Summer School Teachers

1974 film by Barbara Peeters

Summer School Teachers

Film poster by John Solie

Directed by| Barbara Peeters
Written by| Barbara Peeters
Produced by| Julie Corman
Starring| Candice Rialson
Cinematography| Eric Saarinen
Edited by| Barbara Pokras
Music by| J.J. Jackson
Distributed by| New World Pictures

Release date

* 1974 (1974)

Running time

| 85 mins
Country| USA
Language| English
Budget| $1.2 million[1] or $250,000[2]

Summer School Teachers is a 1974 feature film directed and written by Barbara Peeters and starring Candice Rialson. It is about three female friends who all teach at a school over the summer.[3]

The film was an unofficial follow up to The Student Teachers (1973).

## Plot

[edit]

Three friends from Iowa go to California for the summer, rent an apartment together, and teach at the same high school. PE teacher Conklin coaches an all-girl football team despite the opposition of the resident coach, and romances one of the male teachers. Sally teaches photography and despite being engaged to a man back home, has affairs with an eccentric rock star with a food fetish, and with a male chauvinist teacher who talks her into posing nude for some photos. Chemistry teacher Denise becomes involved with one of her students, a juvenile delinquent, who is falsely accused of participating in car stealing. Conklin finds out that funds for sport are being misspent by the coach. Both she and Sally are suspended, but all ends happily with the all-girl football team triumphant.

## Cast

[edit]

* Candice Rialson as Conklin
* Pat Anderson as Sally
* Rhonda Leigh Hopkins as Denise
* Will Carney as Jeremy
* Grainger Hines as Bob
* Christopher Barrett as Jeff
* Dick Miller as Sam
* Vince Barnett as Principal Adams
* Norman Bartold as Agwin
* Michael Greer as John John Lacey
* Barbara Pell as Janice
* Ka-Ron Sowell Brown as Jessie
* Merie Earle as Ethel
* Cecil Elliott as Freida
* John Kerry as Hiram

## Production

[edit]

Barbara Peeters had worked for a number of years at New World Pictures in various capacities, notably second unit directing, and asked Roger Corman when she was going to get the chance to direct her own movie. Corman asked if she could write a "three girls" movie about teachers and Peeters agreed. She was from Iowa and made the film about teachers coming from Iowa.[2]

Peeters said Corman felt the "three girl" formula worked for him. "It had the right amount of exploitation. You had three stories so you didn't have to get too deep on any of them and you could have three naked girls at some point in the movie and you had to have some action. It was the same formula and it had worked for him for a very long time."[2]

At the time Peeters said she enjoyed working for Roger Corman:

> He is always available and he doesn't hire you unless he trusts you. As long as you open big and close big and try to resolve three stories in the end, Roger lets you do what you want. Just be sure you put in either a sex scene or an action sequence every 15 minutes.[1]

## Reception

[edit]

Roger Corman attributed the film's popularity to its strong female liberation statement, which he thought was the strongest of any film made by New World Pictures.[4]

### Critical

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The Los Angeles Times called it "an entertaining and breezy exploitation film... even though she operates on a very superficial level, screenwriter Peeters deals with real issues like the danger of labelling people or the trauma of teacher-student romance. As a director, Peeters excels in zany slapstick".[5]

Diabolique magazine said the film was "feels like a screwball comedy rather than something sleazy. There is nudity... but the women are confident and in control: they do most of the seducing, they stick up for each other and the sisterhood, and the messages are mostly positive – girls should be able to do whatever boys can do, physical fitness is good, corruption is bad. This is the best character Rialson ever played."[6]

## See also

[edit]

* List of American films of 1974

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Gross, Linda. (Feb 12, 1978). "A Woman's Place Is in... Exploitation Films?: A Trend-Setter in the Youth Market Women in Exploitation Films". Los Angeles Times. p. 34.
2. ^ a b c "Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors Barbara Peeters". UCLA Film and Television Archive. 26 June 2019.
3. ^ Summer School Teachers at Grindhouse Movie Database
4. ^ Ed. J. Philip di Franco, The Movie World of Roger Corman, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979 p 208
5. ^ Gross, Linda. (Apr 29, 1977). "A Parlay of ERA, Sex and Football". Los Angeles Times. p. g19.
6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (November 26, 2019). "The Cinema of Exploitation Goddess Candice Rialson". Diabolique Magazine.

## External links

[edit]

* Summer School Teachers at IMDb
* Summer School Teachers at the TCM Movie Database

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Barbara Peeters

As director|

* The Dark Side of Tomorrow (1970)
* Bury Me an Angel (1971)
* Summer School Teachers (1974)
* Starhops (1978)
* Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

2nd unit director|

* The Student Teachers (1973)
* Candy Stripe Nurses (1974)
* Moving Violation (1976)
* Eat My Dust! (1976)

* v
* t
* e

New World Pictures nurses film cycle

Official|

* The Student Nurses (1970)
* Private Duty Nurses (1971)
* Night Call Nurses (1972)
* The Young Nurses (1973)
* Candy Stripe Nurses (1974)

Teachers cycle|

* The Student Teachers (1973)
* Summer School Teachers (1974)

Others|

* Fly Me (1973)
* Cover Girl Models (1975)
* Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

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