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Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling
Koch Lorber Films

Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 62 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Penny Banner, Lillian Ellison, Gladys Gillem, Judy Grable, Ida May Martinez, Ella Waldek, and Mae Young

This documentary shines a spotlight on the forgotten first ladies of the ring. Each woman reflects on her own remarkable life with fond and bitter memories, reconciling a wild, flamboyant youth with the reality of getting older and fading away. (Ruthless Films)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
DIRECTED BY: Ruth Leitman  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: September 6, 2005 
Theatrical: March 25, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes, B/W / Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
An entertaining look at a genuinely offbeat subject.
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75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Dynamite perfectly describes this riveting documentary.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
The film dwells more on the sensationalistic aspects than the sport itself but it's impossible to deny the tawdry entertainment value in this compelling film tabloid.
Read Full Review
70
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Generous, slyly tough-minded documentary.
Read Full Review
70
Slate David Edelstein
What a gutsy, sad, seize-the-day, glorious life it was for the women warriors of Lipstick & Dynamite.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
What makes Lipstick & Dynamite its own animal is that, intentionally or not, the director has allowed something else into the mix, a glimpse of the unvarnished and the unsanitized.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Highly entertaining and frequently fascinating.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
The women, many in their 70s and 80s, are still tough and proud--and nursing grudges that go back decades, something Leitman plays up by crosscutting between rivals' accounts.
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70
Variety David Rooney
Smart assembly of terrific archive footage is matched by spirited interviews with the tough old broads today.
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70
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Leitman gets some wonderful tall tales from her subjects, who open up like they've been waiting for years for someone to come along and ask, and she complements it with punishing footage of their exploits.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The documentary visits elderly women who, then and now, can best be described as tough broads, and listens as they describe the early days of women's wrestling. What they say is not as revealing as how they say it.
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63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Brad Wheeler
The best gal wrestlers had their signature moves: Ida May Martinez, with her flying drop kick; Ella Waldek, with the "short-arm scissor lift." Filmmaker Leitman, for all her good work, is in need of a close-out manoeuvre of her own.
Read Full Review
60
The New York Times Stephen Holden
This visually stylish work, with its vintage glamour photos, film and television clips, and snippets from a 1951 B-movie, "Racket Girls," is more of a scrapbook than a coherent history of the sport during its rough-and-tumble infancy.
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50
New York Post Russell Scott Smith
Offers plenty of fun, nostalgic footage of 1950s pro lady wrestlers kicking butt.
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50
Village Voice Jessica Winter
Leitman's interviews are lax and inconclusive.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
At its best, the movie is a collection of entertaining memories from a group of gutsy women.
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50
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Leitman has unearthed a terrific collection of vintage footage - yet, as if doubtful about holding our interest, she skims too quickly over the historical background.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jim G. gave it a6:
Leitman has drawn out, mostly in the unspoken moments, a wonderful story of contrast: paths chosen and unchosen, modesty and arrogance, school learning and school of hard knocks. In many ways these women inhabit a world of their own but their story says a lot about the world around them. What fun.

Carla M. gave it a10:
This movie was such a great experience to go through. I went in the theatre thinking that this was going to be a movie about wrestling, and I came out understanding that this film is about strong, confident, and amazing women! I loved it!

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