Mugsy's Girls

Year releasted: 1985

by Keith Phipps
August 29th, 2001

Studies have determined that staying lively through the twilight years is key to living a longer, happier life. But in a culture that too often undervalues its older members' contributions, that's not as easy as it sounds. One recent trend has seen retirees relocating to college towns, where they can enjoy a wide range of activities in a relaxed campus setting. Anticipating that trend by more than a decade, the 1985 comedy Mugsy's Girls stars Ruth Gordon as an octogenarian house mother who takes the move to campus one step further by partying it up with her charges in the notorious Delta Pi house. The DPs are the shame of the campus: Constantly strapped for cash, the sorority must resort to all sorts of schemes to stay financially afloat. But none of those stratagems proves quite as profitable as mud wrestling. When a traveling wrestling promoter (James Marcel) and his nerdy sidekick (Eddie Deezen) pass through town, they talk the women of Delta Pi into entering a Las Vegas mud-wrestling tournament. Soon, the whole sorority--from alpha-woman Laura Branigan to its tiniest member, a pot-smoking bunny named Teacup--hits the road for Sin City. Stranded after a run-in with their notorious rivals in the Nevada Nasties, the would-be Chynas hitch the rest of the way, while Marcel forges ahead in a flying machine of Deezen's invention. After a night of boozing and gambling, the DPs learn that unscrupulous local gambler Steve Brodie has bet heavily against them, and wants to insure a loss to the Nasties. Determined to defy him, they embark on a last-ditch training effort. But when the big night comes, their team is short one member--until Gordon, staying a little more active than even the most liberal-minded doctors usually recommend, steps into the ring. After one more showdown with Brodie's henchmen and a bombastic, Branigan-performed theme song, Gordon, the coeds, and Teacup all embark on the path to academic success, their financial troubles sewn up at last.