movies

KANSAS CITY BOMBER MGM

Kansas City Bomber is a movie full of great faces. Raquel Welch, of course, and Helena Kallianiotes, who was also in Five Easy Pieces, plays the former Roller Derby champ whom Raquel replaces here, and radiates a total bad sensuality reminiscent of Anna Magnan at her steamiest. Perhaps the best faces of all, though, and the best moments in the movie, are seen when the camera cuts from the derby track to the bleachers for sharp closeups of rank and file Derby fans: they are the poor trash of all colors of America, the sweaty, shirtsleeved members of the lower middle class who come to get their rocks off by screaming at a bunch of people tripping and jabbing each other in the ribs for a couple of hours.