Gas Pump Girls (1979)

December 21, 2008

On Demand, Seattle, WA

* / ****

By Scott Muoio

Gas Pump Girls is a middling “girls lose their tops” film. It has a handful of giggle inducing moments and a whole lot of groan inducing tedium.

The plot…

After poor old Uncle Joe (Huntz Hall) falls ill, a quintet of sweet yet frisky 18 year old females takes over his failing gas station. Unable to compete with a rival station across the street, the ladies devise a foolproof plan to beef up business: skimpy tops, revealing bottoms, and a come hither sales pitch.

All goes well until the dastardly Mister Friendly (Dave Shelley), the rival station’s owner, gets the gas distributor to pull the plug on the ladies’ deliveries. What happens next is vintage late ‘70s absurdity with a heavy dose of political incorrectness. Can you say incognito Arab invasion? Throw in a goofy leather clad biker gang in the vein of Grease, a cameo of doofy heavies, a strange lip-synched musical number, a stranger parking lot dance scene, and of course, a smattering of naked boobies and you’ve got a decent bit of harmless innuendo laden raunch fit for the whole family.

So is this movie good? Of course not. Is it entertaining? Sometimes. Do we get to see lots of boobies? Well, just a few, but whose counting?

Bottom line: Gas Pump Girls will occasionally make you laugh, surprise you with bizarreness, and definitely have you recall a time when movies like this were not only possible, but popular, too. Even though it tries, however, it’s a bad movie through and through. And no doubt after merely twenty minutes of awkward shenanigans you, too will be certain your ribald wanting dollars would have been best spent elsewhere.

Director: Joel Bender

Producer: David A Davies

Writer: Joel Bender, Isaac Blech, David Davies

Starring: Kirsten Baker, Linda Lawrence, Sandy Johnson, Ricky Marin, Leslie King

Music: Leigh Crizoe