…All the Marbles
With Peter Falk, Vicki Frederick, Laurene Landon.
US, 1981, 35mm, color, 112 min.
Print source: British Film Institute
Aldrich's final film completes a full auteurist circle by returning to the dingy back-alley world of third-tier competitive sports explored in his feature debut, the now-forgotten baseball B-picture Big Leaguer. The sport now is female wrestling, although often made by Aldrich to resemble both the tawdry vaudeville stage of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and the vicious battlefields of his many war films. With clear affection for its characters, …All the Marbles chronicles the comic misadventures of the California Dolls, two ambitious and beautiful female wrestlers determined to win a championship match in Reno, guided by the off-kilter advice of their corrupt-but-lovable manager, the wisecracking, cigar-chomping Peter Falk. While vividly capturing the sweaty excitement of the Big Night and the stale coffee dreariness of endless road trips and cheap motels, …All the Marbles also reveals a gentler side to Aldrich’s ultimately humanist cinema.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Four Star Playhouse: The Squeeze, The Witness and The Hard Way
The Southerner
