CLASS OF ’74 (1972) ** ½

The plot of Class of ’74 is simple:  Three free-spirited, uninhibited, sexually liberated college girls take a virginal friend under their wing and show her the various ways to make sweet love.  What’s refreshing about it is how progressive it is.  There’s no slut-shaming here.  The characters champion each other’s sexual conquests as long as they’re happy and having fun with what (and who) they’re doing.  (Of course, if they didn’t, the movie would’ve been a heck of a lot shorter.)  

The positive reinforcement of advocating for a healthy and active sex life is done in a fun and freewheeling way and there’s no heavy moralizing to drag things down.  It’s especially progressive when it comes to portraying its gay characters.  (There’s a scene involving a man being seduced in a locker room by his gym teacher.)  Although there’s nothing explicit, it probably came as a shock to the (straight male) audience at the time of release.

Even though its attitude towards sex is progressive, the film itself is dated as all get out, but in a good way.  There are a lot of romantic interludes and montages (including one in which a character imagines herself as Eve in the garden of Eden) that almost look like something out of a ‘70s television commercial.  The gaudy fashions and outdated slang (“Let it all hang out!”) is good for a laugh too.

Just when the film builds up momentum, it dovetails into overlong flashbacks that mostly act as padding.  Some of these side trips work (like a jaunt down the Sunset Strip) while others flounder. The escapades become increasingly inconsistent as the film goes on too.  The problem is many end abruptly and/or just when they begin to gain some traction (like when Barbara Caron becomes acquainted with a rich married couple), which is frustrating.

I initially chalked up Class of ‘74’s choppy, sloppy narrative to the time period.  (After all, 1972 is the year when the ‘60s REALLY ended.)  As it turns out, it has more to do with how it was cobbled together.  Director Arthur (J.D.’s Revenge) Marks took a hippie skin flick called Gabriella, Gabriella and added new footage to release it on a double bill with his picture The Roommates featuring that film’s stars Marki Bey and Pat Woodell playing the same characters.  He also added additional scenes of Caron in there too, so in effect, it’s a sequel to BOTH films while still being heavily padded with old footage from Gabriella Gabriella.  Confused?  If anything, you have to give Marks credit.  He was doing the whole “shared universe” thing long before Marvel.