Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The Roommates Blu-ray Movie Review

California Dreaming

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 23, 2015

Like many more famous directors, including Sydney Pollack, Richard Donner and Robert Altman (to name just a few), Arthur Marks learned his craft directing episodic television, including over seventy episodes of the landmark legal drama Perry Mason, which ran on CBS from 1957 through 1966. Marks was literally born into the film industry, growing up on the MGM lot where his father worked a variety of jobs and appearing as an extra in numerous films. Studio head Louis B. Mayer knew him by name, as he knew all of the regulars on the lot.

But Marks's career took a different path, as the old studio system crumbled in the Sixties and Seventies under the multiple pressures of economic stress, a changing culture and the continued onslaught of competition from TV. As both producer and director, Marks chose to focus on the drive-in market that the studios considered beneath them. In that long-past era, drive-ins were one of the favorite locales to see films deemed less than respectable, including horror and the general category dubbed "exploitation", which today would probably be called soft-core porn. In those days, though, the legal landscape was sufficiently rocky that filmmakers showing sex and nudity had to be sure to include "socially redeeming value", and Marks had enough self-respect as a filmmaker that he always included a story. His connections in Hollywood were good enough that he often got real actors.

Gorgon Video, one of the specialty labels under the umbrella of MPI Media, is issuing restored versions of two films from the Marks canon on DVD and Blu-ray. Released theatrically in 1973, The Roommates was the first film to be distributed by General Film Corporation, the company Marks created to eliminate obstacles he had encountered obtaining distribution for previous projects.

The Roommates stirs together several stories without much concern for whether they match. (Marks makes it clear in the newly recorded commentary that his goal was primarily to keep the viewer interested.) The first story is that of four college women on a summer holiday, supposedly sharing a house (though we rarely see them together), along with a fifth and younger girl who is the cousin of one of the main characters. Their romantic misadventures with a variety of men are the film's main focus. Indeed, the opening scenes in which Heather (Pat Woodell), Beth (Roberta Collins), Carla (Marki Bey) and Brea (Laurie Rose) anticipate their summer activities could be taken as a kind of parody of contemporary feminism (which was in its earliest stages at the time), as the ladies anticipate their summer activities with a new-found sense of freedom.

A second story line begins when the women reach their summer destination at California's Lake Arrowhead, where much of The Roommates was filmed on location. Brea's summer job has her acting as a camp counselor to a group of hormonal teenagers, whose antics thread in and out of the film and eventually become a major part of Brea's story. The other women all have their individual tales (e.g., Heather's affair with an older, married man), but Brea's acquires a special quality as fantasy because of her close proximity to so many young boys. Think Tea and Sympathy, but with a bikini.

The third story—which put Marks ahead of the curve, when you consider that the original Friday the 13th would not appear for another seven years—is that of the psycho-slasher stalking the innocent fun. The first body doesn't turn up until midway through the film, and it doesn't seem to dampen anyone's sexual enthusiasm. Even as other victims fall, the partying continues, right up to the grand finale, when the killer mounts a full-out assault on an outdoor bacchanal on an elevated terrace so open and exposed that the partygoers are practically begging to be shot down. By this point, anyone who hasn't already identified the killer hasn't been paying attention, but I will forgo the obvious reference from which the screenwriters (Marks and actor John Durren) borrowed their villain.

The actresses are all pretty and charming. Opinions may vary on whether or not they can act, but characters in movies of this kind aren't meant to be realistic or convincing. The Roommates exists in an alternate reality that, like the drive-ins where it played, is now a historical artifact of an era that is now long past, lost in the mists of time.

The Roommates Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The source for Gorgon Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of The Roommates was not identified, but the company has provided a surprisingly well-defined and detailed image for a low-budget film from forty years ago. As one might expect, there is major damage in the form of scratches and blotches in the opening titles, where optical printing often locks in such issues, but the bulk of the film is in remarkably good shape. Colors are bright and vivid, which is important for both the locations of this film and the Seventies decor. The image has natural grain to it, although I cannot discount the possibility that some light degraining may have been applied to certain shots. Fortunately no artificial sharpening has coarsened the grain or otherwise marred the image.

Because Gorgon is supplying The Roommates on a double-feature Blu-ray with a second Arthur Marks film, the 87-minute feature has been mastered with an average bitrate of only 21.99 Mbps. While this is somewhat low for a feature originated on film, The Roommates does not involve many edits (a point discussed in the commentary) or major action, so that a skilled compressionist can accomplish a lot with a little. Even with print damage, the image appeared to be free of artifacts.

The Roommates Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Roommates' original mono soundtrack is presented in lossless PCM 2.0 with identical left and right channels. The dialogue is clear, but the sound effects are frequently flat, which is strictly a function of the original recordings. The gunshots in the climactic sequence are particularly anemic. From a storytelling perspective, the soundtrack gets the job done, and in the days when the effects were pumped through a drive-in loudspeaker attached to a car door, I suspect no one noticed any deficiency.

The Roommates Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Arthur Marks: Interviewed by Elijah Drenner of Gorgon Video, Marks discusses both The Roommates and his career in general. His comments on the film are largely directed to casting, logistics and the general outline of the script. Of greater interest by far is his account of his career at MGM and in television, as well as the history of General Film Corporation as a distributor for films produced and/or directed by Marks and geared toward the drive-in circuit.



• Roommates Wanted: Featurette with Arthur Marks and Roberta Collins (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 11:34): Interviewed separately, Marks and Collins ("Beth") discuss their recollections of making the film. Marks's comments largely repeat those on the commentary, but Collins offers an invaluable perspective from a cast member's point of view. Although the featurette bears a copyright date of 2014, the interview with Collins was recorded in 2007, one year before her death at the age of 63.

The Roommates Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Roommates is a vintage film and has to be watched with that mindset. Anyone watching it expecting contemporary entertainment will almost certainly be bored. But if you want to see a classy example of Seventies exploitation cinema, this is some of the best. Gorgon Video's presentation probably looks better than many drive-in showings and, on that basis, the Blu-ray is recommended.