Tre matti in un collegio femminile

This is the video release of the 1974 movie of the same name. Released on Vestron Video like many other exploitation films. It was part of the first wave of early eighties of video tapes where they would release anything done in color that was fairly recent because they were so starved for product. Ahhh the good old days!

Oh Lordy! Well, I can't say I wasn't warned. Having seen the cut-to-ribbons British release version on some ropey little label when I was a youngster, I recently became curious to see this exploitation roughie again, and finally tracked down a copy after months of trying. And while I was watching it (or more precisely, watching most of it - the video copy I located had about twenty minutes' worth of vertical rolling and picture snow, rendering the first act unwatchable) I couldn't help thinking how the memory has a nasty habit of cheating. The buxom, bouncing women are all there, present and correct, and Stephen Stucker is just as funny as I remembered him (he also gets to show off his piano playing), but I'd forgotten - or was too young to fully comprehend - just how crass and insensitive this film really is. Sam Peckinpah upset the moral majority by showing Susan George coming to enjoy being raped by her ex-boyfriend in the gruesome potboiler STRAW DOGS, but in this sleaze-fest the idea that women enjoy being molested and violated is repeated again and again, even to the point of previously sobbing, near-hysterical victims sitting down to enjoy a glass of wine and a little light refreshment with their assailants moments after their ordeal! And yes, there's another male myth proudly on show here - the women who (almost literally) "ask for it"! In the pre-politically correct seventies, this was standard X-film fare, but seen thirty years later it seems so outrageously corrupt and wrong-headed that DELINQUENT SCHOOLGIRLS looks every bit as if it came from a weird parallel universe that has yet to catch up with our more enlightened times. The film's technical credits are every bit as fumbled as the hapless victims - the photography is grimy, the lighting poor, the sound muffled, the editing looks as if it was done with a hacksaw and the performances are dire (Bob Minor looks embarrassed, and who can blame him). Then there are the 'action' scenes, which are so poorly choreographed they resemble a skit from The Goodies that somebody forgot to speed up. A karate adviser is credited, but judging from what's on show here he didn't hang around the set for long. When he's not contriving up-skirt shots or leering over the mistreatment of his buxom female cast, Gregory Corarito's direction is as static as a house brick. And what's the deal with the inane, parping, faux-Benny Hill music that accompanies the double rape scene in the kitchens? DELINQUENT SCHOOLGIRLS is a shot of pure sleaze, right between the eyes, and won't disappoint anyone looking for mean-spirited misogyny.

This is what movies with a hard R rating is all about and what other such like-minded drive-in type films aspire to and never quite reach. Great sleaze fest and great cast. I've taken one point off because there should have been more screen time given to Roberta Pedon and her great body! Although Sharon Kelly does appear in the movie too and she is also good but also underused in the film! And that scene with the rape of the two kitchen women is great but should've been extended a lot more than it was. The three escaped lunatics are wildly funny. The scene with the elderly teacher hypnotizing and then seducing the student should have also been lengthened a lot more. In fact, that scene alone seems to have a great deal of relevance to the things going on in our schools today all across the nation.

Three dangerous convicts escape from prison and, after some general mayhem, end up at a girl's reform school where they get a lot more than they bargained for. Although this certainly sounds like an entertaining premise, there are several problems with this movie. First off, some will find it pretty offensive--one of the convicts is a camp gay while the one black convict (Bob Minor) is a former athlete and a rapist (no doubt he also really likes fried chicken and watermelons) whose white female victims, of course, all end up enjoying the experience. The movie is not as offensive as it could be though because it's just so ridiculous--for instance, the third convict and leader of the trio (Michael Pataki) is a deranged impressionist(!) (truly, the most terrible kind of criminal of all!).

But what about the "delinquent schoolgirls"? Well, the only way these actresses pass as "schoolgirls" is if they flunked their senior year several times and are now attending some kind of voc. ed. program for aspiring strippers and porn stars. And the only thing "delinquent" about them is their steadfast refusal to wear bras to contain their giant breasts. (Russ Meyer fans will probably enjoy this movie a lot more than I did). There is one pretty funny scene where two girls engage in a muddy catfight for some reason, and one girl runs away to flag down a passing van, completely topless and covered with mud (exactly how erotic that is though is a matter of taste). There's generally an odd dearth of nudity here, however, except for the occasional enormous breast popping out here or there. There is some gratuitous martial arts--the girls are all taking karate, which, of course, comes in very handy when the convicts show up (nevermind that they're laughably bad at it).

My favorite part though is the elderly herpetology professor (herpetology, no doubt, being an important subject for a reform school) who lures one comely student back to his house where he drugs her, hypnotizes her, undresses her (kind of), and then-- puts live snakes on her! The funniest thing about this though is that this professor talks EXACTLY like Marlon Perkins from the old "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" TV show!

This movie was recently released on a double disc with the superior "Dream No Evil" (also starring Michael Pataki). "Dream No Evil" is definitely worth anyone's time, but should you turn the disc over and waste 90 minutes of your life on this movie? Well, it really depends on how you feel about offensive stereotypes, freakishly huge breasts, muddy catfights, snakes, and bad karate.

Much like the Swinging Cheerleaders movie released the same year this one is a sex-ploitation flick in the first degree. Sickos, perverts, and Penny Hot Pants make this one a riot. My best friend in high school and I would rented this one over and over again in the eighties.