Rumor has it that Quentin Tarantino once called Maria Ford one of his favorite B-movie actresses. Back in the late 80's and early 90's it is easy to see why as Ford starred in a number of Roger Corman-produced movies including Burial of the Rats, Deathstalker IV, Angel of Destruction, and Alien Terminator. To B-movie fans like myself, we mostly remember Maria from a number of stripper-themed movies she did for Corman such as Stripped To Kill II, Showgirl Murders, Strip For Action, and this movie, Stripteaser. Of the Ford movies I have seen, this one is the most memorable mostly due to the script by Duane Whitaker and the performance by co-star Rick Dean.

Ford stars as Christina, a stripper at a club called Zipper's Clown Palace that has one of the best front entrances that I have seen other than the Titty Twister. It is established during the first of three strip numbers that Ford performs that she has a big fan in a stuttering nerd named Carey (Lance August). Before long, an obnoxious blind dude (Rick Dean) walks into the club and in between downing shots at the bar, he begins to get mouthy towards the bartender and some of the patrons. By the time the third stripping sequence is over (courtesy of a bored looking Nikki Fritz), Dean whips off his glasses and pulls out a gun. The remainder of the film consists of Dean holding Ford, Fritz, and a number of patrons hostage while waxing philosophical about everything from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest to why people rape. He also manages to get a lap dance from doe-eyed Ann-Marie Holman and force Christina and Carey to have sex in a back room. The tension mounts as the hostages try to find a way to end the situation.

As I said earlier, the real star of the show here is Dean who commands the screen and pulls off one of the best B-movie psychos since Wings Hauser in Vice Squad. Dean is for the most part cool and collected as he talks to his hostages and we slowly learn about what his motivation is. This guy is slowly revealed to be a twisted pervert and he relies more on humiliation than torture as he belittles the various characters. Dean made quite an impression when I first saw this movie in the mid-90's and I have always remembered his performance. The other actors all do a good job working off of Dean and Maria Ford has come a long way from the bad acting in Stripped To Kill II. The script from Duane Whitaker was a lot talkier than many movies of this sort and this is one of the better entries in the stripper subgenre due to the dialogue. Cult movie fans will know Whitaker as the pawnshop owner who housed the gimp with the help of Zed in Pulp Fiction.

Ford has changed a lot in recent years after denouncing the nudity in her B-movies in a documentary entitled Some Nudity Required. During the 90's, Maria had a bunch of surgery done including breast implants, some face work, and a new hair color. Why she did this I will never understand as she looks like a completely different person but I suppose that is what Hollywood can do to some actresses. Stripteaser shows that Ford is more than just tits and ass (although she shows both quite a bit in her three dance sequences). It's too bad that she thought she had it so bad in films of this type as she could probably have enjoyed a lengthy career on par with Linnea Quigley and Brinke Stevens.

Speaking of Quigley, look for her as a waitress at the beginning of the film. You can also see John Lazar (Beyond The Valley of the Dolls) as a bar patron in a green shirt. The bartender was played by R.A. Mihailoff who is probably best known for playing Leatherface in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. (Josh Pasnak, 12/3/06)

Directed By: Dan Golden.
Written By: Duane Whitaker.

Starring: Maria Ford, Rick Dean, Nikki Fritz, Lance August.