ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

edwagreen This picture takes the theme of perverted school personnel long before the media began focusing their attention on such people in their never ending attacks on school employees.Correction: Rock Hudson is not a teacher in this film. He is an assistant principal, coach, and guidance counselor all in one. He starts to have relations with some of the female students and murder and mayhem result.Roddy McDowell is the typical figure-head like principal in this mess. His secretary sounds and looks like Betty Boop.Yes, this is 1971 and Angie Dickinson looks more beautiful than ever. Telly Savalas is the chronic smoking detective and Keenan Wynn is a dumb officer who meets a bad fate when he accidentally stumbles on to what Hudson has been doing.The ending is ludicrous but so is the entire film.

brefane An oddity from MGM apparently desperate to stay afloat and keep up with the times. Pretty Maids is rather like soft core porn that's been edited for an R rating. Perhaps Roger Vadim's limited understanding of English can account for the vacuous feel and the awkward and uncertain tone, but a stupid script that has no right to exist and Vadim's flat-footed direction are also to blame for this dud. Hudson is interesting because his role provides a contrast from his usual screen persona, but the rest of the cast is adrift. Pretty Maids is ultimately lame and boring; it doesn't work as black comedy or parody and understandably never found an audience. It's shameless exploitation produced and released by a major studio.

The_Void Pretty Maids All in a Row is based on a novel by Francis Pollini and has all the makings of a cult film. We've got a cast peppered with cult stars, a story involving a sex killer and some great black humour, but somehow it missed the cult film boat. The film is set in a California high school, and clearly the writers decided to throw caution to the wind where any political correctness was concerned as Pretty Maids All in a Row delights in showing Rock Hudson's teacher character getting up to allsorts with his young female students. The film basically has two main plot lines. The first of which focuses on a young man named Ponce de Leon Harper. This guy is cut up because he's seventeen and hasn't lost his virginity yet, and so turns to his teacher friend, Michael McDrew, for help. Mr McDrew decides to help Leon by hooking him up with someone; only thing is, he decides to hook him up with his English teacher, Miss Smith! Meanwhile, teenage girls are turning up dead with a note attached to their bottoms...The black humour features throughout the film and at times is subtle, and at others; less subtle (for example, "we never have practise on the day of a murder!"), but it works really well. The cast is superb, with Rock Hudson getting the main plaudits for his central performance. He's every bit the middle aged pervert and he plays the role with relish. John David Carson is less impressive as the young kid, but still turns in a good performance. There are also roles for the likes of Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowall and Angie Dickinson. The film remains interesting for the duration due to its range of characters and various plot lines. The film actually does handle some interesting themes too; the boy losing his virginity being the main one. The sequence in which that happens is really great, too! The film doesn't work at all as a mystery - it's completely clear who the murderer is right from the start - but still, getting to the conclusion is a lot of fun. Overall, I would have to say that this film falls somewhere short of 'great', but it's certainly very good.

beauzee Comments are based upon TV viewing.Always a fan of Angie Dickenson and interested in Gene Roddenbery projects.In 1970, singer Little Richard mentioned that he was to be in a movie with Rock Hudson, as "The Insane Minister". Did he mean MGM? Historians, please help! :)This presumptive unrealized Richard project sure is different....a true cult movie with a lot of interest for fans of Hudson, as well. Gene Roddenberry did the script, which can't be considered at the level of his famous sci-fi TV icon, but there is zero impetus to raid the frig' during the viewing. Has much of the feel and atmosphere of the period. Hudson's acting is especially nuanced; Dickenson's sensuousness actually moves the plot line.