The Girl the Body and the Pill

This is a great film, if you are into 1960's exploitation films, which I am.This movie actually (almost) has a recognizable plot, and is simply brilliant for it's relevant irony (the parents are freaking out about their kids learning about sex and birth control, yet they are the ones getting in trouble!). It is all such a cliche (now) in real life, yet in movies it is rarely done. This is a fantastic film of it's genre. It is a non-gorey, post "Blood Feast" Herschel Gordon Lewis masterpiece. It is one of those films that is so bad it's good, but it is almost REALLY good!

The Girl the Body and the Pill is an H. G. Lewis sexploitation that attempts for something of a coming-of-age, slice of life drama surrounding the a controversial sex education class. While that might be the kind of elevator pitch that gets HGL fans lining up, the actual film will leave most disappointed. Unlike his well regarded classics (BLOOD FEAST, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, WIZARD OF GORE) this film has almost no psychotronic aspects, no gory deaths, and no zany character acting in it. Its mostly a by the numbers story with a few lurid details thrown in. The closest thing to overacting we get is from Bill Rogers (the villain from A TASTE OF BLOOD) who seemingly tries to channel Lawrence J. Aberwood's infamous SCUM OF THE EARTH rant but it feels very out of place in the sweet, suburban setting the rest of the film exists in. Perhaps that was the point? Beneath suburbia is all of the nastiness of humanity (alla David Lynch's BLUE VELVET)? Perhaps, but the point is lost in a film that tries to do too much.

The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A high school teacher is teaching sex ed to her students and this doesn't sit well with some of the parents. The one the most offended is Wesley Nichols (Bill Rogers) as he's the type that likes to preach and force his views on people but as the film plays out we see what a hypocrite he actually is.

Herschell Gordon Lewis' THE GIRL, THE BODY AND THE PILL certainly isn't a masterpiece but fans of his work will certainly want to check it out. I must admit that the film started off extremely strong before it somewhat started to show its flaws as it continued. The most entertaining stuff happened towards the start of the movie when the film and its director seemed to be tackling and raging against those who are so childish and rather stupid to think that teach teens about sex was a bad thing.

The first portion of the film appears to have the director really trying to deliver a message and I thought he did a very good job with it. The attack of the teacher is shown to be something rather stupid and I liked the message that was being sent. The problem is that after about thirty-minutes or so the film starts to take a look at the lives of some of the students and the various problems they get into thanks to the pill. This includes a good girl who falls in love for the first time. It also deals with a bad girl who is stealing her mother's pills. Of course, the parents of these two come full circle as the story plays on.

For the most part this is a pretty entertaining film, although I wish that the film had stuck closer to what it started off like. The stories towards the end are rather predictable and the performances really weren't strong enough to carry them. This was especially true for Rogers who comes across quite campy in several scenes. Some unintentional laughs are to be had. Still, if you're a fan of the director then THE GIRL, THE BODY AND THE PILL is worth watching.