Die Rache der blonden Hexe

Released in 1978, "Harper Valley PTA" stars Barbara Eden as a beautiful outcast in a small Ohio town of conservative hypocrites. She exposes their shameful secrets and, with the help of her pal (Nanette Fabray) and daughter (Susan Swift), pulls all sorts of humiliating pranks, not to mention runs for the position of PTA president. Ronny Cox plays her wannabe boyfriend while John Fiedler, Audrey Christie and numerous others are on hand as townspeople.

Based on Jeannie C. Riley's hit song, this is a fairly amusing light comedy satirizing the ethos of middle America. It didn't do so great at the box office, but it was a later hit on TV and led to a TV series. While the movie was rated PG it'd be considered PG-13 today and almost R-rated in light of a totally buff John Fiedler scene (from behind) and a sex education sequence. Although these scenes surprised me (because I thought it was a PG movie) they're no big deal in the context of shenanigans of the movie. Speaking of the shenanigans, some of them are pretty outrageous, like the elephant sequence and the hay/manure scene. The latter could've easily ended on a fatal note, but the comedic air keeps the tone light. Barbara was 46 during filming and never looked better. I laughed more than I expected to, but not enough to give it a higher rating. In any case, the movie's worth seeing just to enjoy going back to 1977 Ohio. It's like a time capsule.

The original version runs 102 minutes and was shot in Lebanon, Ohio, and nearby areas.

GRADE: C+ or B- (5.5/10 Stars)

I thought this was an excellent statement that exemplified the saying that "those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." A great movie that made one feel that maybe, just perhaps, we can all come out on top sometimes with our dignity intact.

This was a surprise. I really wasn't expecting something quite so unhinged and full of gags. I guess I thought I was going into something more conversational, more plot driven. This had some conversation, but it was more about the gags.

A lot of revenge plot. Done for laughs.

Not bad, but not my thing generally.

The most shocking part of this film is the closing credits, which lists where the manure from one of the gags came from. I am stunned! They use real manure!! I feel so bad for the actress or tunable who had to have manure dumped on them!! This movie lost to half star because of that.

A plus for the movie though is that in the opening credits, JJ is listed as one of the actors, which is my Joan's nickname and initials. And right after that, Joan is listed as one of the producers. Once I saw that, I knew there had to be an Alice in the movie somewhere. And sure enough, The main characters best friend in this film is named Alice! Where there is Joan, there is Alice! I love that!

I watched this movie because I was on an old sitcom kick, which is sort of a lifelong thing. Sitcom from the 1950s and 1960s - somewhat of the 70s, they mean more to me than all TV shows. So I was really getting into "The Dick Van Dyke Show and "Bewitched". Still am. And we all know Barbara Eden, the star of this film, was also the star of the "Bewitched@ rival show, "I Dream of Jeannie". So, if you're a classic TV show fan like I am, and you especially favor it comes from the 1950s through the 1970s, you will find this of interest. It was also adapted into a sitcom of its own.

Not my thing, but not bad. The opening credit song is the best part of it though. It's amazing that a movie can be made just from a song, and for that, it is definitely worth seeing.

Midwest suburban Americana is forever captured on in a supposed send up inspired by a country song that made the charts.

I remember the build up and hype generated on both radio and TV for this purported knee-slapper of a movie, and when I saw it with the family we couldn't wait to turn the channel. It had a kind of wanton charm to it, but fell far short of a full blown send up of the emerging cultured country folk.

One of the things one should remember about making a movie inspired by a song is to know what the song is about before committing words to paper. The song itself tells of a woman with so-called loose or progressive morals bringing up her daughter in a provincial, but not entirely rural, portion of America. The kind of people who, though surrounded by the trappings of suburban life, are just too caught up in the petty inbred politics to fully appreciate what life has to offer. But the plot contrived by the screenwriters is hackneyed at best. It was not developed to its full potential, and the quality of cinematics shows in this made for TV movie which, if memory serves, saw theatrical release.

The plot jumps from one episode to the next without any real impetus on the part of the characters, and the results of the scenarios are as faked and contrived as the plot itself. Combine this with the usual canned music from the network "orcehstra" and you got yourself one hell of a bomb waiting to be dropped.

Myself, the lovely Barbara Eden was right for the role (being a very competent actress), but the situations in which her character was placed, and the direction she was given in terms of scene setup was several cards shy of a full deck. The acting in the film, for what it is, is actually okay. No Oscars will be won here, but I believed the actors were the characters they were portraying. There was nothing wrong there. It's just the material they were given to work with was very lackluster.

The actors playing the youths/kids were probably the one exception to the previous paragraph. Casting a male in his early to mid twenties to play a teenage love interest for a 13 year old girl, to me, seems ham fisted at best. I never bought into it, and found said male to be lacking in the emoting department.

There was real potential here to create something great, but the film, being a made for TV movie, falls a little flat here and there, and really never rises above the level of mediocrity. It has its positives, primarily the premise of both movie and song upon which it was placed, but, like I said earlier, really doesn't go the distance.

In short the film was just another mercenary effort to capitalize a trendy popular song and ethos of mid 70s Midwest. If you've never seen it, then it's worth a single viewing just to say you watched it, otherwise I'd avoid this thing.

Good sitcom-ish movie that makes for a pleasant few hours entertainment. A cast of old-style character actor pros make the rather silly plot worth watching. The revenge set-pieces are the highlights, but the action ending doesn't ruin the fun. Any movie that focuses on good guys squelching the snobs is worth getting, and Barbara Eden is always watchable.