Below the Belt
Director: Robert Fowler Run Time: 91 min. Format: 35mm Rating: R Release Year: 1980
Starring: Regina Baff, Mildred Burke, John C. Becher, Annie McGreevey, Jane O’Brien, Sierra Pecheur
This September, THE DEUCE is gonna grab you by the throat and hit ya BELOW THE BELT… the low-budget, shot-in-1974, all-female wrestling romp that walloped the weirdos of Times Square’s Selwyn Theater when it finally hit the screen in 1980!
Bored with her going-nowhere job, NYC waitress Rosa Rubinsky decides to take a career turn into the wrestling ring – reinventing and redubbing her Polish persona into “The Mexican Spitfire”! Tedious travelling between two-bit towns and trying to survive on bout-to-bout bounty take the forefront in this gritty behind-the-scenes slice of a subculture in its pre-TV glitter days… Low on glamor and glory but brimming with gusto – these gutsy gals give it their all as real actors mix it up with real wrestlers – like the dirty-dealing, mostly toothless Jane “Tommy The Terrible” O’Brien!
Engagingly adapted from Rosalyn Dexter’s semi-autobiographical novel To Smithereens by Sherry Sonnet and director Robert Fowler, BELOW THE BELT is a scrappy ride with a real feel for time and place and a real care for its characters… A rarely seen road movie of camaraderie and choke-holds that takes a wild ride with some amazing women… BELOW THE BELT hits the spot! We have a winner!!