Martine Bartlett, an American actress, made her mark in the 1960s and 1970s with memorable performances in cult cinema. She appears as a pivotal character in Kansas City Bomber (1972), where her role adds a layer of complexity to the gritty world of roller derby. In Splendor in the Grass (1961), she captures the emotional turmoil of adolescence, while her comedic timing shines in Lord Love a Duck (1966). Bartlett's work contributes to the unique fabric of exploitation and cult films, showcasing her range across various genres.
Kansas City Bomber
The film is an inside look at the world of Roller Games, then a popular league sport-entertainment, a more theatrical version of roller derby. The story focuses on K.C. Carr, who has just left her former team in Kansas City, Missouri, to start her life as a single mother over again in Portland, Oregon, with a team called the Portland Loggers. Loggers' owner Burt Henry is clearly interested in her, and he and K.C. date. Henry has a rather ruthless side to him: he trades away K.C.'s best friend on the team, and when he sees that star male skater "Horrible" Hank Hopkins (Norman Alden) is interested in her, he manipulates the audience into booing Hopkins, causing him to go crazy and lose his job. Henry's endgame is to set up a match race between K.C. and her teammate and rival Jackie Burdette, with K.C. deliberately losing so that she can join Henry at a new team he's setting up in Chicago. However, K.C. no longer trusts Henry (or his promises to let her bring her daughter along) and wins the match race. Roller derby skater K.C. Carr tries to balance her desire for a happy personal life and her dreams of stardom.
