Mark Turner The heyday of the drive in began with low budget horror flicks and eventually morphed into low budget T&A movies. The films almost always took on some form of profession from student nurses to cheerleaders to teachers. Surprisingly while the titles may have made it seem that those in these chosen professions had the loosest of morals the films themselves actually were a bit more twisted. Yes, the characters were placed in definite misogynistic settings but they were also the most independent women on the planet. In the end while bad things happened they came out stronger, more self-aware and better off than their male counterparts.All of that can be seen in TRIP WITH THE TEACHER. The name itself sounds like a low grade porn flick but it is far from it. The movie features a teacher on a field trip with a group of female students. Their destination is the desert area of the southwest. Side by side with their adventure is a motorcyclist who teams up with two other young bikers, brothers, one of which has a flat. What he doesn't realize is that one of them tends to lean towards anti-social psychopathic tendencies.Their paths cross as they pass the bus and the girls flirt with them. When both end up at the next gas station they chat, the girls flirt some more and then head out on their way. Al (Zalman King), the psycho brother, kills the station attendant who was giving them a hard time without telling the other two, and their on their way.The girl's bus breaks down and the cyclists offer to help them. At least they claim to. Instead they kill the driver, assault the girls and eventually rape the teacher who offers herself up if they'll leave the girls alone. The third biker isn't part of this and is attacked by the brothers and left for dead. Now if only the girls can find a way to escape.The movie features everything that those drive in movies looked for. We have sexy young girls, none of which looks under 25 even though they're playing teens. We have psycho bikers because hey, all bikers must be psychos right? Well with the exception of the one riding the old style motorcycle. We have a secluded location which works out great since the budget is miniscule at best. And the end result involves a form of revenge which was a classic plot device in these films.The movie looks much like it would have on the large whitewashed screens of the drive in with little attention paid to focus or a decent film stock that would have provided a better picture. But these movies weren't made as art. They were quickly written, quickly shot no budget films that made back more than their investment playing from one end of the country to another. This one is a bit less than most which makes me think it was the second half of a double bill along the way.The acting is high school level at best. Like I said, no one seems to fit the age that they are portraying. King always seemed to play characters like this one so his showing up here allows the audience to know right off the start he's the bad guy. His is the only character that really stands out here seeming like a method actor looking for some method to play the part.With all that being said this is another of the films saved by Vinegar Syndrome. No, this isn't CITIZEN KANE in that it deserves major restoration and placed in a locked vault. But the movie itself depicts the type of film being made when it was released, a style of film made specifically for drive ins. The film company behind it, Crown International Pictures, was a company that made tons of movies for drive ins. They may not have been the best of the best but their history deserves to be preserved.Vinegar Syndrome is presenting the film in the best way possible with plenty of extras on hand. To begin with the film is a 2k restoration from a 16mm original camera negative. There is a commentary track with director Earl Barton, actress Cathy Worthington and actress Dina Ousley, TAKING THE TRIP a video with actress Brenda Fogarty who plays the teacher, multiple TV spots, a still gallery and reversible cover artwork.If you're a fan of drive in or grindhouse films then this is yet another film to add to your collection.

Scott LeBrun Future soft-core auteur Zalman King does his best David Hess, snarling and sleazing his way through this satisfying exploitation feature. The King plays Al; Al and his less depraved brother Pete (Robert Porter) are bikers who encounter a teacher and her four comely female students on the road. The teacher is Ms. Tenny (Brenda Fogarty), who is taking the girls on a field trip. Circumstances soon lead Al and Pete to bring the gals to an abandoned farmhouse. After committing a murder, the two of them realize that they can't really afford to let the gals live. But first, they're going to have some fun..."Trip with the Teacher" was the sole filmmaking effort for writer / producer / director Earl Barton, ordinarily a dancer / choreographer, so this does seem like an odd choice of material for him. But he makes it work, and the movie is gripping in its tension and sleaze factor. Voyeurs will be pleased to see the clothes come off the gals with some regularity. And the situation is compelling, with the unlikelihood of any saviours coming to the rescue making for a true ordeal for the ladies. Their best bet is with a nice-guy biker named Jay (Robert Gribbin, "Don't Go Near the Park"), who'd made the acquaintance of Al & Pete earlier in the day by offering them some assistance. And adding some unintentional humour is the fact that Tina (Jill Voight) clearly can't run with any speed or sense of urgency. It's no wonder that Al is able to catch up with her.The tone is established fairly early on, with Al deciding to punish an old service station attendant (Edward Cross) basically for being a crotchety fart. The movie isn't totally without laughs, but it mostly concentrates on being grim and gritty.Fogarty is wonderfully spunky, Gribbin is quite likable (as is Jack Driscoll as Marvin the bus driver), and the girls are appealing, especially Dina Ousley ('Bronk') as tough, experienced Bobbie. But "Trip with the Teacher" truly belongs to the marvellously scuzzy King, who's a bad guy par excellence.A worthy viewing for any lover of 1970s drive-in cinema.Eight out of 10.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** Going on a bus trip through the scenic American south-west desert the girls and their teacher never dreamed what they were getting into when this trio of bikers drove up besides them. It was the good natured Jay who had fixed one of the biker's, Al & Pete, wheel who soon became a hit with the girls, Julie Bobbie Tina & Pam, and their strict and by the books teacher Miss Tenny. It was Al the psycho of the group who had other ideas and manipulated his spineless brother Pete into kidnapping the bunch including Jay later in the movie. That's after he murdered a gas station attendant for dissing him, by spilling gasoline in his bike, by letting a car lift crush him to death. In a horny Al then trying to rape the girls as well as their teacher the heroic bus driver Marvin in trying to protect his passengers ended up getting his neck broken by a crazed Al running , with his bike , over it.Now at the mercy of the two brother bikers and in the middle of the desert Al against his brother Pete's meek advice starts to really get down to business that eventually leads to one of the girls Tina making a brake for it. Tina trapped by Al in the middle of nowhere where she's then brutally beaten and suffocated, by rubbing her head in the sand, by a maniacal Al leaving her body to float away in a nearby stream. It was the only man around the good natured Jay to save the girls who ended up, with Pete chasing him, falling down a cliff ending up either dead or at the least breaking his skull as well as arms & legs.****SPOILERS**** With the by now totally sex crazed and out of his skull, he seemed to be having epileptic fits all throughout the movie, Al having the run of the place, in the shack where he was holding the girls and teacher hostage, it looked like if their days if not hours were numbered. But unknown to Al as well as his brother Pete things were about to turn around like a boomerang on them and put an end to their sinister plans as well themselves. 1970's exploitation movie that had more going for it then the usual likewise films where the both victims as well as victimizer, even psycho Al, came across as real and complicated human beings not just emotionless clay pigeons, used for target practice, who lives or deaths had no real effect on those of us watching. Even the villains like Pete, who was left hanging, evoked emotion in him not really wanting to do any harm to anyone but having him manipulated by his crazed brother Al. As for Psycho Al despite being a mentally unbalanced lunatic his gut spilling death at the end of the film was, even though he personally had really nothing to do with it,about the best thing, of many, in the entire movie.

opticyellow Fun Movie. Gritty seventies film. Bad acting which makes it good. Is that Deb from "everybody Loves Raymond" in th green dress? It sure looks like her. Her credited actress name is Suzie Russell on this picture. Did she change her name to avoid embarrassment? The film isn't that bad and she didn't flash any skin. This movie was more funny than anything just like the sitcom. Check it out. I think it's her and she should be proud of her acting! I like these movies where I don't know anyone, but it was interesting to see the look-a-like. It kept me interested through the flick. Otherwise I make have turned it off. I think I need to see when Deborah was born and see if it was possibly her.