The Student Body (1976) User Reviews

Drive-in fare

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 5/10 · 26 February 2023]

A product of its time, THE STUDENT BODY has a rather absurd premise that was standard for the exploitation genre of the Seventies. Three female inmates, all young and sexy, agree to participate in an experiment at the local university on aggression. The girls are released from jail, but are monitored and have to live with the brainchild of the study, Dr. Blalock (Warren Stevens) and his cash cow wife played by Judith Roberts. This being exploitation cinema, the Blalocks have a strapping college-aged son (Peter Hooten) who takes a shine to the blond, Carrie (Jillian Kesner), while our daft professor assigns three of his horniest male students to monitor each girl individually. The stage is set for plenty sex, but the film, unlike others of this genre, actually veers toward the story rather than the nubile bodies.

STORY ($$): The script is trite, with a few messages tossed in about control and rebellion, but the focus is more on the changes in the three girls as they ingest Dr. Blalock's experimental pills. The pills have a different effect on each girl, making Carrie more confrontational, as she seems to develop a need to argue. Mitzi (June Fairchild) becomes overly emotional, almost regressing to a childlike state, while Chicago (Janice Heiden) becomes uncontrollably concupiscent. Early in the film there was relatively equal treatment between the three female leads, but as the movie progressed, Chicago became the forgotten character.

ACTING ($$$): Nobody really stands out in this film, either by giving a great performance or a terrible one. The three female leads are all fine in their roles. At times it seems that June Fairchild is overacting when Mitzi has one of her flighty fits, but I'd argue that it works for the character.

SEX/NUDITY ($$$): This starts out with all the makings of a grindhouse skin-flick, with June Fairchild skinny-dipping, a group of jealous coeds bathing topless, and Peter Hooten admiring Jillian Kesner's torso, but the movie slowing edges away from the flesh exhibition and focuses on the change in the girls' behavior.

not that sleazy as said

[trashgang · 4/10 · 3 March 2011]

This here is a perfect example of seventies drive-in sleaze. up to my review it isn't available on DVD. You can find it on a double feature VHS but it doesn't go cheap on the web. Still, the copy I have is still in excellent condition. No extra hiss or scratches or damaged tape. Lucky to have such copy. But was I lucky to see it, well, it's a good story and I was surprised about the excellent filming and even editing. But of course the director Gus Trikonis became a famous director of television series the best known, Baywatch. So you can see that he had it to make it. Even the cast in this flick went further into the business and it shows also because they all act pretty well. But naturally, it's drive-in style so nothing really happens, you got 3 girls which are really bad ones in jail so they are send to some kind of farm were they get involved in experiments. They have to take drugs so from nasty girls they become really nasty girls. There is a bit of nudity in it, a catfight in a penitentiary, and some fights. But it's funny to see it all just for the hairstyles and the clothes. So 70's. If you collect grindhouse or exploitation than you must have it, because some actors and the director made it in the scene. But for me it lacked a bit of sleaze, yes, the fountain was sleazy but still, I have seen better drive-in's. My version clocked in at 86 minutes and not as stated on IMDb as 76 minutes...

An Intensive Rehabilitation Program

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 3 October 2013]

As part of an experiment, 3 beautiful female prison inmates named "Carrie" (Jillian Kesner), "Chicago" (Janice Heiden) and "Mitzi" (June Fairchild) are transferred from prison to a college with the stipulation that they undergo an intensive rehabilitation program there. Part of the program involves taking a new experimental drug to inhibit their aggressive natures. What they don't know is that the person in charge of the program, "Dr. Blalock" (Warren Stevens) has accepted a $150,000 bribe to administer the new drug without authorization of any kind. At any rate, rather than reveal the rest of the plot I will just say that this film represents standard drive-in movie fare during a time when the drive-in theaters in America were rapidly losing business. Unable to compete with indoor movie theaters to acquire first-run movies, the drive-ins had to settle for whatever they could get their hands on. This typically involved B-movies and low-budget exploitation films. For what it's worth though, this particular film wasn't too bad all things considered. Even so, I rate it as slightly below average overall.

Recommended, especially for fans of 70's sexploitation

[lazarillo · 20 August 2008]

This starts out as a WIP film with three female convicts getting in a brawl in a prison laundry room. Afterwards, the fed-up warden decides to send them to a special experimental program at the local college, after which they'll be completely released. If this sounds like a bad idea, it gets worse--the real intention of the program is to experiment on them with a dangerous psychotropic drug. Of course, as is typical for these movies, the three girls are much more meant to be scrumptious pieces of tail than they are to be remotely believable as hardened criminals. The trio quickly make all the other girls on campus jealous, and the lead (Jillian Kessner) becomes involved with the son of the corrupt professor heading the experiment (much to the dismay of the latter since he kind of has a thing for her himself). After a (kind of) wild pool party where everyone gets naked, the effects of the drugs kick in, and the movie starts to get enjoyably ridiculous.

Under the effects of the drug, the Kessner character ends up becoming a VERY serious student, who punctuates her points by hurling an ashtray at the wall. The character "Chicago" (Maria Heiden), who was a nymphomaniac to begin with, actually tries to rape a guy and beats his girlfriend when she tries to intervene. Most hilarious though is the third girl "Mitzi" (June Fairchild) who is VERY obsessed with penguins as the result of having been molested by a priest. Obviously, this is highly implausible (since when do Catholic priests molest GIRLS?). Still, there's a great scene where the girls are spending a night on the town (taking in a showing of "Deep Throat"!) and "Mitzi" spots a VERY large stuffed penguin in a shop window. (Obviously, things don't end well for the window).

The movie is presented in a pretty straight manner and the end seems completely earnest, but director Gus Trikonis HAD to have been in on the joke here. (It's a definitely an improvement over his previous film "Swinging Barmaids" in any event). There's not as much nudity as you might expect. Kessner, who will look vaguely familiar to anyone who watched American TV in the 70's or 80's, has a brief topless scene. Strangely, the nymphomaniac has no nude scenes though. Perhaps he best thing about this, however, is June Fairchild, who had played "Sonny Swingle", one of the many pretty maids in the wonderful 70's trashfest "Pretty Maids All in a Row". She doesn't go full-frontal here like she did in that one, but you do get to see her cute little butt during the skinny-dipping scene. Moreover though, she's just generally great (she DEFINITELY wasn't in enough movies). Recommended, especially for fans of 70's sexploitation.

Drive-in classic (under Classroom Teasers) is on DVD from Code Red!

[monty-britton · 6/10 · 6 July 2015]

The Student Body (on DVD titled Classroom Teasers) is available on DVD from Code Red video. http://codereddvd.bigcartel.com/products This classic from 1976 is the 83 minute version in anamorphic widescreen. Its not the best print, but I am sure this is the best CR could find (and this guy works hard to get decent prints) but this is better than the videotape bootlegs of this drive-in classic. Its your typical T&A flick from the '70s but its very tame by today's standards (like those cheerleader flicks from the same era) but the writing and acting is not bad for its type. Three girls coming from reform school into college for experiments and loads of erotic exploits soon follow. Just glad to have found this on legit DVD after all these years.

A really enjoyable 70's drive-in romp

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 28 April 2008]

Three nubile young prison inmates -- fiery Carrie (slinky blonde Jillian Kesner), sassy Chicago (lovely eyeful Janice Heiden), and fragile Mitzi (foxy brunette June Fairchild) -- are chosen for an unorthodox college study on human behavior that's being conducted by shrink Professor Blalock (a solid turn by Warren Stevens). Unbeknownst to the gals, they are really being used as guinea pigs for an experimental drug that causes all of them to become more exceedingly hostile and unstable: Mitzi steals a giant stuffed penguin from a toy store display window, Chicago becomes aggressively libidinous, and Carrie suddenly develops a moral conscience. Ably directed with flair to spare by underrated 70's B-movie master Gus ("Nashville Girl") Trikonis, with a pleasing plenitude of tasty distaff nudity, a smidgen of soft-core sex, several cool set pieces (highlights include a rough'n'tumble catfight in an all-girls juvenile penitentiary, a rowdy pool party, and a smoky back alley high stakes craps game), a tight'n'trim 75 minute running time, profane dialogue, a pertinent central message about the dangers of unethical unregulated drug testing, and a winningly raunchy sense of breezy'n'easy irreverent humor, this flick serves up loads of infectiously trashy grindhouse fun. The three lady leads are hot, sexy and attractive (Fairchild in particular is absolutely adorable), plus they all are pretty capable actresses. This movie further benefits from spirited acting by an enthusiastic supporting cast: Peter Hooten as Blalock's hunky nice guy son Carter, Judith Roberts as the shrewish Ms. Blalock, Vic Jolley as the girls' uptight guardian Vernon, David Ankrum as the nerdy Leroy, and Faith Barnhart as the snippy Sharon. The always reliable Gary Graver's typically proficient cinematography does the trick. The groovy 70's cop show-style disco score by Don Bagley and Steve Michaels likewise hits the funky spot. A hugely entertaining and unjustly overlooked exploitation blast.

Dupe Troop Purchase

[Seph Rodgers · 3 March 2000]

I've only actually seen this film because it was part of the 'Dupe Troop Summer' (long story). However, for a low budget, no audience kind of film it has a few bright spots. The scene where one of the girls starts to turn into a penguin and flaps around in a swimming pool is most amusing.