Vadim in America

Roger Vadim was on the outs with Jane Fonda at the time he made Pretty Maids.  It appears she hadn't forgiven him for Barbarella, as she wanted no part of this sexploitation high school movie that would have been better directed by Russ Meyer or Roger Corman.  Vadim knew nothing about America, nor did he really care.  That was made painfully obvious with the young protagonist, Ponce, riding up to Oceanfront High School on a Vespa.  I suppose LA was like the French Riviera for Vadim.

He had been a big name in the 60s on the edge of the French New Wave.  His films were always about sex, but had enough of an edge to qualify as art house movies.  He was probably most famous for introducing Brigitte Bardot to the world in And God Created Woman.  He also introduced us to Catherine Deneuve and Annette Stroyberg.  He had quite a way with ladies.

That is also the case with his aging school counselor, Tiger McDrew, played by Rock Hudson, providing the only glint of irony in this insipid movie.  Hudson was immersed in a scandal at the time that made the pages of Mad Magazine.  Many thought he had secretly married Jim Nabors.  It had long been known he was gay, but Rock had an image to protect and I guess this film helped him do so in its odd sort of way.

The movie probably would have languished in the MGM vaults had not Quentin Tarantino recalled it as one of his 12 Greatest Films of All Time.  Vadim himself made at least twelve movies better than this one, including Barbarella, but we have to forgive Tarantino's puerile taste in sexploitation movies.

Roger Ebert had succinctly noted that Vadim was completely out of his element in trying to bring his French sensibilities about sex to the American screen in a high school movie.  MGM lavished big bucks on this movie, renting out an entire school, including its football team, to give a feeling of verisimilitude to the action.  The school later regretted it when the staff and parents saw what Vadim had created.  

Hudson doubles as the football coach, himself looking like a rugged former player.  I never realized how tall he was until seeing him dwarf everyone around him.  Oceanfront hadn't lost a football game in years and weren't about to concede to their cross-city rival Carvertown despite all the murders taking place on campus.

MGM also enlisted some other big names, including Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowall and Keenan Wynn.  Vadim was apparently disappointed he had to settle for Angie Dickinson instead of Brigitte Bardot, as originally promised.  None of it helped.  Everyone seemed lost in their roles except Telly.  The movie was so bad, all these actors were consigned to television shortly thereafter.  You could see the makings of Kojak, which would follow two years later.  

Ebert described the film as humiliating on every level and indeed it was.  Unlike Russ Meyer films, the women don't get the upper hand.  Vadim keeps his camera purposely low to the ground throughout the movie so that he can get plenty of upskirts of all the "pretty maids."  When given the chance to speak, the girls give rapturous soliloquies on free love.  Poor Angie is openly used as a sex surrogate for the troubled young Ponce at the encouragement of Tiger McDrew.  Poor Ponce doesn't know how to approach girls and Tiger figures this is something only a more mature woman can help him with.  Dickinson was close to 40 at the time, so you have to figure this must have been a very bitter pill for her to swallow.  She would later get her comeuppance in Police Woman.

You really can't call it a murder mystery as it is clear from the movie poster who the killer is.  Vadim does make some effort to disguise him by having Tiger en coitus with one of his students when young Ponce discovers the first victim in the boy's bathroom with a note "so long, honey" tagged to her panties.  It seems Tiger can't have his "pretty maids" tattling on him, so offs them with a fond farewell.  After all, he has a reputation to protect.  He is considered a leading authority on new methods in teaching.  He also has a beautiful young wife and child at his comfortable home on Venice Beach.

Ponce is ostensibly the lead character in this movie, but is upstaged at every turn. John David Carson is not a good actor nor did he go on to become one.  He languished in bit roles on television for many years before finally "retiring" in 1990.  He eventually figures out his coach and mentor is the killer only to willingly play a part in Tiger's fake death so that his family won't have to suffer the humiliation of his arrest.  The movie ends with Ponce picking up where Tiger left off among the girls.  His confidence fully formed thanks to Miss Smith.  Telly Savalas is left to wonder how Tiger got away with it.

The script is credited to Gene Roddenberry, based on a novel of the same name.  He peddled the screenplay around the studios for three years, with such names as Joe Namath tossed out for the role of Tiger.  Broadway Joe was still playing football but that didn't preclude him having some summer time fun in Hollywood.

It's interesting that Vadim garnered such a great reputation especially after debacles like this one.  I suppose he has "auteurs" like Tarantino to thank in part.  His films weren't particularly daring, but they did give us some big names so I guess for that we should be thankful.  However, I think Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve would have found their way onto the big screen eventually.   

This film pretty much killed Rock Hudson's career.  His only memorable performance after this was as Chief McMillan in McMillan and Wife.  It allowed him to recapture some of his lost dignity.  It's funny that Hudson, Dickinson and Savalas would all go onto play in television crime dramas.

As for Jane Fonda, she took up activism in a big way, leaving Roger Vadim behind.  He returned to France and tried to pick up where he left off but it would never be the same again.  The New Wave had run its course with Vadim sadly trying to remake And God Created Woman with Rebecca De Mornay in 1988.  He probably deeply regretted ever coming to LA.