The Harrad Experiment

It took 11 years for Robert Rimmer's novel written in 1962 to get to the big screen. In that time America had undergone a cultural sea change in its values. So a novel written in the beatnik years is updated to the middle 70s where it certainly would have been less shocking than the experimental college of Harrad headed by James Whitmore and Tippi Hedren had been brought to the screen in 1962 when the omnipresent Code was still in place.

This college promotes coed rooming and in this carefully selected group of students Don Johnson and Laurie Walters are paired as are Bruno Kirby and Victoria Thompson. It's the story of these four students that is the basis of the plot.

I won't go into it, but it is Johnson who challenges the mores of society far more than Whitmore and Hedren ever expected.

The movie made quite an impact when it came out, but by today's standards seems like really tame stuff. It's also quite a display of 70s fashions as well for kids and adults. Viewers will still find it enjoyable.

The original, theater and maybe VHS, were excellent. I have bought two different DVDs of this movie and both were horrible TV versions. The first was from Amazon (Passion Productions, 98 minutes (?) and no nudity or language and the color was orange like from a really old film that hadn't been taken of. The BN (Platinum) had much better color (90 minutes) but it was about the same "cut to death" version losing the kids working on nudity and bleeped language that is on TV today. One really great lesson that hasn't been mentioned is Tenhousen's (sp?), James Whitmore, teaching, "People only recognize an action as love when it is the same kind of love that they give." I learned something from that and I have run across many real life examples to support that observation. I would still like to get a DVD that was the theater version that I saw but I don't know how I would recognize the version after being burned twice.

A review that came before me listed top 10 unintentionally funny moments in the film, which I am going to reiterate/add to. It is the only way to truly enjoy the film. Don't read this if you actually want to experience these priceless moments freshly for yourself.

1. The opening credits tree hug.

2. "You don't need to lose any weight."/"Neither do you!" (Then the two kiss passionately)

3. Make-out scene simultanously occurring as a conversation about stamp collecting takes place. By the same people.

4. The fashion and hair!

5. Don Johnson repeatedly in scenes with massive pit stains, without any trace of pre-occurring hard labor. (And then he proceeds to make out with whoever is there.)

6. The redhead girl saying "That was wonderful!" to her roommate, after he punches Stanley after he walked in catching her making out with Stanly.

7. The music really is overly dramatic. Both the score and the acoustic guitar-laden ballads with priceless 70's lyrics, one song sung by Don Johnson himself!

Good points in film:

1. Don Johnson in wonderfully tight clothes and sometimes without them.

2. The enjoyment coming from the whole 70's aesthetic and seeing a story line unfold that is so foreign to our 21st century minds.

3. A way of looking at the feeling of jealousy, and dealing with it, that isn't really presented anymore. I decided to shed some of my own hard feelings regarding relationships after some reconsideration prompted by this film.

This is one of the movies that passed me by when it came out in 1973. I was 27, married, working, and had three young children. However I recall hearing about it because of its daring nature.

An incoming group of Harrad college students have been assigned a roommate of the opposite gender, "carefully chosen." They are becoming the experiment, to see what happens when the pairs share a room and are expected to become sexually exploratory. Don Johnson is one of the featured students, and he also sings a couple of songs written for the movie. He also comes close to romancing his real-life future mother-in-law, Tippi Hedren.

Many of the "featured" reviews here knock the movie because it apparently is available on DVD in a badly edited version and a poor print. It recently (2023) became available on Amazon Prime streaming and, judging by the 96 minute running time is the complete, uncut movie.

In fact, watching it you can see it has quite a bit of full frontal male and female nudity. However the video and sound are marginal, watched on a modern hi-def flat screen TV the images are very fuzzy. Don Johnson was about 23 during filming, he went on to marry Melanie Griffith who was only 15 here and is uncredited as one of the students.

It isn't a particularly good movie but an interesting watch for the 1970s sensibilities. It is mostly notable for its subject and the nudity.

At home, streaming on Amazon Prime.

This was more or less the KINSEY (2004) of its day, though clearly quaint in comparison; still, it is a measure of the times that the film caused a mild stir back then whereas KINSEY virtually made no ripples when it emerged! Anyway, HARRAD is mildly interesting (if perhaps too low-key to stay in the memory for long) in delineating the forward-thinking/experimentation that occurred in sexual relationships at the end of the 1960s. Incidentally, I rented the film as part of a small tribute to its recently-deceased star James Whitmore: of course, the middle-aged actor does not get in on the action (even if it is never particularly explicit); Tippi Hedren, then, appears as his still-attractive spouse/collaborator – who even catches the eye of the campus hunk (Don Johnson, interestingly the long-time partner of Hedren's real-life daughter Melanie Griffith!). The rest of the cast is filled with fresh faces (including future comedian Bruno Kirby[!]…but especially notable is lovely and initially shy heroine Laurie Walters who, in her turn, is pursued by leering Robert Middleton at a nearby café). Unsurprisingly, partners get swapped (whether intended or not) which invariably cause heartbreaks, but there is also some cheap humor at the expense of a bespectacled and plump student. While director Post was more at home in action-oriented fare, he handles the delicate subject matter with directness and reasonable perception; besides, the film looks good, sports a typical 1970s pop score (one of the songs being performed by Johnson himself) and, for what it is worth, was even followed a year later by a sequel, HARRAD SUMMER.