Inspired, of course, by Harper Valley PTA, Vista Valley PTA puts Jessie St. James in the Barbara Eden role of a new teacher at a troubled small town high school. The original movie was a comedy based on a popular song. This time, we know from where the inspiration comes, but it's not so easy to label this as comedy, melodrama, or anything else. I suppose the term "porn" will have to suffice.
Shot in the early 80's, Vista Valley PTA is considered a classic if only for it's age, but God bless NuTech Digital for releasing it despite it's dated look.
What could have easily been a funny little piece of smutty fluff about cheerleaders and horny delinquents, this film instead is made up of individual moments one could describe as dramatic, comedic, and even disturbing. Jessie St. James takes top billing, but the movie is really about her various students and their always dysfunctional families. Dorothy LeMay is the slutty daughter of Juliet Anderson, who sports a proper exterior but harbors perverted thoughts. Kay Parker, the mother of another student, pushes her husband to the breaking point most nights because it makes the sex better. Most unsettling, though, is Jamie Gillis, who looks eerily like Cat Stevens here, but plays the part of a bible thumping fundamentalist who secretly visits prostitutes and harbors rapefantasies involving his teenage daughter, embodied by a very young Sharon Kane. Gillis doesn't play this lecherous character like an over the top zealot, but instead as a very troubled and confused man. Believe it or not, there's actual good acting afoot in this movie.
Building to the film's climax, however, are significant carnal moments, as well. John Leslie, after thoroughly working over Juliet Anderson, follows Dorothy LeMay into the bedroom and lets her thoroughly work him over herself. Like St. James, LeMay is intensely sexy, and we get to see her in action twice here. Kay Parker is also on hand. For those who enjoyed her in the Taboo movies, but couldn't find her anywhere else, here she is again in her mature and natural glory.
And of course, there's Jamie Gillis and his scene with Sharon Kane. It's presented as a fantasy sequence, but that doesn't make the quiet intimidation of his teenaged daughter any less difficult to accept. Perhaps it's the way a self centered pervert thinks, or it's the way old school porn portrayed such scenes, but even though what goes on in his character's mind (and on your television set) is rape, Kane is soon begging for more and pleading for him to cum in her mouth. As unsettling as incestuous rape can be, this is fiction, and the scene is smoldering. If you've ever wondered why Sharon Kane remains such a figure in porn at her current age, take a look at what she was like when she was younger, and you may have your answer.
There are other hot moments, too: A quick Dorothy LeMay oral kiss delivered in the front seat of her boyfriend's car, Juliet Anderson paying for auto repairs the hard way, and Jessie St. James offering special after-class tutoring against the wall with her skirt pulled up and her legs spread. Sex is such a subjective thing, it's much too difficult to guess what other people will like, so let me recommend Vista Valley PTA not by saying that it's a movie everyone must see, but by saying it's the kind of picture that made long time porn afficianados fans of porn in the first place.
