Harrad Summer

After getting used to the unique institution that is Harrad College in The Harrad Experiment and establishing their relation dynamics, the four protagonist kids from Harrad are now on summer vacation and go back to their homes and hearth. We see the different backgrounds they come from and why they are the way they are.

Only the women Laurie Walters and Victoria Thompson are retained for the sequel. Sad to say that Don Johnson and Bruce Kirby give way to Robert Reiser and Richard Doran respectively. To say they lack the charisma and talent of the other two is putting it mildly. It weighs the whole film down. They all do look good in those 70s fashions however.

The previous film was based on a novel written in the early 60s but transformed to the early 70s and that was what made it a flawed product. That flaw continues here, but with lesser performers.

This lame sequel to "The Harrad Experiment" does at least one thing that its predecessor never managed to do--it makes the original look comparatively entertaining. This movie, also called "The Harrad Summer", concerns the exploits of the two main couples from the first film, who decide to spend the summer after their first year at Harrad together, alternately staying at each others houses. Their Harrad free love ethos upsets at least two of their families who either didn't know they were attending this very progressive college or didn't have any say in the matter. One guy has an uptight father who wants him to transfer to UCLA and is unhappy with his new friends' penchant for skinny-dipping and nude yoga. There is also some conflict between the main couple "Stanley" and "Sheila" due to "Stanley's" insecurities regarding the wealth of "Sheila's" family. The class conflict only comes to a head though when "Sheila's" father catches them in bed together (not actually having sex, mind you, just in bed together).

This movie really has the same problem as the first one: although it is supposedly scandalous, it is actually pretty tame compared to a lot of the things REAL college students of that era were doing (there's not a reefer in sight, for instance). Having a roommate of the opposite gender even almost seems quaint in its adherence to basic monogamy (which took quite a beating during the 60's and 70's "Sexual Revolution"). Pre-marital sex and casual nudity was just not that shocking to anyone even halfway hip back then.

The sequel also loses its three most recognizable stars--Don Johnson, Bruno Kirby, and Tippi Hedren--and the their replacements are pretty annoying (especially the two guys). The actresses who played the two female halves in the original--Laurie Walters and Victoria Thompson--both return. The best thing I can say about their performances though is that they take their clothes off a lot. There are a few scene-stealing cameos, most notably by the very appealing Patrice Rohmer playing a young lovely who the nerdier guy inexplicably picks up at a carnival. (She delivers the immortal line, "You want me to take my clothes off? Most guys like it when I take my clothes off"). Rohmer made an impression in few exploitation films in the 70's like this or "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" before dying tragically young of a drug overdose.

I'm really grasping at straws here, however. Mostly this film is just not the worth the time. The original is somewhat better, but I would recommend instead "Pretty Maids All in a Row", a much hipper and sexier film from this same time period.

In these turbulent times, it's nice to go back to your youth. Long story short, if you want to look at a great piece of cinematic history that will take you back to the early 1970's, I recommend this, HARRAD EXPERIMENT and MASH!!!