V.D.

High school track star with a bright future in blue collar work and marriage to his plain girlfriend gets the clap from cheap girls on a weekend fling to Venice beach with his buddies. Slow and dull with surprisingly high production values. The real "don't let this happen to you" moment came six years later when the lead actor killed himself.

V.D. (1961)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Jim (Mory Schollhouse) is one of the coolest guys in his high school. He's cute, has a cool car, dates the beautiful Judy (Charlotte Stewart) and he's a star on the track team. One day he and some buddies go out, have a few too many beers and end up banging some hookers. Jim feels guilty but he moves on but before long he notices a spot on his you know what.

Warning pictures like this one had been around since the silent era but it's a little surprising to see a feature this late in the game. By 1961 the majority of exploitation features were over yet here's one that sneaked onto movie screens with pretty much everything you'd expect from the genre.

For starters, if you're looking for a quality movie then you're simply in the wrong genre. I'm really not sure if any of these "warning" pictures ever led to an actual good film but many of them did have a great amount of entertainment and I'd say this one falls into that group. The performances are what you'd expect from a low- budget movie like this and naturally a lot of the dialogue is extremely silly.

Those silly and campy moments are the reason people watch films like this and there are some really funny things scattered throughout. I'd have to say the highlight for me was the scene after the hookers when the four boys are sitting around a campfire and discussing why they feel guilty. Pure laugh-riot. The film also goes the exploitation route towards the end as we see an actual V.D. short where we see the results of untreated syphilis. Yes, it'll make your skin crawl.

V.D. isn't a masterpiece or even a well-made film but I must admit that it kept me entertained. I actually liked all of the characters in the film and I thought their story was interesting enough o hold my attention throughout.

This is a super-cheaply made and written film meant to scare teens away from having extramarital sex. It's preachy and very dated when seen today. Unlike the other two reviewers (so far), I never saw this in school because the school I attended did not acknowledge that sex even existed---and this might explain why half my graduating class was pregnant (the rest weren't because they were the guys). The movie also would have seen very dated when I graduated in the early 80s.

The story is about two high school seniors that look about 22 years-old each. They have been going steady for over a year and care a lot about each other. While they like to neck and hang out late at night, they never get around to doing anything else. However, they do become engaged. In the meantime, Tim goes with his friends on a road trip and meets a 'bad girl' in a bar. The chump gives into temptation and....WHAM!! He's got a sexually transmitted disease (hence the film's title). They never actually show anything and they never even say out loud that any of them had sex and to the naive out there, they might be left to wonder what exactly DID happen! The sexy saxophone music, to me, was the dead giveaway...though I never heard this in real life--just in cheesy older films.

Later, when the 'fast' new girl (Kathy) makes her moves on Tim (following a fight with his fiancée), Tim gives in and has sex AGAIN (he's an animal, folks). Again, they don't show it...but that saxophone betrays what happens next! However, instead of just a fun roll in the weeds, it turns out Tim has syphilis--and soon Kathy, too, is infected!! Now he's got a sore, can't run like he used to and feels badly. He tells his coach and the coach takes him to the clinic. There, a guy shows him a whole lot of scary film showing victims of the disorder--thus scaring the crap out of Tim AND the audience! Although I am sure the film is a morality tale meant to steer young people away from premarital sex, it is quite possible that teens might instead get the message that the engaged couple should have just had given in and had sex--thus "protecting him" from seeking it elsewhere. Or, that it's okay to have lots of sex...just be sure to get regularly tested. Just a thought.

One positive thing about the film is the opening song by the Ventures. Perhaps this group hadn't yet hit it big--that's the only way I could explain how the film makers could actually afford a decent band!! Otherwise, it's a somewhat shoddy film with nothing except curiosity to recommend it. The acting and production values all betray the film's very modest budget but it is entertaining in a kitschy short of way.

A final note. This film features the guys going to a strip club. This is supposed to be sexy, though this woman might just be the most unsexy and titillating woman in strip club history. Had she actually taken any of her clothes off, the customers would have paid her to put it back. I guess that's what you get when your budget is under $89 for the entire film.

i love, love, love this movie. "something weird video" put out a great special edition DVD of it, and i recommend all pick it up.

the film chronicles the lives of track star jim and his sweet, virginal girlfriend judy jackson. things are thrown into a tizzy, however, when new girl kathy (played wonderfully by dolores faith) falls for jim as well. they have fun one night, and hang out very late... (strangely, "night" in this movie takes place sometime in the afternoon) ...jealousy arises, and for some reason, jim sleeps with a prostitute at a dive bar. he gets syphilis, passes it on to kathy, but, luckily, not judy. after explaining to his track coach that he has a rash, the coach takes him to a doctor, and asks if there is "anything i can do to help." a short film about the horror of syphilis is thrown in for good measure, and jim marries judy. the end.

i recently met charlotte stewart, who plays judy jackson, and had her sign a damaged goods poster. she was really nice, and more than willing to talk about the film.

check it out!

I think I actually saw this film in Health when I was a high school freshman. It was a moralizing (or demoralizing!) polemic about loose girls, girls with "a reputation" and girls you could drive up to on the street and get to go for a ride with you, called "pick-ups" back then. Dire consequences would surely ensue from straying off the straight and narrow and indulging your urges. If that's the one, it is a very weird, strange, somber little film.