Harper Valley P.T.A.

Back during my youth in the 70s, the town I lived it was very conservative and tightly wound. Parents cringed at the thought of James Bond movies shown on TV, as the locals thought of them as hardcore porn. Strict standards were expected from everyone.

As teens, the local kids started to realize how overflowing with hypocrisy the town was, and when this movie came along, we rejoiced.

Stella Johnson is a freespirited widow in a conservative town who gets a nastygram from a disapproving PTA. Getting an earful from her friend who runs the local beauty parlor (they weren't called "salons" back then!), she confronts them at a meeting with their own failings (alcoholism, promiscuity, gambling, etc.), but after they don't back down, she engages in a series of pranks to expose and humiliate them. In the meantime she makes over her daughter, falls in love, runs for PTA president herself, and uncovers real corruption.

Yes, it's creaky material, done a jillion times before and probably done better. But Barbara Eden is an energetic and sympathetic heroine, and is believable as the dishy nonconformist mom. Nanette Fabray is also a hoot as her friend Alice. And a bunch of old pros do their best.

But we loved it in our town because so many of the younger set were disgusted with the self-righteousness and hypocrisy we saw in our teachers, in the town government, in the church leaders, and frequently in our own parents. We relished our daydreams of exposing their foibles and confronting them, but too often never did. (Unfortunately, the truly self-righteous view these as simple malice and never truly realize they brought it on themselves.) So even if this movie isn't all that, it appeals to the downtrodden teen who still lives in me and is still disgusted with the self-righteous, it's-OK-if-I-do-it establishment. And I STILL need to expose my sticky-fingered mother about her larcenous habits...

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.

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.

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 don't really like to respond to specific reviews, but there's just no other way to rebut. Harper Valley PTA was not a made-for-TV movie, it had a theatrical showing, albeit not a particularly successful one. It also was very true to the events as portrayed in the song. The first 20 minutes of the movie, in fact, recreate the lyrics almost exactly, at times verbatim. The episodes of revenge and counter-revenge which follow are a logical progression from that story.

I don't think Harper Valley PTA will ever be considered even a good film, much less a great one. It is fun to watch, though, especially during the middle section. I've never seen a movie that starred Barbara Eden that wasn't at least watchable. Her screen persona is so natural and likable that it doesn't really matter what vehicle she's in.