The Hard Road

This is one hell of a rotten movie & I loved it. Of course I love trash movies, camp movies & any movie with Liz Renay. You'll probably hate it. I force people to watch it if they come to visit me. It usually guarantees they won't be back which is fine by me.

This is something of an old-fashioned "scare" B-movie in the tradition of Reefer Madness--designed to warn youth about the consequences of bad decisions. Despite some camp value it's pretty uncomfortable to watch in places. "Pam" (the lovely Connie Nelson) is introduced as your typical all-American teenager who runs around in pigtails, loves playing with her dog, etc. but then gives birth out of wedlock. From there her life quickly spirals downward into drug addiction, prostitution, violence and more. I'll at least give the producers props for honesty in using the tag line "Not A Pretty Picture." There was a slightly shorter, re-cut version of this film (sans some of the "lecture" scenes) called "High School Hooker," released by the obscure "Alexander International Films" as a double bill with "The Stepdaughter" (itself a re-edited "R" version of the original 1972 PG film called "Winter Love"). I wouldn't call it "fun" to watch but like a train wreck or airplane crash, it certainly keeps your eyes glued to the screen.

As one who grew up in this era, this production is absolutely one of those quintessential "don't do this or else" films that would be shown to the high school (or junior high) class, as a required A/V event.

Of course the production value is beyond ridiculous, and the story, such as it is, is the stuff of endless parodies and cliche's ever produced from the era, but that's not the point. The point is to just go with it, be absorbed in the moment. It really is a classic piece, a sort of permanent time capsule captured on film.

For those who really were "there" and lived in those times, they will be instantly pulled back into that vortex, it will become all too familiar in whatever context happens to resonate with them. For others, who were not even born yet, and would not be until decades later, this will likely seem like a grainy, absurdly bad film about "something" to do with drugs, hippies, and whatever that their parents probably don't want to talk about.

Yes, it does take the viewer down the hard road, as it were, as our seemingly lovely high school student descends and meanders her way down the laundry list of getting pregnant, starting off innocently with smoking a joint, and then from there going completely off the cliff into the abyss of sin, debauchery, and more drugs . . . lots more drugs.

The junkie friend detoxing in jail, and close-up scenes of festering VD sores are just some of the highlights awaiting the hapless viewer traveling this road.

I don't want to inadvertently insert any spoilers here, but the ending is particularly, well . . . classic in its own way.

For some, the Hard Road may be the Hard Movie to Watch . . . but hey, it can be a cultural experience, for some, maybe.

OK, that might be a stretch, but it's still an interesting viewing experience.

For production value, 1 (or less) stars, but as a sort of cultural time capsule piece, well, OK, let's go with a tentative 4 stars.

No, Pam's life was over before having her baby.

Can you imagine growing up with Liz Renay as your Mom and a dad who friends are all in the Hollywood Music Business (DEVILS!!!)? I think her life was over as soon as she was born.

What no one seems to capture that this was a movie to PROMOTE sex, w/o getting a STD by the pro-nudist/sex, sex, sex producer (Valle). Every message the movie makes is deliberately anti-drugs and pro-sex, but cautionary only as to how NOT to get an STD, or what to do if you do.

Something Weird Video deserves a thumbs-up for giving us pieces of culture newer people thrust into this world may never know about.

This is such a great movie, anyone who has any connection to SOUTHERN California will find something enjoyable in it.

A+