The story of The Working Girls
The Working Girls is a 1974 crime comedy that centers on a group of women who find themselves entangled in the criminal underworld. Rather than play the sidekick roles that Hollywood typically assigned to women in heist and crime narratives, these characters drive the action themselves. The film follows their schemes, their survival tactics, and the complicated relationships that form as they navigate a world designed to chew them up and spit them out. It's a premise that sounds straightforward enough, but Rothman's execution — mixing comedy with genuine danger — gives the material unexpected texture.
Behind the making of The Working Girls
Stephanie Rothman directed The Working Girls during a period when she was one of the few women working in exploitation and B-movie cinema, a space where genre filmmakers could experiment with unconventional narratives. The cast includes Sarah Kennedy, Laurie Rose, Mark Thomas, Lynne Guthrie, Ken Del Conte, Solomon Sturges, and Eugene Elman. Released in 1974, the film arrived during a transitional moment in American cinema — the New Hollywood era was winding down, but independent and lower-budget productions still had room to take risks. The film earned an R rating, which at the time signaled adult content without the restrictions of later classifications. While The Working Girls didn't become a box-office juggernaut, it developed a following among those who discovered it through repertory screenings and, later, through specialty streaming platforms like MUBI. The film received one award nomination, a modest recognition that reflected its status as a cult item rather than a mainstream success. What's striking is how Rothman's work — both this film and her broader career — has been reassessed in recent years as critics and historians have looked back at women filmmakers working outside the studio system.
What makes The Working Girls stand out
The performances anchor the film in a way that keeps the comedy grounded. Kennedy, Rose, and the ensemble cast play these women not as caricatures or victims, but as resourceful people making calculated choices in impossible situations. There's a chemistry between them that suggests real friendship and real stakes. Rothman doesn't wink at the audience or ask us to condescend to her characters — instead, she trusts the performers to find humor in the absurdity of their circumstances without sacrificing the tension of the plot. The thing nobody mentions is how much the film relies on ensemble timing. When a heist or con goes sideways, we believe the panic because the actors have established enough rapport that we understand what each person stands to lose. The screenplay balances comedy beats with moments of genuine peril, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Too much humor and the stakes evaporate; too much grimness and the film becomes a slog. Rothman finds a middle path — dark, funny, a little grimy, and surprisingly human. I keep coming back to the fact that in 1974, this kind of female-centered crime narrative was genuinely unusual. It wasn't a token female character in a male-dominated heist. It was women running the show, making the decisions, and living with the consequences. That shift in perspective changes everything about how the story plays out.
Where to stream The Working Girls online
The Working Girls is currently available on MUBI, the specialty streaming platform known for curating art-house, independent, and cult cinema. MUBI's programming philosophy — rotating a carefully selected library of films — makes it an ideal home for a title like this one. The platform has become essential for anyone hunting down films that fall outside the mainstream algorithmic recommendations of Netflix or Prime Video. If you're browsing Movie OTT, you'll find the full list of current streaming availability in the "Where to Watch" widget at the top of this page, which tracks where The Working Girls is streaming across all major platforms in real time. MUBI's subscription model gives you access to the full catalog, and The Working Girls sits comfortably among the platform's collection of 1970s genre cinema and women-directed films.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed The Working Girls?
Stephanie Rothman directed The Working Girls in 1974. Rothman was a pioneering female filmmaker who worked extensively in B-movies and exploitation cinema, using those genres as a vehicle for unconventional storytelling and social commentary.
Q: What is the plot of The Working Girls?
The film follows a group of women navigating the criminal underworld through schemes, cons, and heists. Rather than being passive characters in a crime narrative, they're the active agents driving the story forward.
Q: Is The Working Girls based on a true story?
No, The Working Girls is a fictional crime comedy. While it captures the texture and atmosphere of 1970s crime cinema, it's an original screenplay rather than an adaptation of real events.
Q: Where can I watch The Working Girls?
The Working Girls is currently streaming on MUBI. For the most up-to-date availability across all platforms, check the "Where to Watch" widget at the top of this page on Movie OTT.
Q: What's the IMDb rating for The Working Girls?
The film has a 5.5 out of 10 rating on IMDb based on 353 votes. This modest score reflects the film's cult status — it's the kind of movie that develops passionate defenders rather than universal acclaim.
Final thoughts on The Working Girls
The Working Girls won't appeal to everyone. It's a product of its era, with all the rough edges and imperfect pacing that entails. But for viewers interested in 1970s crime cinema, women-directed films, or just the odd, inventive margins of American genre filmmaking, it's worth seeking out. Rothman's film is a reminder that interesting stories were being told outside the studio system, and that sometimes the best discoveries come from digging through the archives rather than scrolling through algorithms. If you've got a taste for cult cinema and you're already on MUBI, don't skip it.
