Welcome to the Grindhouse: The Teacher / Pick-Up
By Andrew Haworth • Aug 13th, 2008 • Category: Bloody StumpsWelcome to the Grindhouse: The Teacher / Pick-Up 
BCI/Eclipse / Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) / Color / 1 Disc / 178 minutes
The Lowdown: This double dollop of low-budget sleaze from trash movie clearinghouse Crown International is one of the best offerings in BCI/Eclipse’s “Welcome to the Grindhouse” series of DVDs.
Sexy Angel Tompkins offers up some delinquent delight in THE TEACHER (1974) when she attempts to “corrupt the morality of an entire school” by forging a sexual relationship with one of her young students (Jay North, from TV’s “Dennis the Menace”). What makes it even sleazier is that the young man’s mother approves of it!
Naturally, the price of all this shame is the dreaded comeuppance at the end. That’s alright though, because we’ve just watched Tompkins in various stages of undress for the last 80 minutes. Be sure to watch for her bicycling scenes, which are always accompanied by summery pop music far too upbeat for the subject matter. Look closely in the warehouse near the end and you may see some cast and crew hiding out in the scenery. There’s rarely a dull moment, and while there are some “adult situations,” this one never goes beyond T&A.
The B-feature is the psychedelic soft-core collage, PICK-UP (1975), starring Jill Senter and Alan Long. The film combines the startling natural beauty of the Florida Everglades with bizarre metaphysical themes pertaining to love, perception, and violence, all centered around a pair of pretty hitch-hikers, an RV, and its free-spirited driver.
To try and make sense of PICK-UP would be gross overanalyzation, and the flaccid ending almost doesn’t make the excursion worth watching. Still, there’s some nice camera work here, and a genuinely creepy scene involving some Deliverance-esque rednecks. PICK-UP is brimming with nudity and sex (some of which takes place on swings and in trees…), though strictly of the R-rated variety. As a film it’s not great but, rather, good enough to kill some time.
The Upshot: I’m a big fan of the “Welcome to the Grindhouse” series, although many of the titles of the 8-9 or so discs in the series are duds. This one, I’m happy to report, is one of the better double features.
Both films are presented in anamorphic widescreen, so they look great on your 16×9 set, even if the prints do exhibit some atmospheric grain and scratches. Also fun are the included trailers from the heyday of grindhouse cinema. For under $10, you can’t go wrong.
THE TEACHER and PICK-UP are also included on the Navarre Corporation’s two-disc, 8-film set, “Drive-In Cult Classics.”
We’ve reviewed other discs in this series here:
Andrew Haworth is the editor of Shameful Cinema. After working as a print journalist for the better part of 10 years, he now produces Internet videos for a large daily newspaper and is a habitual freelance/fine art photographer.
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