THE CALIFORNIA DOLLS

US, 1981, 113 minutes, Colour.
Peter Falk, Vicki Frederick. Laurene Landon, Burt Young, Tracy Reed, Ursaline Bryant-King?. Claudette Nevins, Richard Jaeckel, John Hancock, Lenny Montana.
Directed by Robert Aldrich.

The California Dolls is directed by Robert Aldrich who worked in the '40s and '50s with such directors as Chaplin and has made a large and significant body of films over almost thirty years. He is a director that commentators call 'tough'. He has a strong masculine emphasis in so many films starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Burt Reynolds and others. But he is equally at home in presenting women significantly: Baby Jane, Sweet Charlotte, Autumn Leaves, Sister George, Lila Clare and the lady wrestlers of this film. Aldrich has a tough insight into Middle America and its lifestyle. Peter Falk is the cynical hero managing glamorous wrestlers who want to make it to the top. In scenes of garish realism with the audience shouting ugly support for their heroines, Aldrich explores attitudes of American style, way of living, the artificiality of its recent history and its questioning of values. The film was originally called All The Marbles but has focused on the name of the sports team. This is similar to what happened with The Longest Yard which overseas became The Mean Machine. This is an odd film - both interesting and repellent.

1. The focus of the title on the women? Dolls? California and its ethos? The feminist response to this title? Women as sex objects? Yet the reality of the women fighting for some kind of integrity and success? The original title and its emphasis on success?

2. Audience interest in the subject? Wrestling,, women wrestling? The characters? Within America? The pros and cons of this sport? The people involved, management, stardom and success, the audiences and their responses? The divided critical response to the film - harsh condemnation and appreciative response? The ambiguities of its impact?

3. The film as a piece of Americana: ballyhoo and vaudeville, glamour and success, money, violent sport and its artificial staging, the range of audience, racial tensions, the mid-west and the middle American audience, Akron, Ohio and the steel towns, Chicago, Reno? The prestige of California? What does the film say about America of the '70s and '80s?

4. The visual presentation of the wrestling itself, rough and tumble, violence artificiality, bump and grind, the mud-wrestling, competitiveness, the tag teams, the championships, the ruthlessness, the matches, sports magazines and fans, the ballyhoo and glamour, referees and impartiality and bias, the choreography, winning? The emphasis of the credits?

5. How well did the film sketch the characters of Molly and Iris? Initial impression and judgment of them? Their toughness in wrestling? The locker room rivalries? The many sequences in seedy motels, fast food places, drive-in supermarkets? The problems of money? Their relationship with Harry? Their slinging off at him? His management of them and keeping them in control? Molly and her hopes and her depression? Iris and her previous relationship with Harry? Her tough talk? Her understanding and comforting of Molly? The build-up for the magazines? The rivalry and clashes with other tag teams? The clash initially with Eddie Cisco? Iris and her sexual liaison with Eddie for promotion? Harry and his build-up of the girls? His exploiting them in the mud wrestling and their reaction? The build-up for the glamour image? The grudge match with the other teams? The Toledo Tigers? The audience on the side of the California Dolls? The ballyhoo of Reno and the M.G.M. Grand Hotel? The glitter and vaudeville of the final match? The atmosphere of Rocky with the girls coming up to win? The personality of the actresses, their physical beauty and strength, strength of character? Their professional attitude towards their work? Their future?

6. Peter Falk's style as Harry? His strengths and weaknesses as a promoter? His belief in the girls? His relationship with Iris? His skill in management? Eddie Cisco and his being taken in for the money, the baseball bat on his car? The seedy life of motels, girlfriends? His incessant stories and jokes? His pessimistic quoting of Clifford Odets? His memory of his father? His gambling and the baseball bat? The girls' irritation with him, the audience sharing it? His vision for the girls? A mixture of ideals and pragmatism? The ballyhoo for the final match and his success? His future?

7. Eddie Cisco and his henchmen? The tough world of wrestling? Money deals? Gangster images? Iris and her liaison with him, standing him up? The bets? The promoters and their pressures? Solly, the woman promoter and her fast talk and toughness?

8. The background of the wrestling, arrangements, fixed matches, the referee and the deals?

9. Harry as the American hustler type? How admirable? How despicable?

10. The story of the girls and their lives taking over from the emphasis on the wrestling? Audience sympathy for them, their ups and downs, hopes for success?

11. The film's visual impact of the audience types - the age, men and women watching, being caught up in the wrestling, the violence? The commentators? The people at the mud fight?

12. A glimpse of the American way of life? Middle American states? Entertainment, sport, competitiveness. violence. glamour? The seediness of so much of contemporary life and the need for hustling? Stronger and deeper values and ambitions?