Plot: Honey (Sarah Kennedy) has big hopes when she arrives in Los Angeles, but she doesn’t have much of a plan to make things happen. Things look up a little when she meets Denise (Laurie Rose), who lets her move into her apartment while she tries to find some work. When Denise sleeps with a man Honey brings home, it causes some tension, but soon all is forgiven. Honey soon finds potential work, but it turns out to be a woman looking for someone to murder her husband. This leads to Honey helping the police catch the woman, which catches the eye of a strange man seeking a paid companion. Honey then works for the man, just kind of sitting around doing nothing and of course, she complains constantly. At the same time, Denise’s other roommate Jill (Lynn Guthrie) tries to supplement her income by moving from a waitress to an exotic dancer. Will these hard working women ever catch a break?

Entertainment Value: Despite the film’s title, The Working Girls is not about prostitutes, but three women just trying to make ends meet. There are scenes at a strip club and some naked girls, but this isn’t as seedy as you might expect. The women are sharp, strong minded characters, doing what needs to be done to survive. Stephanie Rothman made some very good exploitation movies, but The Working Girls is more of a comedy than in line with those. She empowers the female characters and makes the guys either dumb or criminal, but the feminism isn’t too preachy beyond that. Even so, some are bound to be disappointed when this isn’t an exploitation film filled with tits & ass, so come for the movie, not the grindhouse thrills. The story works well enough, with solid writing throughout, while the cast is more than adequate. Kennedy can be a little grating at times, but she’s still fun to watch here. Hard to recommend this to exploitation fans, but seeing Elvira’s lone nude movie appearance and the overall sexually liberated atmosphere might be enough to rope them in.

As I said above, The Working Girls features the only movie nude scene from Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira. She performs a skilled striptease routine that both entertains and titillates. Of course, she has more graphic nude photos out there as well, but this is your one chance to see her topless in a movie. The movie also has other topless moments, as well as some bare female and male ass on showcase. What, haven’t you ever seen a banana before? No blood in this one. The writing is more than solid, but doesn’t really yield much in terms of memorable dialogue. A line here and there, but that’s about it in this case. On the insanity scale, The Working Girls scores low since it never really gets wild, but its still a solid picture.

Nudity: 4/10

Blood: 0/10

Dialogue: 1/10

Overall Insanity: 1/10