Must See Movie...

Absolutely Fantastic

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

"All The Marbles" was director Robert Aldrich's final movie, and it's kind of an odd chapter in Aldrich's career (though it's likely he was planning to make more movies between this one and when he died.) It's a pretty grungy experience, for one thing. Quite often it depicts the lives of female wrestlers as having a lifestyle that few people would envy - risking injury, sleazy motel rooms, etc. But the movie does remain pretty interesting for most of its almost two hour running time. The three central characters are pretty interesting, not without flaws, but people you will root for and hope will find happiness and the fame they deserve. My only real complaint with the movie is that the final wrestling match goes on for far too long; it could have been significantly cut down. But other than that, this movie is well worth a look.(P.S. - While the movie got an "R" rating from the MPAA back in 1981, by today's standards the movie doesn't deserve more than a "PG-13" rating.)

Being a fan of lady wrestling for decades, I had hoped to see this movie at the theater when it first came out, but that opportunity never came. However, I did rent it once or twice afterward, and taped it when it came on the small screen. First, want to say that most of the previous reviews were right on the mark. I always liked and admired the performances turned in by Peter Falk in the Columbo series, but 95% of my interest in this movie was due to the main theme: women's wrestling. And I was not disappointed, especially with the complete matches shown between the Dolls and their reigning champion archrivals (the same cannot be said for "Wrestling Queen" starring the late, great Vivian Vachon, but featuring as much men's wrestling as women's. BTW, if you doubt the popularity of female grappling, go to Youtube.com and check out the tens of thousands of views that the women's wrestling/catfighting clips regularly garner). And having 4 very pretty women as the main wrestlers did not hurt at all, either. 2 thumbs and 8 fingers up for this movie, and a hope that somebody not in Vinny Mac's pocket will do another one along these lines one day soon!

This one's a puzzler. With such an honored film resume, it's hard to understand why Aldrich took on this project; it's probably sad that this was (?) his last project before he died in 1983. Also curious how an actor like Peter Falk signed on (although if memory serves he really didn't do all that much since Colombo at this point in time). Harder to figure still is how the film got green lighted in the first place. Was it a comedy? Was it a drama? Was it a "buddy" film? Was meant to be a lady "Palooka" or boxing genre? Th movie suffered from trying to go all over the map and as a result, didn't do any one thing well. Certainly it couldn't have been a star vehicle for Vicki Frederick (better known for her role in the "A Chorus Line" movie), could it? Also, the timing of this is amazing if you consider that "Wrestlemania" (that popular culture earthquake that popularized "modern pro wrasslin" and characters like Hulk Hogan, Cindy Lauper, and "Girls Just Wanta Have Fun" video star Capt'n Lou Albano, etc.) was still another five years away.Seemingly had nods toward "Rocky (I)" in terms of the story: down-on-luck, working class fighters struggle and get their shot at the brass ring. But again, the film didn't seem to flesh out any of these various story lines: • Is pro wrestling real or fake (again, this was BEFORE the industry's dirty little secret of "KayFabe" was broken in open court)? • Can the "good guys" (Good Girls in this case) succeed in their crusade against the morally challenged fight promoters or the "system" of low-budget/low esteem pro wrestling traveling circuses? • The physical and emotional affects of this lifestyle (battles with "substance dependency" by one the characters, "how did my life turn out like this?, how did I get here?") • The sexual discrimination and women-in-a-man's-world attitudes faced by these two young women trying to "eek" out a living in high-inflation, low morale, and national malaise Jimmy Carter's "Rust Belt" America.I'm not even mentioning the obvious salacious subject-matter (scantily clad women rolling around wrestling rings with other scantily clad women). The film's reliance on clichés and other pleas for help are numerous: 1) Jumping on the "mud wrestling" craze of the late 70s and early 80s (when this was supposed to be about in-ring "pro" wrestling; 2) The completely unnecessary and blatantly opportunistic special guest appearance by "Mean Joe" Greene (of the then Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and "Hey, Kid"/Coca Cola TV commercial fame); and finally, 3) The apparent May-December romance between the two "stars".It's almost like Falk and Aldrich were fulfilling a contractual commitment to the studio by doing this film, and this was the script that they settled upon. Either that or you have to wonder which one of them – perhaps both -- has the wrestling fetish. Having said all this, the viewer CAN tell that both Falk and Aldrich are brining some sophistication to the film, and that's probably what saves it from being completely ready for Mystery Science Theater 3000. The choreography of the wrestling sequences is right up there with some of the better boxing pictures I've seen. And the "driving" interludes through small, depressed industrial towns and the back roads of the Midwest farmlands nicely convey the "living on the road and out of the trunk of the car" day-to-day existence the trio might have endured. Falk's character grooms the young, up-and-coming "athletes" or "performers" for their "shot" at the big time (think Burgess Meredith in Rocky). Falk's performance -- as the streetwise but disrespected, good-hearted but washed-up, grouchy but lovable manager – is distracting not because it's tired and cliché but because it is so far above any other actor in the movie. Had I been there, I would have LOVED to ask him about this role during his appearance on "Inside the Actor's Studio" a few years ago. Speaking of Rocky, Burt Young, Rocky's brother-in-law Paulie in the series, basically plays the same character here, only not as lovable but a shady character with some power to "pull some strings" when it suits him.But ultimately the tag team relationship between Frederick and Landon -- teammates and theoretically "friends" -- is almost nonexistent. Really only one scene even attempts to explore this "bond" (a la Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid). The physicality of their performances and their obvious training to learn the bumps and rolls of the wrestling game is commendable, but doesn't save the movie, either.We're not sure whether we're supposed to believe what they've been through is real, so we really don't care for any of the characters by the end. But by that time, we pretty much know what's going to happen, anyway. Watch it for an interesting, if not laudable, project by each Messrs. Falk and Aldrich.

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!