Movie review - "Summer School Teachers" (1974) *** (re-watching)

Fun. Good work from Barbara Peeters - like Stephanie Rothman she had a big New World hit with a three girl movie, but couldn't graduate to anything bigger.

It's breezy and bright. I think her touch was lighter than Rothman's who put in that abortion sequence and had the drug tripping in The Student Nurses. The politics are still there - Pat Anderson sticks up for male nudity to be the same as female, while Candice Rialson wants the girls to play football. 

Rhonda Leigh Hopkins has an interesting character, or at least starts off so with her conservative father, but her plot isn't that much - with an aggressive rapey student who she falls in love with. It doesn't click.

Anderson is stunning and lots of fun as the art teaher dealing with the male chauvinist, posing nude. The food fetish stuff is not funny - these movies always had lots of unfunny comic bits. 

But the star is Rialson, feisty and sexy, outsmarting Dick Miller, seducing the nerd teacher, never losing her pep.

Movie review - "Candy Stripe Nurses" (1974) **1/2 (rewatching)

 Half a good film. Robin Mattson and Candice Rialson are among the best ever nurses. Mattson is classy and uptight, posh and smart and has a hot sex relationship that turns to love with a basketball player who is hooked on performance drugs. This is all strong.

Rialson is a ditzy sex positive type who sets out to bed a rock star. She's great. The idea has promise. But it's not developed well. Her motivation seems unclear. It's not that funny. Rialson, as she so often would be, is better than her material.

Mario Rojo is left hanging. She plays a feisty character but looks too young, barely gets a chance to engage with the other girls, doesn't even have a romance with the guy (she dreams their sex scenes). Too much screen time is spent with her investigating, asking questions.

The nude scenes are well done - they really knew how to film naked actresses by this stage, showing full body but not everything. Rialson and Mattson seem completely at home.

I liked the title tune too.

I can understand why audiences didn't go - no camraderie too much padding - but it's one of the stronger of the series and I would put Rialson and Mattson in my top five of nurses from this series along with Karen Carlson, Barbara Leigh and Patti Byrne.

Movie review - "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976) *** (re-watching)

 I've seen this a lot. I have such affection for it.

Random thoughts

- the rape sequence is very unpleasant but it does show Candice Rialson to be genuinely traumatised by it. And later on when watching the film at the drive in she's traumatised again. And then is almost raped again in a scene played for comedy

- likewise in the scene where Tara Strohmeier is shot dead it has a real impact - ditto when Rita George is killed

- the love for movies is so endearing, the injokes, the names, the cut in footage, the whole vibe.

- the drive in sequence drags and isn't fun - rape played for gags isn't great

- the camraderie between the three girls is very lively and a shame there isn't more

- the romance between Jeffrey Kramer and Rialson is sweet

- the ace in the hole were the actors - everyone is good,Rialson is wonderful, Kramer amiable, but Mary Woronov and Paul Barrel are the stand outs. I really liked Rita George too she's very pretty and competent I'm surprised she didn't have more of a career

- sometimes the exploitation is awkward (the wet T shirt scene), other times offensive (the rape sequence), other times very effective (the producer in bed with two girls, the three girls lying around topless) - I know Dante and Arkush didn't have their hearts in exploitaiton but they could do it well (eg slasher scene)

- the basic mystery is fine with clever leading that we think the killer is Kramer

Movie review - "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976) *** (re-watching)

 Fun, breezy, energetic, especially in the first half. The second half isn't as good. There's two really unpleasant rape sequences - one where Candice Rialson is being filmed, the other where a drive in operator has a go. This is not fun. There's the murder of Tara Strohmeier which feels nasty because she's such a warm person and she's so terrified and dies bloody - it's an effective slasher sequence I admit it just felt mean spirited.

Candice Rialson is splended, Strohmeier is great too and I also liked Rita George as the third girl. Jeffrey Kramer is an affable romantic lead but the breakouts are Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov. Dick Miller is solid as always and there's fun turns from people like Jonathan Kaplan.

Its love for filmmaking is so endearing that its faults are forgiven.

Movie review - "Stunts" (1977) **

Stuntmen became all the rage in the late 70s with films like Hooper and this. Robert Forster investigates the death of his brother in a stunt, leading to several more stunts.

The cast is very good - in addition to the always reliable Forster, there's Fiona Lewis (who gets some feminism - when a lech hits on her she agrees provided he brings some extra men along, and she looks like she'd go through with it), Candice Rialson (starlet who bedded the brother and hits on Forster), Richard Lynch, Bruce Glover, Ray Sharkey, Joanna Cassidy.

It was directed by Mark Lester of Commando fame. It's slowly paced - despite the stunts it's more a murder mystery and trogs along. It needed more exploitation fun. There's not even nudity.

Rialson is wasted in a stock slutty role though she does get a good dramatic moment when she's been beaten up. The film is progressive in some interesting ways - Cassidy is a fully fledged part of the stunt team.

The best feature is the acting - the cast is very good. Forster is an ideal laid back hero. But it's a bit slow. This was the first production from New Line Pictures.

The Cinema of Candice Rialson

For a few years in the mid 1970s, Candice Rialson was one of the most popular actors working in exploitation films. She was pretty, bright and vivacious, with an extremely likable screen presence and genuine flair for comedy. Her career fell victim to prejudice and her own lack of enthusiasm, but she nonetheless left behind a decent body of work, as well as inspiring the Bridget Fonda character in Jackie Brown (1997).

Rialson was born in 1951 in Santa Monica California, and grew up in Orange County. At eighteen she was crowned Miss Hermosa Beach, which led to a bit part in The Gay Deceivers (1969) and sparked her interest in an acting career. A lot of attractive girls want to be actors, especially in California, but Rialson, with her blonde hair, healthy build and peachy complexion, had an all-American look particularly perfect for the times (it was - or at least, was soon to be - the era of Farrah Fawcett Majors) and she received an offer to star in a low budget film called Pets (1973).

Rialson plays a hitchhiker who has a series of adventures: escaping from her controlling brother, being rescued by a black man, then kidnapping a sleazy married guy with a black girl she meets, picked up by a female artist (played by former Elvis Presley co-star Joan Blackman) for whom she poses and then makes love, and going to live with an artist who keeps her captive in his basement as a ‘pet’.  It’s an exploitation film but one with ambition - there are some interesting shot compositions, it attempts to tackle an odd sort of theme (it was based on a series of one act plays and each section deals with people trying to imprison Rialson), and there’s a few moments which genuinely surprise you (like where the black girl throws a dog off a cliff). The main reason to watch it is Rialson who has to carry the whole movie on her shoulders and is very impressive. It's an action-packed part: she seduces two men – her abductee (an older guy) and a burglar - and is seduced by a woman; she's very natural on screen, comfortable with her body, believable in the role and sexy as hell, although she doesn’t get to show off her comic ability, so effective in later films.

Rialson went on to be cast in episodes of TV series like Adam's Rib and Shaft and TV movies like The Girl on the Late Late Show (1974). Producer Julie Corman of New World Pictures then offered her the lead in Candy Stripe Nurses (1974). This was a "three girls" movie, a melodramatic subgenre which typically focused on the adventures of three female friends, mostly romantic, in some exciting profession. Three girl pictures had been around since the 1920s - notable examples include Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Three on a Match (1932), The Best of Everything (1959) and Valley of the Dolls (1967)  - but New World had given them a new lease of life with The Student Nurses (1971). This film, directed by Stephanie Rothman, took the formula and added more nudity, comedy and social  comment; it was a huge commercial success and led to New World making four more 'nurse' adventures (Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses, The Young Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses), two films about teachers (The Student Teachers, Summer School Teachers), and one each about flight attendants (Fly Me), models (Cover Girls) and actresses (Hollywood Boulevard) (Fly Me and Cover Girls were pick ups, the others were done in house). Jon Davison, producer of The Student Teachers and Hollywood Boulevard, said the formula was to take three professional women, give each of them their own story and mix in sex, humour and some social issues from a liberal perspective; Jonathan Kaplan, director of Night Call Nurses, said Roger Corman would insist on frontal nudity from waist up, full nudity from behind, and no pubic hair.  You could argue that other female-driven pictures at New World from this time were, in a way, also three girls movies, such as women-in-prison stories  (The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Women in Cages, The Hot Box, Caged Heat, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena) and women-turned-gangster tales (Big Bad Mama, Crazy Mama).

Candy Stripe Nurses was the fifth and final New World nurse picture. It was written and directed by Allan Holleb who later told Ari Bass the studio "wanted a little social consciousness, a little romance, a little comedy and a little sex. Another requirement was they wanted a sex clinic." The movie is bright, breezy fun, albeit with the inherit dodginess of 70s "tits feminism" exploitation filmmaking. The plot is typical of the genre: the three girls are candy stripe nurses at the same hospital; the sexpot blonde  (Rialson) tries to seduce a famous rock singer (the sexy comic plot), the uptight brunette (Robin Mattson) falls for a college basketball player who is being given speed by his coach (the kinky/medical issues plot), and the ethnic (Maria Rojo) tries to prove the innocence of a supposed armed robber (the political plot).

Rialson is vivacious and cheerful, delivering comic lines with aplomb and seeming almost wholesome as she constantly takes her clothes and off hops into bed with various men - she makes nudity and sex appear like natural, clean fun, never sleazy; you only wish she had a better storyline. Mattson also gives good value, and her romance with the jock is one of the best in the series; their seduction scenes in the gym are downright hot, because they're both clearly into it, and their characters have great inherent conflict (she's an uptown girl who wants to be a doctor, he's a sporty moron). However Rojo seem a bit too uncomfortably young for this sort of thing (although am I right in thinking that her sex scene was a dream sequence?). It doesn't help that she has to do her plot without the other girls whereas Rialson and Mattson get to be friends with one another; there is no sense of camaraderie between the three of them - it's like two movies, one with Rialson and Mattson, and Rojo off in her own storyline. I would count this as third best in the nurses series, after The Student Nurses  and Night Call Nurses. It's clunky but has an enjoyable theme song and  plenty of high spirits; Dick Miller, who was in a lot of these movies, has a small role as a heckler at a basketball game. 

Rialson went into another exploitation film, Mama's Dirty Girls (1974), made for the short-lived Premier Releasing Company. This follows the Big Bad Mama (1974) template  – a tough woman and her daughters use sex appeal to get what they want from men  - with Oscar winner Gloria Grahame in the lead and Rialson as one of her offspring; it’s a more evil character than the former Miss Hermosa Beach normally played, but she’s quite good as a sort of Lolita-esque tease, who delights in tormenting chubby men. There are two other daughters, all of whom show a lot of flesh, including an utterly gratuitous shot of Candice staring at herself in the mirror to open the film. The acting is fine and it’s a great concept – the girls look for men to seduce and kill – but the movie is never as much fun as you want it to be. They didn’t quite get the story right – the pace is too slow, unlike Big Bad Mama where there’s lots of action, here it’s mostly hanging around houses, and there’s no driving narrative. Also, who wants to watch a three girls film where the guys triumph?

Rialson had small parts in an episode of Maude and the TV movie Guilty or Innocent (1975) as well as the Clint Eastwood action flick The Eiger Sanction (1975); these were prestigious projects but her roles weren't great  - for instance in Eiger she was simply billed as "art student", and had just the one scene, throwing herself at Eastwood.

Rialson had a far better opportunity back at New World in Summer School Teachers (1975). It's one of the best of the studio's three girls movies, if not the best - and a lot of this is due to Rialson, playing a PE teacher who wants female students to play football and comes up against a sexist male coach (Dick Miller again). The other girls are Rhonda Leigh Fleming, who has an affair with a student, and Pat Anderson (veteran of Fly Me and Cover Girls), an art student who gets involved with another teacher and has a debate on pornography.

It’s high boisterious and amusing, a bit wonky in places (make that very wonky - in one scene you can see the boom in shot) but it flies along, with a lot of social comment (corruption, women sport, opportunity for women, etc) and a hilarious near-anarchic football game at the climax. It helps that the writer-director was a woman, Barbara Peeters, so the film feels like a screwball comedy rather than something sleazy. There is nudity – Rialson seduces a nerd teacher by a lake (and falls in), there's a more stylised sex scene involving Fleming which involves strobe lighting and ice cubes on the nipples (there's always a stylised sex scene in these pictures - there was an LSD one in The Student Nurses and a trippy one in Candy Stripe Nurses), and Anderson is frequently photographed with nothing on. But the women are confident and in control: they do most of the seducing,  they stick up for each other and the sisterhood, and the messages are mostly positive – girls should be able to do whatever boys can do, physical fitness is good, corruption is bad. This is the best character Rialson ever played – she’s spunky, full of energy, fights for girl sports, encourages her overweight neighbour to exercise, seduces the nerdy teacher because she likes him (Peeters isn’t afraid to show Rialson’s gut in this love scene), and she loves her rowdy dumb brothers. Good fun - and much better than New World's other 'three teachers' entry, The Student Teachers.

Rialson tried to break into studio films again, and was cast in one scene in Silent Movie (1976) as a nurse slapping Marty Feldman... but it was re-shot with another actress.  She was briefly in Logan's Run (1976).

New World came to the rescue a third time with Hollywood Boulevard (1976), a three girls movie about actresses, which was the debut directorial effort for the studio's in-house trailer editors, Joe Dante and Alan Arkush.The opening minutes of this features some sky diving stock footage, bare breasts and move in-jokes, pretty much setting the tone for the rest of the film, famously made as a bet by producer Jon Davidson who told Roger Corman he could shoot the cheapest film ever for New World. This was accomplished by incorporating footage from previous New World/Corman films: sky diving (Private Duty Nurses), car chases (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), a period car crash (Big Bad Mama), roller derby (Unholy Rollers), Philippine action films (The Hot Box, Women in Cages, The Big Doll House), The Terror (they see it at the drive in), a futuristic car chase (Death Race 2000).

The film revolves around three girls trying to make it in Hollywood as actresses - Rialson, Rita Grey, and Tara Strohmeier, with Rialson having the biggest part. They are confronted by lecherous men and a mysterious killer - although the murder plot gets forgotten for great slabs of time. The picture has tremendous energy, a breezy tone, a  love of movies (film buffs will love the in-jokes) and an amazing support cast including Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. Rialson is incredibly charming and a perfect leading lady;  apparently Roger Corman wanted Roberta Collins (The Big Doll House, Death Race 2000) but the directors held out for Rialson – I'm a Collins fan but it was the right decision because Rialson brings not just looks and comic timing, but also a plucky underdog persona that is immensely appealing.

The film does suffer from some New World requirements of the time. There’s a scene where Rialson plays a rape victim which starts off funny but then becomes unfunny because she gets her top ripped off and is really traumatised by it. Later on Rialson watches the scene on screen while at a drive in, then is almost genuinely raped by the projectionist. These sequences feel out of place in an otherwise cheerful movie.

Of all the seventies exploitation starlets, I feel Rialson had the best chance of breaking through to mainstream stardom, or at least fame - she was attractive but not threateningly so, affable, skilled at comedy and drama, with a first-rate on-set attitude (none of her collaborators seem to have a bad word to say about her); you could easily see Rialson as, say a Charlie's Angel, or one of the kids in Eight is Enough, or as the star of an Aaron Spelling TV movie. But she never got the chance. In fact out of all the New World female leads, only one, Pam Grier, got the lead in a studio feature, and that was decades later, with Jackie Brown. Rialson, Roberta Collins, Pat Anderson, Claudia Jennings, Rainbeaux Smith... they all struggled to break through to the next level, leading one to conclude they were simply discriminated against in Hollywood.

So Rialson followed Hollywood Boulevard with the lead in a low budget comedy musical fantasy for AIP, Chatterbox (1977), the movie which Arkush and Dante suggest killed her career because she plays a woman with a talking vagina. There are actually worse concepts for a comedy, and with really smart handling this could have been worth watching – maybe even been quite feminist. But as used here the film is far too depressing: Candice’s character clearly doesn’t like her talking vagina, who creates nothing but trouble for her. She really goes through the wringer (Candice, not the vagina) over the running time– a lesbian tries to rape her, she’s put naked on a board in front of a room of scientists while her vagina sings (and she’s clearly not having a good time), she’s forced to perform a big song and dance number where her clothes get ripped off, her love interest is an insecure drip (are we meant to be glad she gets with him in the end?); if I’m not mistaken she’s also gangbanged. So although there’s plenty of nudity, it’s not that fun; this is in contrast to films like Summer School Teachers where her character was in control and the undressing came about due to her character’s decisions. It should be said, Rialson is very engaging in the picture, as usual; she’s a great trooper, giving 110% and manages to take the sleaze out of everything her character does (and still be sexy). There’s something actually quite moving watching her try so hard in a role that is killing her career in with every minute of screen time.

It was her last lead. 'Three girls' movies were out and male leads back in; she was shunted down the cast list for some B flicks, Moonshine County Express (1977) (co-starring Claudia Jennings, another 70s exploitation favourite), and Stunts (1978), and guest starred on Fantasy Island. Her last appearance was in Winter Kills (1979), a major feature, but she is billed as "second blonde girl" and mostly just rubs  John Huston's crotch.

Rialson had had enough and retired from acting - and why wouldn't you, if after six years of work, including several leads, the best studio gig you could get was "second blonde girl"? She married, moved to Studio City and had one child. She refused an offer to come out of retirement for Hollywood Boulevard II (1989) and died of liver disease on March 31, 2006 in Palmdale California, only 54 years old.

It's a shame Candice Rialson didn't get more chances, but she did leave behind a decent legacy - Hollywood Boulevard has become a cult favourite and Summer School Teachers deserves to. In the pantheon of 70s exploitation goddesses, which includes names like Pam Grier, Margaret Markov and Roberta Collins, Rialson occupies an honoured place.

Main source:
Bass, Ari. "In Search of the Drive In Diva - Candice Rialson, New World's Legendary B Movie Goddess Steamed Up". Femme Fatale. Vol. 2 no. 2.
Trailers from Hell entries on The Student Teachers, Candy Stripe Nurses, Night Call Nurses , Chatterbox

Movie review - "The Eiger Sanction" (1975) *** (warning: spoilers)

Clint Eastwood's languid directing style suits mountaineering - the slow but steady pace, the accumulation of suspense rather than wham-bam action... There's some terrific mountains to take in here - in the US and Europe; Clint is a believable mountaineer and I bought all the technical jargon about the mountain trade spouted by Clint and George Kennedy.

The story should be simple but is needlessly complicated. Clint is a former assassin hired by a shadowy government office to kill an assassin in order to (a) help his country (b) avenge an old friend of Clint's (c) get the IRS off Clint's back (a nice touch!).  For some reason, the man Clint is after will be on a mountaineering expedition, one of several people, they're not sure which,  except he has a limp. Clint doesn't notice that Kennedy has a limp until the end for some reason. Clint kills one person, goes back to the "M" figure, is told to kill again - one visit was surely enough? People keep trying to kill Clint at Kennedy's training center but he never seems that worried. Clint is passive for a lot of the story for all the mountaineering he does - all these people die on the mountain due to it being, well, hard - no real attempt from Clint to save them.

The novel on which this is based was a spoof and enough of the spoof survives this film - the albino head of the government organisation, the flamboyantly gay assassin (Jack Cassidy), the way out humour, the fact Clint's character is an art professor as well as assassin (hit on by students including a nubile Candice Rialson), a plot involving treacherous government. Other elements of it are more recognisably Clint: women throwing themselves at him (blonde, Indian, black), mocking feminists (when a woman asks George Kennedy about climbing a mountain and masculinity, Kennedy goes "lady why don't you go get yourself a screw")

It's beautifully shot. Some of the mountaineering stuff is really good. The acting is strong - Clint is ideally cast, Kennedy and Cassidy are fun.

Movie review - "Jackie Brown" (1997) **1/2

This was politely reviewed when it came out and made a bit of money, but I do scratch my head at the thought that anyone really likes it. Scenes go on for far too long, endless slabs of dialogue about nothing - which wasn't true in QT's other better films, they would have this great violent tension or subtext going on.

The plot is alright, but not terribly gripping; the acting is excellent and it does have a good feel for the world of Elmore Leonard (though not as good as Out of Sight). By this stage QT's little indulgences were getting annoying (eg all the close ups of feet - it's like Death Proof).

Pam Grier has a formidable presence but isn't that awesome; Robert Foster is touching, Robert de Niro and Michael Keaton solid, Bridget Fonda lots of fun in the Candice Rialson part (though that's not too hard to play, surely), and Samuel L. Jackson great as always.

Movie review – “Pets” (1974) **1/2

The first lead role for Candice Rialson. She’s very pretty, likeable with a warm screen presence, sexy as hell – although she doesn’t get to show off her comic ability, so effective in later films. She plays a hitchhiker who has a series of adventures: escaping from her controlling brother, then being rescued by some black dudes prologue), then kidnapping a sleazy married guy with this black girl she meets (act one), being picked up by a female artist (former Elvis co-star Joan Blackman) for whom she poses and then makes love (act two), goes to live with an artist who keeps her captive in his basement as a ‘pet’. Each section deals with people trying to imprison Rialson and ends with Rialson running away with a song on the background

It’s an exploitation film but at least they’ve made some effort – there are some interesting shot compositions, it attempts to tackle an odd sort of theme (it was based on a series of one act plays), there’s a few moments which actually surprise you (like where the black girl throws a dog off a cliff.) But the main reason to watch this is Rialson who is very impressive. She seduces two men – her abductee (an older guy) and a burglar, and is seduced by a woman. She does a lap dance, wears skimpy underwear, swimsuits, etc. If you’re a Rialson fan this is definitely worth seeking out.

Movie review – “Mama’s Dirty Girls” (1974) **

I’ve no idea whether this came before or after Big Bad Mama, but it follows a similar template – a tough woman and her sexy daughters use sex appeal to get what they want i.e. money. Gloria Grahame plays the lead – bit of a comedown for her in some respects, I guess, but it is a flashy part. Candice Rialson plays one of her daughters – it’s a more evil character than the likeable Candice normally plays but she’s pretty good (she’s a sort of Lolita-esque tease, who delights in tormenting chubby men). There are two other daughters, all of whom show a decent amount of flesh. (Including an utterly gratuitous one of Candice staring at herself in the mirror to open the film.)

The girls are all decent enough actors, and it’s a great concept – the girls look for men to seduce and kill – but the film is never as much fun as you think. They didn’t quite get the story right – the pace is too slow, unlike Big Bad Mama where there’s lots of driving around and action, here it’s mostly hanging around houses, and there’s no real driving narrative. Also who wants to watch a trashy three girls film where the guys triumph?

Movie review – “Chatterbox” (1977) *

Candice Rialson was a popular drive in star of the 1970s who never seemed able to break through to decent roles in mainstream films; this was partly due to the decline of the drive in market, but Joe Dante and Alan Arkush (who worked with her on Hollywood Boulevard) hypothesised that it was also starring in this film, where she plays a woman with a talking vagina. As always, Candice is very likeable and girl-next-door; she’s a great trooper and manages to take the sleaze out of everything she does (but still be sexy) and as always she gives 110%, but this film is not very enjoyable.

There are actually worse ideas for a comedy, the touch is light and fast, and you imagine with a really smart writer-director this could have taken off – maybe even been really feminist. But as used here the film is far too uncomfortable. Candice’s character clearly doesn’t like her talking vagina, who creates nothing but trouble for her. She also really goes through the ringer – a lesbian tries to rape her, she’s put naked on a board in front of a room of scientists while her vagina sings (and she’s clearly not having a good time), she’s forced to sing a big song and dance number where her clothes get ripped off, her love interest is an insecure drip (are we meant to be glad she gets with him in the end?); if I’m not mistaken she’s also gangbanged. So although there’s plenty of nudity, it’s not that fun. This is in contrast to films like Summer School Teachers where the nudity was less but at least it came about because of her character’s lusts and her character was in control.

There’s something actually quite moving watching Rialson in this film – trying so hard, giving it her all… in a role that is killing her career in with every minute of screentime. No wonder she got out of the game.

Movie review – “Summer School Teachers” (1974) ***

Fun, bright, "three girls" film, produced by Julie Corman, who carved out a niche making these in the early 70s. (You can imagine Roger going "you're a woman Julie - you can do the TNA feminism epics".) It’s a variation of Student Nurses, with the three girls here teaching over summer, and is one of the best in the genre, if not the best.

This has the advantage of perhaps the prettiest, most likeable 70s exploitation star: girl next door Candice Rialson stars as a PE teacher who wants the girls to play football and comes up against a sexist male coach (Dick Miller, lending some wattage to the support cast). There are two other girls: Rhonda Leigh Fleming who has an affair with a student, a juvenile delinquent; and an art teacher (Pat Anderson, my other favourite 70s exploitation lead) who gets involved with another teacher and has a debate on pornography.

It’s high spirited and fun, a bit wonky in places (make that very wonky - you can see the boom in shot in one scene) but it flies along, with a lot of social comment (corruption, women sport, opportunity for women, etc) and a fun, climactic near-anarchic football game. The three leads are all very good looking and engaging, especially Rialson and Anderson.

I think it helps that the writer-director was a woman, Barbara Peeters, so the film feels like a screwball comedy rather than something sleazy. There is nudity – Rialson seduces a nerd teacher by a lake (and falls in), there is a more stylised sex scene involving Fleming which involves strobe lighting and ice cubes on the nipples (there's always a stylised sex scene in these films - there was an LSD one in The Student Nurses and a triply one in Candy Strip Nurses), and Anderson is nude a few times being photographed or lying in bed. But the women are in control, they do most of the seducing, stick up for each other, etc. - Anderson and Rialson seduce their guys, all three are confident and in control.

The messages are mostly positive – girls should be able to do whatever boys can do, physical fitness is good, corruption is bad. This is the best character Rialson ever played – she’s spunky, full of energy, fights for girl sports, encourages her fat neighbour to exercise, seduces the nerdy teacher because she likes him (Peeters isn’t afraid to show Rialson’s gut in this love scene), she loves her boisterous dumb brothers. Good fun - much better than The Student Teachers.

Movie review – “Hollywood Boulevard” (1976) **1/2

The opening minutes of this features some sky diving stock footage, boobs and move in-jokes, and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film, famously made as a bet by producer Jon Davidson who told Roger Corman he could make the cheapest film ever for New World.

This was accomplished by incorporating footage from previous New World/Corman films: sky diving (Private Duty Nurses), car chases (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), a period car crash (Big Bad Mama), roller derby (Unholy Rollers – actually made for AIP but produced by Corman with Martin Scorsese directing), Philippine action films (The Hot Box, Women in Cages, The Big Doll House), The Terror (they see it at the drive in), a futuristic car chase (Death Race 2000, perhaps the largest amount of footage used).

There are three plots – someone is killing people on murder sets, Candice Rialson tries to break in to showbiz, as does a roller derby star (Rita Grey). The filmmakers drop these plots and pick them up again as they feel like it; they forget the murder plot for great slabs of time, and the romance between Rialson and the screenwriter is also forgotten – they meet, then they’re together.

The main attributes of this film are a likable, breezy tone and a very strong cast – Dante and Arkush were fortunate to have a terrific players who can fill the screen like Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. Woronov was a terrific exploitation star – she looked like this magnificent alien goddess from Mars, with those high cheek bones and incredible legs; she was also very funny. Rialson is incredibly likeable – the girl next door, very good at comedy. (Quentin Tarantino once asked Arkush why Rialson didn’t move up with either of them; he thought her career was ruined by her appearance in the film about the talking vagina. Apparently Roger Corman wanted Roberta Collins instead of Rialson – I am a Collins fan but think it was the right decision to go with Rialson. Incidentally, Barry Gordon and Dwayne Hickman turned down the role of the producer.)

The film does suffer from some New World requirements of the time. There’s a scene where Rialson plays a rape victim which starts off funny but then kind of becomes unfunny because Rialson gets her top ripped off and she’s really traumatised by it. Later on Rialson watches the rape on screen while watching the film at a drive in, then is almost raped by the drive in projectionist – rape just isn’t really fun and this scene s yuck, it takes a while to recover from that. It does but then there’s an unpleasant knife murder scene.

The behind the scenes line up of talent is impressive. Jon Davidson produced, Amy Jones was one of the editors, the script is credited to “Pat Hobby” nom de plume from F Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph McBride plays a father at the drive in, Todd McCarthy is there was well, Mike Finnell and Barbara Peeters were on the crew, Charles Griffith plays a pool cleaner (his former writing partner Mark Hanna also has a small role).

In the audio commentary from Dante, Arkush and Davidson, the filmmakers seem embarrassed about some of the film, including the gratuitous wet T-shirt scene (which they should), the three-way sex scene and the sunbaking scene (which they shouldn’t, that’s good exploitation). But then look at Arkush and Dante’s subsequent work – there is not a lot of nudity, I think they were uncomfortable with it. They admit to watching Murder by Television and The Death Kiss while writing the script – they say The Death Kiss gave them ideas but not Murder by Television. Incidentally, Roger Corman apparently got a little sensitive about some of the things in the movie (eg actors bagging the movies in which they appear).

Movie review – Nurses #5 - “Candy Stripe Nurses” (1974) **1/2

The fifth last in New World’s student nurses cycle, but the first one I actually saw. It’s bright, breezy fun, albeit with the inherit dodginess of 70s "tits feminism" exploitation filmmaking.

Three candy stripe nurses (hospital waitresses, apparently - do we have such things in Australia?) find themselves having a series of adventures – the sexpot blonde (Candice Rialson) tries to root a famous rock singer (the sexy comic plot), the uptight brunette (Robin Mattson) falls for a college basketball player who is being given speed by his coach (the kinky/medical issues plot), and the ethnic (Maria Rojo) tries to prove the innocence of a supposed robber (the political plot). These are the youngest characters in the series as they are all still in high school (at least I think they were - Rojo's character definitely felt like a high schooler). It doesn't stop them taking off their clothes and having lots of sex.

Rialson was as winning as ever - bright, cheerful and pretty... you only wish she had a better plot. (I was confused by what she was trying to do with the rock singer at the end - what prompted her to take that approach in arousing him?) Mattson also gives good value, and her romance with the jock (she's an uptown girl who wants to be a doctor, he's a sporty moron) is one of the best in the series. Both look terrific naked - and their seduction scenes in the gym are downright hot, because they're both clearly into it, and their characters have great inherent conflict.

However Rojo seemed a bit too uncomfortably young for this sort of thing (though am I right in thinking that her sex scene was a dream sequence?) Even if they are all schoolgirls, it doesn’t seem right when they’re played by actual schoolgirls.

It doesn't help that Rojo has to do her plot on her own whereas Rialson and Mattson get to be friends with one another. There is no sense of camaraderie between the three of them - it's like two movies, one with Rialson and Mattson, and Rojo off in her own movie. Also Rojo is the weakest performer (although her character is strongly defined).

I would count this as third best in the series, after The Student Nurses and Night Call Nurse. It's got an enjoyable theme song, Rialson and Mattson are a lot of fun, plenty of nudity and high spirits, even if it is a bit clunky. Dick Miller has a small role as a heckler at a basketball game.