Girl in Gold Boots

94 min.CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Girl in Gold Boots is a 1968 crime/drama film about the seedy underworld of go-go dancing, directed by Ted V. Mikels, who also directed The Astro-Zombies. It was Mikels' first movie for his own company, Gemini.^[1]

Michele is a young woman working with her abusive father at a diner. She quits her waitressing job when she meets a patron, Buz, who initially came in to rob the place at gunpoint instead invites her to Los Angeles where he promises Michele his sister, the famous Joan Nichols, can land her a job as a dancer at a Hollywood nightclub. The two drive off to L.A. and pick up a traveling musician, Critter. Once in Hollywood, Michele immediately lands a job as a go-go dancer, Critter as a janitor, and Buz as a drug dealer. Michele soon discovers Buz is heavily involved in the underbelly of the club scene and she becomes witness to the club's drug trade and prostitution connections.

• Jody Daniels as Finley 'Critter' Jones
• Leslie McRay as Michele Casey (as Leslie McRae)
• Tom Pace as Buz Nichols
• Mark Herron as Leo McCabe
• Bara Byrnes as Joanie Nichols
• William Bagdad as Marty
• Victor Izay as Mr. Casey
• Harry Lovejoy as Harry Blatz
• James Victor as Joey
• Rod Wilmoth as Officer
• Chris Howard as Chris
• Mike Garrison as Station Attendant
• Michael Derrick as Car Attendant
• Sheila Roberts as Store Clerk
• Dennis Childs as Jail Inmate

In 2001, Image Entertainment released the Region 1 DVD of Girl in Gold Boots.^[2] This version is now out-of-print. In 2007, a Region 0 DVD of the movie was released by Alpha Video.^[3]

Girl in Gold Boots was obscure for many years after its release, until it featured as a Season 10 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Apparent skips in the print used in the television program led to some amusing continuity problems, including a scene in a diner in which Buz suddenly appears in his seat next to Michele and Critter as if he teleports in during their conversation.^[4] One DVD release (from MMI Image Entertainment, using a print from Geneni Film Distributing Company), shows the scene without the unintentional "teleport" skip but has its own continuity breaks, suggesting two different prints of the original film were used.^[5]

Nearly half of the songs in this music-laden movie, including the title song, were written by singer-songwriter and sound engineer Chris Howard, who appears as himself and is backed by a band called "The Third World" in the credits (not to be confused with the reggae band Third World). One scene features bongo player Preston Epps, who had achieved some fame a decade earlier with his 1959 pop hit, "Bongo Rock". In fact, Epps is listed in the opening credits as "that Bongo Rock man."

• Girl in Gold Boots at IMDb
• Girl in Gold Boots at AllMovie
• Girl in Gold Boots at Rotten Tomatoes
• Original soundtrack on official Bandcamp page