EDITOR’S NOTE: Mugsy’s Girls was on USA Up All Night on June 26, 1992; July 14, September 3 and December 3, 1993; February 5, April 4 and May 7, 1994.
“Everybody knows wrestling is fixed.”
Also known as Delta Pi, this is a movie where the stakes are simple, classic and absurd. A group of sorority sisters discovers that the Delta Pi house is facing imminent financial ruin. Their solution? Packing their bags for Las Vegas to compete in a high-stakes mud wrestling tournament.
They’re led by Monica, who is played by Laura Brannigan, who was already well-known at this point for her covers of Umberto Tozzi’s “Gloria” and “Self Control.” Somehow, for some reason, she does not sing in this movie. As for Mugsy, that’s Ruth Gordon in the last movie she would ever film.
The girls — Jacqueline (Estrellita, who also had several hit songs in her native Spain), stoner Magic (Joanna Dierck), Karen (Rebecca Forstadt), Sharon (Candace Pandolfo), Laurie (Kristi Somers, who has the best background for this kind of movie, as she’s also in Hardbodies, Savage Streets and Tomboy) — meet Shawn (James Wilder) and his partner Lane (Eddie Deezen, how else would you have a USA Up All Night movie without him?), who bring them to Vegas to take place in a mud wrestling tournament, which I guess was a thing in 1984.
Of course, the whole thing is run by the mob, led by the evil Jack Enoff (Steve Brodie). He even wants to kill the Delta Pi mascot, a bunny. As for the evil mud wrestling women, the Nevada Nasties, they’re Lungs (Annie Ample, who did adult as San Diego Annie and came up with the idea for Olympus Force: The Key), Terrible Tawny (Dee Booher, who was Queen Kong in roller derby and Matilda the Hun in GLOW), Madame Antoinette (Tantala Ray, who is also in Slammer Girls and Assault of the Party Nerds using the name Darcy Nychols), the very Cats on steroids Fang (a one-and-done role for an actress named Pillow), Mauling Mama (Katlyn Miller) and Bronco Billy (Cherie Standerfer). To add a little pro wrestling/boxing glamor, Jimmy Lennon Sr. is the ring announcer.
Director and writer Kevin Brodie only made two other movies: a C. Thomas Howell racing movie, Treacherous and A Dog of Flanders, which is the kind of message movie I try to avoid. He also acted in The Giant Spider Invasion and produced a 1981 VHS release of Female Mud Wrestling Championships, which explains a lot about this movie. I have to track this down, as Adam West and Rory Calhoun were the coaches and Marianne Marks from Russ Meyer’s Up! is the host.
While Laura Branigan was the star power, the heavy lifting on the soundtrack was actually handled by Joanna Dierck, who was married to Brodie. There’s a synth part that sounds a ton like “Automatic” by the Pointer Sisters that plays several times.
This suffered through the classic 80s distribution shuffle. It debuted in various markets throughout 1985 as Delta Pi, but by the time it hit the burgeoning home video market in 1986, it was rebranded as Mugsy’s Girls.
If you ever wanted to see Ruth Gordon mud wrestling, this is made for you.
Here’s Laura Brannigan introducing the 40th-anniversary screening.
You can watch this on Tubi.
