Entry 72: Malibu High (1978)

Malibu High (1978)

Dir: Irvin Berwick

"Every teacher in school wanted to FLUNK HER...But novody dared!"

 

I've got a special treat for you tonight, folks; if you want to experience grade-A, triple-prime, B.o.S.-approved sleaze, register for classes at Malibu High!

When we first meet high school senior Kim (Jill Lansing, who never acted again and seems to have vanished off the face of the earth after this movie), she's going full-frontal in front of a mirror while getting ready for school.  You see, Kim's had a chip on her shoulder since her father hung himself two years prior; she's a bitch to her mom (Phyllis Bentley), she's failing all her classes, and her fuck-it-all attitude has resulted in her being dumped by sensitive boyfriend Kevin (Stuart Taylor).  After a booze and weed produced epiphany with her best friend (Katie Johnson, TVs Tracey Takes On...), Kim decides to turn her life around "in the easiest way possible."  After donning a miniskirt, high heels and some new eye shadow, Kim begins seducing and fucking her male teachers, turning those "Fs" into "As" overnight!  Not satisfied with furthering her scholastic career, Kim begins turning tricks for local drug dealer/pimp Tony (Alex Mann, I Drink Your Blood, Microwave Massacre, who here has a fantastic mustache and drives a sweet, carpeted 70s van), and soon has the local working Joes lining up around the block.  As talk of her talent spreads, Kim finds herself recruited by big-time, mob-backed "agent" Lance (Garth Howard, who shows off some truly gnarly back hair in his love scenes with Kim).  After turning tricks for a couple of wealthy "dirty old men," Kim finds herself confronted with a "Looney" who wants to shackle her to the bed for some BDSM action.  Handily dispatching her assailant with an ice pick, Kim admits that murder "turns her on" and is recruited by Lance as a hitwoman.  After dispatching the problematic Tony and a jeweler who was embezzling from Lance's mafia overseers, Kim maintains her GPA by seducing her suspicious, elderly principal and flushing his heart medication down the toilet when he gets all hot and bothered.  I can't deny that the lady is efficient!  When Kim assassinates local bigshot Harry Ingersoll (musician Bob Gordon), it just so happens that he's the father of Kevin's new girlfriend, Annette (Tammy Taylor, Don't go Near the Park, Meatballs, Part II).  Caught in the act by her peers, Kim is gunned down by police snipers.

HOLY GODDAMN SHIT!  The title (and poster/video sleeve art) for this film really don't prepare you for the insanity that's about to unfold.  I LOVED this movie!  Lansing is pretty goddamn great as Kim, a character who goes through actions that might seem debasing, but, through her own anger and piss-and-vinegar determination, are always a conscious means-to-an-end.  The rest of the cast is, at best, serviceable, but who gives a shit?  This is Lansing's show all the way.  Kudos to director Berwick (sadly, this was his last film); he doesn't seem to know where to point his camera during love scenes (they often dwell on close-up shots of feet and, during one particular moment of insanity, the eyes of a bearskin rug), but he handles the dramatic tone-shift between high school melodrama and crime thriller with aplomb.  This HAS to have been seen by both David Lynch (the high school principal with a hearing problem who constantly, comically mishears Kim is strongly reminiscent of the Gordon Cole character on Twin Peaks) and Quentin Tarantino (the general tone of the film predicts much of his pre-Inglorious Basterds work).  HIGHEST possible recommendation!  Oh, and Jeremy?  There's a good bush shot.