The Student Teachers (1973) User Reviews

Nothing like my high school

[lastliberal · 5/10 · 20 April 2008]

If you want a trip back to the time of bell-bottom pants, big 'fros and cheesy exploitation, then Roger Corman's film starring teachers is just the thing.

Of course, his wife Julie is listed as the producer. Wonder why that is. This film fits right in with some others they made at the time: Summer School Teachers, Candy Stripe Nurses, The Young Nurses, and Night Call Nurses. You can imagine that lots of breasts are the main feature of all these films. Marilyn Joi, who showed her breasts in many films (cheerleaders Wild Weekend, Naughty Stewardesses, The Kentucky Fried Movie) exposed her Nubian nakedness in this flick also. Tara Strohmeier (Candy Stripe Nurses, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Hollywood Boulevard) exposes her double D-lights here too.

The stories get a bit jumbled up with sex-education classes, and a rapist at the school, and drug dealers, but, hey, you came her for the sights, right?

Ah the 70's

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 17 October 2018]

Man, these student teachers. They're changing the old ways of high school and making it better - well, maybe more interesting - for the hip now generation. The sequel to Roger Corman's The Student Nurses, this movie is all about the issues, man.

Directed and co-written by Jonathan Kaplan, who would go on to direct The Accused, this movie follows three student teachers: Rachel who wants to teach the good parts of sex education after school (that is, birth control and that sex isn't this alien, frightening thing); Tracey dates an art teacher who cheats on her; and Jody works with an inner-city education effort but also gets involved in selling drugs.

Chuck Norris made his debut in this film as a karate instructor. In his autobiography, he revealed that he knew nothing of the film other than the scene he was in. When the movie was released, Norris and his family went to see it and were shocked by the explicit sex and nudity. In fact, Norris almost changed his mind about becoming an actor!

To say this movie is dated is an understatement. That said, it's packed with the earnestness of the end of the 1970's and the feeling that young people would change the world. They all ended up repeating the same cycle as their parents by the early 80's. But for now, they would be the student teachers.

1970s B-movie/drive-in programmer, pretty good

[silentgmusic · 9 December 2004]

In the 1970s, with the expansion of producer Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Corman set out to establish a cycle of successful films, focusing on nurses. There were the Candy Stripe Nurses, Night Call Nurses, and, of course, The Student Nurses. Corman was so successful with this series of low-budget sex-and-drama-with-a-little-politics films that he set out to create another series, sort of a spin-off of the The Student Nurses. This was to be the Teachers series.

The Student Teachers, a sometimes funny and somewhat dated film, was intended to parody, among other things: gangster films (with drug dealers like in French Connection) and sex-education films (like we used to see in health class). There is plenty of nudity, a few love scenes, dopey hippie characters, tough African-American characters, nice student-teachers who teach at a local high school, and Corman regular Dick Miller as a sexist, foul-mouthed physical education teacher (he's funny but turns real nasty).

Some of the film segments (most of them, actually) are extraneous and somewhat pointless; there are more plot lines here than in most Robert Altman films. The actresses are pretty, though, especially the blond character who has an artist boyfriend. Corman perfected his formula of success with the Teachers series, and Jonathan Kaplan shows a flair for editing and good camera work that he would later expand upon in Project X and Bad Girls. Kaplan seems to have fun with The Student Teachers, especially with the student sex films the characters watch and the dim-witted hippie character.

I saw this film on video, under the ridiculously misleading title "College Co-eds". The film is not about college (it's high school) and there are no co-eds to speak of. Still, it was fun to watch, and certainly is an interesting time capsule, a trip back to when things were simpler, people embraced the liberal lifestyle, and drive-ins still rocked. I wish I had been alive in 1974 to have seen this one in the back of a Dodge Dart, snuggling up to a girl with bell-bottoms and feathered hair.

I'm nostalgic, and I wasn't even there.

Low rent skin flick

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 30 April 2018]

THE STUDENT TEACHERS is a very low budget skin flick put out by Roger Corman during a mini-wave of similar productions in the early 1970s. The story involves the titular characters going around and having fun, mostly encountering a mixture of men, from jocks to nerds and everyone in between. There's a mild thriller-style plot in which some of the girls are stalked and raped by a crazy guy in a clown mask, but this never seems to make much impact. The main emphasis of the film is on the nudity, with starlets required to strip off every few minutes or so in order to grab the viewer's attention. This doesn't make for a very interesting production. The best parts of it are Dick Miller as a bad-tempered coach and a debuting Chuck Norris showing off his moves in a karate scene.

An enjoyably silly and lively comedic 70's drive-in romp

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 10 June 2006]

A quirky, fluffy, free-wheeling series of humorous vignettes involving three aspiring student teachers' seriocomic experiences at Valley High School in California. Susan ("Blood Sabbath") Damante teaches an open-minded, but controversial after school class which promotes a healthy, up-front attitude about sex. Brooke ("Dream No Evil") Mills blows off her hypocritical pseudo-bohemian male chauvinist art teacher lover Richard Doran in order to become more attached to a much more nice and considerate guy in her photography class. Streetwise black student Brenda Sutton pulls off an elaborate scam in which two drug cartels are pitted against each other in order to raise enough money to save a burgeoning learning center from closing down.

The supporting cast is right on the money: Johnny Ray McGhee as an overaged borderline drop-out who assists Sutton with her crafty, dangerous ruse, the ever-sleazy Charles ("The Hot Box") Dierkop as a ruthless Italian smack pusher, then popular radio disc jockey "the Real" Don Steele as a -- you guessed it -- super-smooth disc jockey, the ubiquitous (and very short) Dick Miller in a hilarious piece of miscasting as an uptight, foul-mouthed, irascible jerk of a basketball (!) coach who turns out to be a brutal rapist, Tara Strohmeier as a cute teen, and none other than Chuck Norris, who has a quick "sneeze and you'll miss him" bit as a -- what else? -- karate instructor. The essential drive-in movie ingredients for a solid and satisfying romp are all present and accounted for: mucho gratuitous nudity, sexual assault, goofy montages set to dippy early 70's pop-rock tunes, zany car chases, wacky shoot-outs, swear words, free love -- y'know, all that fun, funky junky stuff which makes these kind of flicks so worthwhile. Jonathan ("White Line Fever," "Heart Like a Wheel") Kaplan's speedy, stable direction, Stephen ("Switchblade Sisters," "Sister Sister") Katz's bright, pretty cinematography, and David Nichtern's nifty banjo-happy, harmonica-tinged blues and country music score earn passing marks as well, thereby clinching this baby's status as an endearingly wiggy, disjointed, and, yes, even charming so-idiotic-it's-oddly-appealing-and-entertaining New World Pictures teen sexploitation treat.

WOW, those wacked out 70's!

[zboyemc2000 · 9/10 · 28 September 2001]

If you picked this movie up thinking it was just another comedy/drama, we'll your in for a 'rare treat'. It's got more nudity-drugs-booze and rascist one liners than you could 'shake a stick at. The women at 'Valley High' are downright georgous, the plot twists will keep yo want'in more, and 'the clown'..we'll lets just say'killer klownz' have nothing over this'dude. Sexy,funny, and full of action, THE STUDENT TEACHERS should be required viewing for every student of seventies sexploitation, Amen, sister.If you happen to find a copy of this oop video-hold on to it. Collectors are pay'in big bucks for it-mine's a stay'in with me for sure..almost forgot, there's a cameo by the godfather of karate 'chuck norris'-no kidding.

great movie

[ethylester · 9/10 · 17 July 2002]

This is a memorable movie with lots of good parts. It doesn't deserve a low rating just because it's kind of cheezy. There are parts that aren't so cheezy and have very intelligent things to say about society and tradition, namely the sex ed classes. You might think these female student teachers are just dumb stereotyped ditzes by looking at the cover, but they actually have good characters and personalities and are more intelligent than your average b-movie "hot" actress. It even has somewhat of a Pam Grier-type actress who really kicks ass. I laughed and I also was stirred with emotion at certain parts. I wanted to yell at that student high school principal and it was so relieving when the student teacher told him off. It's just a refreshing movie, and I think it's totally in good taste. The only people they make fun of really deserve it. Pretty decent acting, too. WATCH IT!

a classic

[stimpy-13 · 18 February 2003]

this film is indeed a classic. i was VERY impressed with it only problem was too much useless nudity.now i have no problem with female nudity but sometimes when you are telling a story there's no need for it. if you want to make a movie with it fine. but sometimes you need it for the story and sometimes you don't. they do the same thing today. a movie like The Doors for example is my point of it took place during a time where there was a LOT of nudity going around in public and it was done so much no one really payed any attention Woodstock changed that. it was kind of like a farewell in a sense.my point in all this is sometimes it's needed sometimes it's not and sometimes it's done to much in a film. but if you can find this indeed rare film it's a treasure on it's own. and if you are a big fan of Roger Corman his wife produced it. and if you are a Dick Miller fan like i am he's got a good part in it also. i found it quite by accident. I'm glad for that.