However, this scene was shot since there are photos in various publicity items with Jim Bray peeking through a window on a ladder.

Casting

Linda Blair was cast in the lead role of Terry, and at the time had intended on moving away from the horror genre in favor of more lighthearted pictures, after her breakthrough appearance in The Exorcist (1973). [5] Professional roller skater Jim Bray was cast as Bobby James, and was paid approximately $20,000 for his appearance in the film. [1] Bray did not appear in any other films after Roller Boogie, despite achieving something of pin-up status in teen magazines largely based on his appearance in the film. [6]

Stoney Jackson would appear in the third and final season of The White Shadow as Jesse B. Mitchell before its cancellation in 1981, and in Michael Jackson's music video "Beat It" (1983). He also appeared in Diane Lane's movie Streets of Fire (1984) as the lead singer of a doo wop group.

Filming

The film was shot in eight weeks through the summer of 1979, mostly on the Venice boardwalks but also at the nearby acclaimed Marina Del Rey skatepark, in Beverly Hills and, for the final competition sequence, at The Stardust Ballroom in Hollywood. [7] To keep production costs low, the film was shot as a non-union feature. [8] Producer Yablans initially secured a $400,000 budget, which ballooned to a total of $1.5 million by the time filming completed. [8] Dean Cundey, who had filmed Halloween the previous year, served as cinematographer. [4]

All of the skating sequences and the dancing sequences were choreographed by David Winters and were instrumental in the success of the film. Prior to the production of the picture, skating trainer Barbara Guedel tested over 300 young skaters, finally selecting fifty that would make up the skating crowds in the picture – many of whom would also feature in another skating-influenced picture, Xanadu (1980). The ensemble were then given three weeks of training before the photography began, and, at the behest of their managers/producers, the principal actors were only on roller-skates for short periods of time. However, Blair did much of her own skating for the picture. Two stunt doubles were used, one for the skating chase around the streets of Venice – Barbara Guedel would perform the trickier dancing stunts in the competition sequence. Blair would develop bursitis in her hip during the making of the picture. [9]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film largely draws on the disco sound that was popular in the late 1970s. A double-LP soundtrack was issued by Casablanca Records in 1979.

Almost all of the tracks were written directly for the movie by Bob Esty and Michelle Aller. Esty/Aller had at the time recently scored a sizable hit, writing Cher's disco-single "Take Me Home". Incidentally, they produced Cher's accompanying LP of the same name, as well as the ill-fated follow-up, Prisoner . Cher would contribute one song to the Roller Boogie soundtrack – the Esty produced "Hell on Wheels", used in the opening sequence. The track originally featured on the Prisoner album, and a rare accompanying video clip featuring Cher roller-skating also appeared around the same time as the release of the movie.

The "Hell on Wheels" Japanese single includes another Prisoner album track, the 12" version of "Git Down (Guitar Groupie)", which is advertised as "Theme from Roller Boogie", but the song does not appear in the film. This single features a still of Linda Blair and Jim Bray on the cover.

The song "Lord Is It Mine", performed by Bob Esty, was originally written by Supertramp's Roger Hodgson for their LP Breakfast in America . He also performed the tracks "Summer Love", "Rollin' Up a Storm" and "Roller Boogie". The segued opening tracks of side two of the double LP, "Electronix (Roller Dancin')", and the Latin-disco instrumental "Cunga", are credited to Bob Esty and Cheeks. Craig Safan composed cues for the film's original score, but the film tends to rely on actual songs as opposed to instrumental pieces.

Along with "Hell on Wheels", the other song on the soundtrack that was previously available prior to the soundtrack release is Earth, Wind & Fire's well-known disco single, "Boogie Wonderland", featuring the female group, the Emotions. Only two songs featured in the film do not appear on the soundtrack, Jean Shy's "Night Dancer", which appears in the movie when Terry first visits the roller-disco rink. Dave Mason plays his hit from two years before the film, "We Just Disagree".

Roller Boogie
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
Released1979
Genre Disco
Length73:20
Label Casablanca Records
Producer Bob Esty

Side A:

  1. "Hell on Wheels" – Cher (5:32)
  2. "Good Girls" – Johnnie Coolrock (3:38)
  3. "All for One, One for All" – Mavis Vegas Davis (4:20)
  4. "Boogie Wonderland" – Earth Wind & Fire (4:48)

Side B:

  1. "We've Got the Power" – Ron Green (5:15)
  2. "Top Jammer" – Cheeks (4:12)
  3. "Summer Love" – Bob Esty (3:53)
  4. "Takin' My Life in My Own Hands" – Ron Green (5:25)

Side C:

  1. "Electronix (Roller Dancin')" – Bob Esty & Cheeks (5:00)
  2. "Cunga" – Bob Esty (4:54)
  3. "Evil Man" – Mavis Vegas Davis (4:17)
  4. "Lord is it Mine" – Bob Esty (4:26)

Side D:

  1. "Rollin' up a Storm (The Eye of the Hurricane)" – Bob Esty (6:30)
  2. "The Roller Boogie" – Bob Esty (6:09)
  3. "Love Fire" – Bob Esty & Michelle Aller (4:54)

Release

Box office

Roller Boogie was promoted with a lengthy trailer in the autumn of 1979, before premiering at the United Artists theater in Warner Center on December 19. [8] The film was released in 500 theaters by United Artists on December 21. [1] Though initial ticket sales were not as high as the film's producers anticipated, [1] it went on to gross a total of $13.2 million at the box office, proving popular with teen audiences. [2] Initially, Compass International Pictures planned on a sequel (to be set in Mexico—Acapulco Roller Boogie), but probably due to the end of the disco fad, the idea was scrapped.

Critical response

Writing for the Santa Cruz Sentinel , critic Greg Beebe called the film a "travesty" and deemed it an exploitation film capitalizing on the trend of roller boogie disco culture. [10] Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt it was thematically shallow, deeming it "the dopiest movie of the year". [11]

Roger Ebert awarded the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, likening it to the beach party-themed films produced by American International Pictures: "There is a sense in which Roller Boogie comes as a refreshing surprise: I didn't think it was still possible, in the dog-eared final days of the 1970s, to have this silly, innocent, lame-brained and naive movie. I'd always thought that when Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon grew up, that was it". [12]

The film is listed in the Golden Raspberry Awards founder John J. B. Wilson book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. [13]

Home media

Roller Boogie was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on August 24, 2004, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.

Roller Boogie was released on Blu-ray for the first time by Olive Films on July 7, 2015. [14]

Legacy

Roller Boogie is frequently cited among a number of films in the late-1970s that capitalized on the roller boogie trend, along with films such as Skatetown, U.S.A. . [15] It was also one of the last films made by actress Linda Blair before she appeared in a series of exploitation horror and crime films throughout the following decade. [6]

Despite having a rare 0% approval rating on the internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, [16] the film has developed a loyal following and is seen as something of a time-capsule of the late 1970s and the disco era. The film is considered a cult classic. [6] [17]

In August 2006, fashion brand American Apparel played the movie in store windows in New York City. Matthew Swenson, the company's fashion media director, stated: "We became obsessed with that movie. On a whim, we also bought lamé fabric and turned them into leggings, and the gold and silver took off." [18] [19]

See also

Other films released during the late 1970s disco and jukebox musical craze

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cher</span> American singer and actress (born 1946)

Cher is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances, Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before launching a successful six-decade-long solo career. Shortly after her success with Sonny Bono, Cher released her first solo top-ten singles "Bang Bang " and "You Better Sit Down Kids". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roller skating</span> Sport, activity, or form of transportation

Roller skating is the act of travelling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sidewalks, and bike paths.

<i>Xanadu</i> (film) 1980 American musical fantasy film

Xanadu is a 1980 American musical fantasy film written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The film stars Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck and Gene Kelly in his final film role. It features music by Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and the Tubes. The title is a reference to the nightclub in the film, which takes its name from Xanadu, the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China. The city appears in Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an 1816 poem quoted in the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Blair</span> American actress and animal rights activist (born 1959)

Linda Denise Blair is an American actress and activist. Known for her work in the horror genre, she first came to prominence with her portrayal of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film established her as a scream queen and she reprised her role in two sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023).

<i>Thank God Its Friday</i> (film) 1978 film by Robert Klane

Thank God It's Friday is a 1978 American musical-comedy film directed by Robert Klane and produced by Motown Productions and Casablanca FilmWorks for Columbia Pictures. Produced at the height of the disco craze, the film features The Commodores performing "Too Hot ta Trot", and Donna Summer performing "Last Dance", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1978. The film features an early performance by Jeff Goldblum and the first major screen appearance by Debra Winger. The film also features Terri Nunn, who later achieved fame in the 1980s new wave group Berlin. This was one of several Columbia Pictures films in which the studio's "Torch Lady" came to life in the opening credits, showing off her moves for a few seconds before the start of the film.

<i>Roll Bounce</i> 2005 American comedy-drama film by Norman Vance Jr.

Roll Bounce is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written by Norman Vance Jr. and directed by Malcolm D. Lee. The film stars hip hop artist Bow Wow as the leader of a roller skating crew in 1970s Chicago. The film also stars Nick Cannon, Meagan Good, Brandon T. Jackson, Wesley Jonathan, Chi McBride, Kellita Smith, Jurnee Smollett and Mike Epps. The name of the film is derived from the 1979 song "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" by Vaughan Mason & Crew.

<i>Take Me Home</i> (Cher album) 1979 studio album by Cher

Take Me Home is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on January 25, 1979, on Casablanca Records. After her last three studio albums sold poorly, Cher made a brief commercial comeback with Take Me Home. The album reached number 25 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart. The RIAA certified it gold on May 17 of that year for the sales of 500,000 copies in the US.

<i>Hell Night</i> 1981 American slasher film by Tom DeSimone

Hell Night is a 1981 American supernatural slasher film directed by Tom DeSimone, and starring Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Kevin Brophy, and Peter Barton. The film depicts a night of fraternity hazing set in an old manor—the site of a familial mass murder—during which a deformed killer terrorizes and murders many of the college students. The plot blends elements of slasher films and Gothic haunted house films. Filmmaker Chuck Russell served as an executive producer, while his long-time collaborator Frank Darabont served as a production assistant.

Mark L. Lester is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known as a prolific director of cult films, including the disco musical Roller Boogie (1979), the vigilante thriller film Class of 1984 (1982), the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter (1984), the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Commando (1985), the action-comedy Armed and Dangerous (1986), starring John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Meg Ryan and the buddy movie Showdown in Little Tokyo, starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee.

<i>Prisoner</i> (Cher album) 1979 studio album by Cher

Prisoner is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on October 22, 1979, by Casablanca Records. The album was a commercial failure and failed to chart. "Hell on Wheels" was released as the lead single and had a moderate success, peaking at number fifty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Take Me Home (Cher song)</span> 1979 single by Cher

"Take Me Home" is a song recorded by American singer and actress Cher for her fifteenth studio album. The album, released in 1979, bore the same name as the single. "Take Me Home" is a disco song conceived after Cher was recommended to venture into said genre after the commercial failure of her previous albums. The lyrics center around the request of a woman to be taken home by her lover. It was released as the lead single from the Take Me Home album in January 1979 through Casablanca Records, pressed as a 12-inch single.

<i>The Seduction</i> (film) 1982 film by David Schmoeller

The Seduction is a 1982 American thriller film written and directed by David Schmoeller, and starring Morgan Fairchild, Michael Sarrazin, Vince Edwards, and Andrew Stevens. Its plot follows a Los Angeles news anchor who is aggressively pursued by an obsessive male stalker. The original music score was composed by Lalo Schifrin. Reviews for the film have mainly been negative which resulted in three Razzie nominations, including two for Fairchild.

Irwin Yablans is an American independent film producer and distributor known for his work in the horror film industry. His brother, Frank Yablans, was also a producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hell on Wheels (song)</span> 1979 single by Cher

"Hell on Wheels" is a disco song performed by American singer-actress Cher from her sixteenth studio album, Prisoner. It was written by Bob Esty and Michele Aller and produced by Esty. It was released as the album's first and only international single in late 1979. The song was also added to the Roller Boogie soundtrack in 1979. Lyrically, the track is about "follow what you like".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story</span> Song composed by Francis Lai; lyrics by Carl Sigman

"(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" is a popular song published in 1970, with music by Francis Lai and lyrics by Carl Sigman. The song was first introduced as an instrumental theme in the 1970 film Love Story after the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, rejected the first set of lyrics that were written. Andy Williams eventually recorded the new lyrics and took the song to number nine on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 and number one on their Easy Listening chart.

<i>Skatetown, U.S.A.</i> 1979 film by William A. Levey

Skatetown, U.S.A. is a 1979 American comedy musical film produced to capitalize on the short-lived fad of roller disco.

Jim Bray is a former competitive artistic roller skater. He went to Chaffey High School and graduated in 1979. He won several national titles in Singles and Pairs. At the age of 18 he gave up his amateur status to star in the roller disco movie Roller Boogie starring Linda Blair. This would be his only film appearance. At the time of his appearance in Roller Boogie, he had amassed 275 trophies. Because of the film, he became a poster boy for teen magazines like 16 Magazine, Teen Beat, Teen Bag, Tiger Beat as well as more mainstream fare like People and Gossip. Later Bray made an appearance in the 1980 TV variety program The Big Show.

<i>Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver</i> 2011 film by William Butler

Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver is a 2011 American science fiction slasher comedy film by Full Moon Features and is the third main installment in The Gingerdead Man franchise and a direct sequel to Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust. It was co-written, directed, and produced by William Butler and was released on September 13, 2011, by producer Charles Band.

The 1979 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 1980 to honour the worst films the film industry had to offer in 1979. The ballot was later revisited and the expanded version was released in late 2004. Listed as follows are the original ballot's picks for Worst Picture and its dishonourable mentions, which are films that were considered for Worst Picture but ultimately failed to make the final ballot, and all nominees included in the expanded ballot. All winners are highlighted.

Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace is a seasonal outdoor roller skating rink that opened in April 2022 in New York City's Rockefeller Center. It marks the revival of the original Flipper's, which operated in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981 and was dubbed "Studio 54 on wheels" by actor Jaclyn Smith.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Schreger, Charles (December 31, 1979). "Irwin Yablans Boogies All the Way to the Bank". Los Angeles Times . pp. 8– 9 . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Roller Boogie". Box Office Mojo . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Roller Boogie". The Loft Cinema . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "David DeCoteau on Roller Boogie". Trailers from Hell . April 16, 2015. Archived from the original on May 16, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ De Chirico & Murry 2022, p. 147.
  6. 1 2 3 De Chirico & Murry 2022, p. 149.
  7. ↑ Schreger, Charles (August 6, 1979). "Roller Disco: Two Ways to Go". Los Angeles Times . p. 8. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 3 "Roller Boogie". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . American Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  9. ↑ Stanley, John (January 22, 2006). "Boogie Fever Rolls into the Castro". SFGATE . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ Beebe, Greg (December 28, 1979). "'Roller Boogie' Is A Yablans Travesty". Santa Cruz Sentinel . p. 36. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Maslin, Janet (December 19, 1979). "Screen: 'Roller Boogie': Round and Round". The New York Times . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023.
  12. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1980). "Roller Boogie movie review". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on May 10, 2023.
  13. ↑ Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN   0-446-69334-0.
  14. ↑ Cohen, Steven (June 29, 2015). "Olive Films' Summer Blu-ray Titles Now Available for Pre-Order!". High-Def Digest. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  15. ↑ LoBrutto 2021, p. 201.
  16. ↑ "Roller Boogie". Rotten Tomatoes . Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  17. ↑ Fenner, Justin. "No, Tom Ford's Next Movie Isn't A Remake Of Roller Boogie". Stylite. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  18. ↑ Critchell, Samantha (July 4, 2007). "Wheels of Fashion Spin Back to Roller Disco". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  19. ↑ Miller, Susan. "Did You Know?". Roller Boogie Online. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2014.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.