Hot Summer Week (1972)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

How sad is this?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Half-serious drive-in flick has two teen girls, driving up the coast from Southern California, picking up a handsome hitchhiker, a soldier who is experiencing bad flashbacks from his time in the Army; meanwhile, the police are searching for a serial killer who targets female hippies. May be one of the earliest movies of the Vietnam-era to imply that killing for the military leads to the damaged mental states of the veterans here at home--but even so, the movie is so pedestrian and amateurish that no underlying message can rescue it. Michael Ontkean proves to be a self-assured young actor, and Ralph Waite amusingly turns up as a hippie guru with mutton chops, but the young ladies are vapid and unlikable. Cinematography is by David M. Walsh, who quickly became the go-to director of photography on some of the most popular films of the decade (his wavy, green-tinted flashbacks would be witty under different circumstances). * from ****

Uptight nerdette Karen (cute Diane Hull) and her more uninhibited gal pal Debbie (the equally adorable Kathleen Cody) are a couple of teenage gals who decide to hit the road in search of fun, boys, and thrills. The ladies visit a hippie encounter group on the beach and give a lift to troubled Vietnam veteran Will (a solid and credible performance by Michael Ontkean), who might just be the serial killer who's been terrorizing the area.Director Thomas J. Schmidt keeps the engrossing story moving along at a brisk pace, nicely captures the breezy'n'easy carefree mindset of the main adolescent protagonists, and pulls off a surprising tonal shift halfway through the picture, with things starting out pretty light and merry before becoming more increasingly dark and serious as the narrative unfolds towards a startlingly violent and ambiguous conclusion. Hull and Cody register as fetching and appealing leads; they receive sturdy support from Ralph Waite as charismatic guru John (who comes on to the underage Karen!), John McMurty as loopy oddball The Maker, Pamela Serpe as far-out chick Frances, Richard Grayling as a killjoy motorcycle cop, and Rigg Kennedy as laid-back guitar player Chip. Look fast for Uschi Digard as a bikini-clad babe on the beach. David M. Walsh's bright cinematography gives this film an attractive sunny look and makes the most out of the picturesque locations. Tom McIntosh's groovy score does the right-on harmonic trick. A nifty little time capsule of the early 1970's.

Seeing Ralph waite, the father on The Waltons, play a hippie who runs a commune and hits on 17-year-olds is worth the price of this baby! Plus, you gotta see his sideburns! The plot is no worse than any other road movie, and this is one of many, many female road movies that came before Thelma and Louise and gets no credit.

Saw this one late one night on television in Sweden, and went on watching, mostly because of Michael Ontkean. It's supposedly a thriller about two hitch-hiking girls. But this movie is just hilarious, with bizarre flashbacks, a freaky hippie community, and an ending that makes you wonder whether they had a script writer at all. A must-see for lover of bad films. You'll get at lot of laughs.