Movie Details
| Title: | Pretty Maids All in a Row | |
| Director: | Roger Vadim | |
| Year: | 1971 | |
| Genre: | Cheerleader | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 04.30.06 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- The Game is Over
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 04.30.06 | Alamo Downtown | This Screening is part of event: Best of QT Fest No pre-fest dinner tonight. The habit formed over the week came to an abrupt end when people realized the movies started at 7 tonight instead of 8. Apparently we were not the only ones taken aback by this... Quentin totally thought it started at 8 as well and went out for a burger until someone got in touch with him and got him back here. In the meantime, Rebecca Campbell from AFS asked for a show of hands who made it to every screening in the fest. There was about 30 of us that cheered in hardcore pride... Then she said that Quentin and Unruly Julie had graciously bought everyone with real dedication a free t-shirt and drink. Since I had already bought a t-shirt and wasn't planning to drink tonight, I opted out of standing in line. Instead I revelled in secret glory of seeing every instant of two QTfests... not even leaving for bathroom breaks during the films. Am I the most hardcore in the land? well I'm too modest to answer... but yes. Stalling for time, Tim started up the first reel of Psycho From Texas... As soon as he mentioned the title, all the weird wednesday regulars burst into loud raucas appreciation. If you're a fan of exploitation cinema and haven't seen this movie then you really need to, man. no excuses. It gave me another chance to see the ridiculously children-in-peril flashback sequences and hear the amazing "yesterday... was a long time ago" song about how Wheeler learned to rape and murder and mess his mind up with sweet wine. Almost unfortunately, Quention showed up about 8 minutes in and they stopped the movie (to numerous Boos). Tim smiled and said "I just realized that that's probably the most evil thing I could do to you all." and gave us some info about how apparently when this movie first came out it was only 64 minutes long and rated PG. So, in an effort to boost ticket sales, they went back and shot some sex and violence in the form of the numerous flashback sequences that pepper the entire film. I think in a perfect world, Quentin would've come in, seen that Psycho from Texas was playing, and decided to make the night a triple feature and just let it play. Oh well. Also, during the beginning titles I heard this little clicking sound that repeated nearby. I looked around a bit and saw that Lars was snapping his fingers along to the music. Not looking for attention or anything like that, just enjoying the hell out of the movie and music. When the "yesterday" song started in a looked over and saw him mouthing the words to it, not just the chorus either... verses too. What can I say, it is a great song. So instead of watching all of Psycho from Texas, Quentin came up and apologized for being late ("Not being a rock star or anything, I just thought it started at eight") and introduced Pretty Maids All in a Row. OK, so... if you don't know anything about this film, try to imagine this. Roger Vadim, the dirty Frenchman who married and slept with Brigitte Bardot (he directed ...And God Created Woman), married and slept with Jane Fonda (he direct Barbarella), and slept with (don't think she married her) Catherine Deneuve, came to America and made this movie about highschool cheerleaders. In Quentin's words, "if I'm gonna watch a movie about highschool cheerleaders, I don't want some sensitive decent man making it, I want an old French lech making it!" (as he makes a hand gesture suggesting an upskirt shot)... He is very true. He then went on to list the cavalcade of 70s sexploitation starlets that appear as the pretty maids in this film (including one named Joy Bang, how apt), and then goes into an extended dissertation on why everybody in this movie is amazing. He says he actually likes the young virgin guy in this (he usually doesn't, thinks they're always wimps), that he "has a hard part and he pulls it off" (snickers build to outright laughter as Quentin waits and waits and it never quiets down so finally he cracks up and sayd "he had a difficult role, and he succeeded"), Angie Dickinson in the sexiest role she's ever done - a truly pre-MILF-terminology MILF (although she's not a mom ("There are other sex scenes that ring my bell and boil my oil but there are no other seduction scenes that ring my bell and boil my oil like Angie's in this")) - Telly Savales honing his awesomality in preparation for Kojak and most notably Rock Hudson as Tiger, the gym coach/guidance counselor who's sleeping with all the cheerleaders. He says he anticipates... maybe seven and a half minutes of snickering before we forget that while he's kissing the girls he's actually thinking about the football players and just believe that he is this womanizing dude. Oh, and it's also a murder mystery! Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame wrote and produced this (Quentin said it's the only post-Star Trek thing he put out) and they even have Scotty himself James Doohan in a small role as a cop in this! So it's really basically the best movie ever made and we're all in for such a treat. He's pretty much right. The movie's really well-made but also just dirty and lecherous... like any time he could Vadim put in shots of really hot young women doing handstands or wearing miniskirts and shot from low angles or whatever. Everything Quentin said was true.. the young virgin guy kid did a great job... even with Angie Dickinson's breast in his eye socket, Rock Hudson is sporting a mustache and some hippy garb during the scenes with him at home and comes off completely as the type who likes to sleep with underage girls, Angie Dickinson... well... let's just leave that unsaid. Telly Savalas rocks his sunglasses perched on top of his bald head for the whole movie and other actors like Roddy McDowel, Keenan Wynn, and James Doohan all fill their supporting roles really well. The murder mystery's not really so much a mystery, but it's enough of a story to keep the movie moving and make all of us feel like dirty old men for seeing so much panty-clad ass that it almost gets old (almost)... There's also some really great lines like Rock Husdson asking a cheerleader (as he's undressing her in his car) "Did you ever want to say to the world, 'I Defy You'?" The young virgin guy gets so mixed up when he's trying to talk to Angie Dickinson that he says his dad's rich, then corrects himself "oh wait, my mom's rich, my dad's dead." At one point so many bodies are showing up that he says (can't remember exactly) "we never have gym on days where people are murdered." It's just a really fun really great really sexy (in a lecherous way) movie... Afterward Quentin mentioned that at several points he stopped and thunk to himself "is this the best movie ever made!?" and thought that for all those stuck up intelligencia film snob types, making a movie that makes you wonder if it's the best movie ever made is pretty good in his book. He also mentioned before the movie that the women who he sees this movie with usually get catty while talking about Angie Dickinson. They're all like "yeah, but she's old... not looking so great... blah blah blah" and Quentin's like NO! So afterward he said a lot of women came up to him and said "I don't know what kind of bitches you're watching this film with, Angie Dickinson was HOT!" True feeling or just an excuse to talk to Quentin? Either way, they are absolutely right. |
