Stripped to Kill (1987) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Brainscan

Scoop's comments in white:

I think this was the first of the eleven zillion Corman Stripsploitation films. It isn't especially good.

• If you watch it for the plot, there is very little time dedicated to it. What little plot and characterization that it has is not that bad at all, but about two thirds of the running time seems to be actual stripping.

• If you watch it for the erotica, it is quite weak in that area as well. There are strippers doing their topless acts. Period. The photography is not especially good, so the film's major appeal is to lovers of poorly lit strippers in fuzzy focus.

There are some good things about it. It has kind of an offbeat cast: B.J. without the bear, Mr Roper without Janet and Chrissie ...

... and Kay Lenz.

You know how it is in show biz. Some people get more of a career than they deserve, some get less. Kay probably deserved a little bit better than she got. You might say she is the poor man's Diane Lane, a pretty darned good actress who also just happened to be a sexy woman with a good body. Kay came very close to stardom. She has a very impressive TV resumé, but never really got an important part in an acclaimed film. In her first big role, she starred opposite Bill Holden in a film directed by Clint Eastwood. That's big time Hollywood. Later in the 70's she made some interesting films with stars like Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed, and she was always part of "the beautiful people" spotlight because of her marriage to teen idol David Cassidy. Unfortunately, none of her films were really big winners, either as commercial hits or critical successes, and by 1987 she was reduced to doing Corman films to keep her movie career alive.

In this film she played a cop who went undercover as a stripper. To her credit, she was sexy in the sexy scenes, and exuded solid cop vibes in the thriller portion of the entertainment. Unfortunately, she was laboring in a virtual vacuum of a movie.

But with a few different bounces of the ball, Kay might have been a major star.

The movie continues one tradition and begins another. A less generous soul would call them clichés:

1) Where twins exist, one of them is evil.
2) When strippers are killed, the murderer is a woman, or in this case an actress playing a stripper and her transexual brother.

The exposure is plentiful and comes from two types of actresses, each type further divided into two sub-groups.:

1) Those who strip and do just about nothing else in the movie. These are obviously clothing removal engineers of the professional variety. They work the brass pole nicely and give up would have been major gynocam stuff if they hadn't been wearing undies on stage.

a) Those who appeared in more than just this fine film.

B movie babes with some other credits include Debra Lamb, Deborah Nasser and Michelle Foreman. Debra plays an amateur dancer and doesn't do much to suggest she ever had a night job. The other two women, however, dance so well there seems little doubt they had previous experience in the clothing removal arts. Deborah shows off her terrific, recreational body. Michelle gives us a leg-spreading performance and shows of her mighty-fines.

b) Those whose only cinematic appearance was right 'cheer.

One-time-only strippers are Carlye Byron and Tracey Crowder. Carlye shows breasts and bum, Tracey shows off hooters only.

2) Those called upon to do some real acting, who then just sorta stand around or stumble around or pour liquids over themselves whilst on stage.

a) Those who appeared in more than just this fine film.

The major kick-ass, wunnerful exposure comes from veteran actress, Kay Lenz. First saw her in the movie, House, long ago and really liked what there was to see. She's appeared in few dozen movies and lots of tv things, gave up the goodies in at least four appearances.  Kay has just a small frame she is properly called delicate. But on that frame is or was a terrific collection of soft tissue in all the right places. The woman was built.

b) Those whose only cinematic appearance was right 'cheer.

And the real enigma here is Pia Kamakahi. In the right light she has Jaclyn Smith-like features, but unlike Ms. Smith she had a killer bod and (more importantly) was willing to show off major parts of it. She played both a stripper and the evil twin stripper killer. Not a bad job of acting. But, gentlemen, enjoy her topless stripping and sorta sport-humpin' her girlfriend, because this appears to be the only thing she ever did in front of a movie camera. Merde. I woulda put her in every movie that required or even allowed a nekkid babe. The remake of Citizen Kane, for example.