Filmed in 1974 but not released until 1980, Below The Belt paints the picture of one woman’s journey through professional wrestling and life.
When waitress Rosa Rubinsky (Regina Baff) tires of serving food, she decides to change her career and become a professional wrestler named “The Mexican Spitfire.” She receives training from wrestling legend Mildred Burke (playing herself) who helps her work her way toward the top as Rosa Carlo “The Mexican Spitfire”.
One night wrestling promoter Bobby Fox (John C. Becher) witnesses Rosa physically handle the unwanted advances of a co-worker. Fox thinks she looks like a natural for the sport despite she being diminutive in size.
Rosa is sent to professional wrestling school, and then on the road with Bobby’s stable of wrestlers to watch and learn. In both situations, what Rosa also learns is that there is much camaraderie amongst the wrestlers out of emotional need as it is a lonely life. While some look for their soul mate within their traveling partners, others just want a body – any body – to keep them warm at night. She also learns the pros and cons of the sport itself.
Danger arises as Rosa’s first professional wrestling first is to be against Terrible Tommy J. (Jane O’Brien), the queen of the sport. Although professional wrestling is acting more than anything, Tommy, who has forty pounds over Rosa, often treats it like real life to exert her power and superiority over her colleagues, who she sees more as competitors wanting to dethrone her.
The film is based on Rosalyn Drexler’s autobiography To Smithereens. Drexler wrote the novel because she hated her time as a wrestler but thought it should not be wasted, and she should “at least get a book out of it.
In the autobiography it was Billy Wolfe, who was organizing a women’s wrestling team. After having to call her husband for permission, Drexler went down in Florida to train, wrestle, and tour under the character of “Rosa Carlo, the Mexican Spitfire. She did it out of a need to “get away from this family thing for a while…[it] was too much for [her]”. While on tour, she wrestled in odd places such as a graveyard and an airplane-hangar. There is also a photo of her getting ready with an advertisement that she would be fighting Mae Young, a famous professional wrestler. She went on tour around the country, but returned home after becoming upset about racism in the southern states, such as segregated seating and water fountains. Andy Warhol made a series of silkscreen paintings based on a photograph of Drexler as Rosa Carlo
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Yuen Biao plays a champion fencer who disposes of his rivals with startling ability. Biao is also a student, writing an essay on the Ming Dynasty, which is received favorably by his tutor, Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, Zombie Tidal Wave aims to pick up where the Sharknado franchise left off. More serious in tone, the film plays more like the original Sharknado Read more
Zombie Hotel ran for twenty-six episodes in 2006 and focuses on Fungus and Maggot - two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXhCDspKxU Read more
After surviving the 'Multipocalypse', Ben tries to live a normal life, hiding the fact that he is infected with a zombie plague. His new friends have just found out ... Read more
A dutiful Samurai, a madcap Ninja and a bizarro Zen Monk team up to battle the undead in Feudal Japan. Can these unlikely allies stay friends long enough to stop Read more
Based on Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen's book of the same name, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was directed by Kenneth Johnson and set in the year 2049. It Read more
Directed by Keita Amemiya, Zeiram follows two intergalatic bounty hunters named Iria (Yûko Moriyama) and Bob (Masakazu Handa) who accept a job to apprehend Zeiram (Mizuho Yoshida) on a planet Read more
Arriving in 2010, Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City was the sequel for 2004's Zebraman, and starred Show Aikawa once again as Shinichi Ichikawa/Zebraman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqnYJugzaiU As the film opens it Read more
Directed by Takashi Miike, Zebraman follows Shinichi Ichikawa (Shô Aikawa), a man whose life is unravelling before his eyes. At work he is a failing school teacher and at home he Read more
Ryan Reynolds announced via Twitter that Zazie Beets (Atlanta) will play Domino in the upcoming Deadpool sequel: https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/839947701487796224 Deadpool 2 will be directed by David Leitch (John Wick), with original Deadpool scripters Rhett Reese Read more
Zardoz, often referred to as "the one where James Bond is in his pants," is set in a future post-apocalypse Earth in the year 2293. By this point in history Read more
Brett Summers
Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
More Stories
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1921)
Celia: Child of Terror (1989)
River’s Edge (1986)