Extremely lowbudget nudie offers pretty tame content for a 1969 entry. Undercover reporter Melody Anthem investigates goings-on at Miss Grundy's Finishing School and finds (surprise) that a lot of sex is taking place here. It takes about 3 minutes to get Melody's clothes off; everyone else is already nekkid. For the next 50 mins the actors recite dialogue that sounds semi-improvised and simulate sex -- not very convincingly, for the greater part.
The chief adornment of this no-frills pic is an early performance by the wonderful Barbara Caron (aka Barbara Mills). She has a sex scene, pretty silly, with an older guy playing the school janitor and even tries out her Irish accent. It's not bad, and neither is her acting, even though the script was probably written on a matchbook cover. Her encounter with Suzanne Fields is a little more realistic-looking, but the erotic level is not helped by Cuisinart editing. It looks as if the scene was shot in full from 3 or 4 angles and all of that footage was then spliced together in short cuts, in random order. Or, more likely, much of the picture was shot on film ends, making short takes mandatory. Even in 1969-70 money, it's hard to imagine the budget went much over $1000.
The first scene, with the setup, has a lot of annoying snips in the available print, mostly cutting expository dialogue. If you were watching it for plot you would find this a little frustrating. The cast are enthusiastic enough but the overall trend here is toward silly, rather than sexy. Raincoaters of 1970 probably found this film fairly unsatisfying, but it also doesn't have much that would appeal to the serious film student.
School Scandals is recommended only to two groups of enthusiasts:
a: those who feel they _must_ see every film of this genre ever made (Who, me?)
b: admirers of Barbara Caron who are willing to watch even the dippiest tripe in order to catch another glimpse of her beauty and charm (Guilty, as charged)
The chief adornment of this no-frills pic is an early performance by the wonderful Barbara Caron (aka Barbara Mills). She has a sex scene, pretty silly, with an older guy playing the school janitor and even tries out her Irish accent. It's not bad, and neither is her acting, even though the script was probably written on a matchbook cover. Her encounter with Suzanne Fields is a little more realistic-looking, but the erotic level is not helped by Cuisinart editing. It looks as if the scene was shot in full from 3 or 4 angles and all of that footage was then spliced together in short cuts, in random order. Or, more likely, much of the picture was shot on film ends, making short takes mandatory. Even in 1969-70 money, it's hard to imagine the budget went much over $1000.
The first scene, with the setup, has a lot of annoying snips in the available print, mostly cutting expository dialogue. If you were watching it for plot you would find this a little frustrating. The cast are enthusiastic enough but the overall trend here is toward silly, rather than sexy. Raincoaters of 1970 probably found this film fairly unsatisfying, but it also doesn't have much that would appeal to the serious film student.
School Scandals is recommended only to two groups of enthusiasts:
a: those who feel they _must_ see every film of this genre ever made (Who, me?)
b: admirers of Barbara Caron who are willing to watch even the dippiest tripe in order to catch another glimpse of her beauty and charm (Guilty, as charged)