Incoming Freshmen

I know several people who worked on Incoming Freshman and recently had an opportunity to view a black and white work print of the original edit. Not only was the film re-edited, but additional scenes were shot by the distributor which accounts for the much of gratuitous sex and nudity. This was done, obviously, to make the film more marketable. The original film was intelligent, well conceived and and not at all badly done considering the production budget was less than $50,000. It many ways, it was a much better film than Animal House which is often credited with being THE ground breaking film that started a new genre of movies. It was never intended to be a "soft porn" film, an unfortunate and undeserved characterization. The film was shot on location in Knoxville Tennessee by two University of Tennessee Graduate students. Many of the scenes were shot on and around campus and on the Cumberland Avenue strip. It would be worthwhile to somehow release a "restored" version of this film. If I'm not mistaken one or both of the directors did go on to have careers in Hollywood. My good friend Tommy Gibbons worked on Incoming Freshman as an assistant camera operator and is a great source of information on the film.

No, the acting won't be Oscar caliber. The film was shot on the cheap, and appears to have used many local actors. There is no real plot. The movie is very funny at times, and very, and I mean very dated at others. Yet, it's a really great throw back to an era of film making that's gone, and sadly, doesn't seem to be coming back. Rebecca Franklin, ALice Barrett, and Ashley Vaughn are genuine beautiful women who should have been given a shot to do other things. Barrett had the more of a career then the others. The saddest thing about the film is that Leslie Blalock died in a car accident before the film came out. Blalock was a calender girl come to life, live on film.

What needs to happen is the 70's drive in flicks need to find their way to DVD, via a box set, or on their own. Incoming Freshman is a drive in classic. A true gem of film-making that has been lost to history.

while being one of the "stars" of this film doesn't necessarily give me sage insight, i do know quite a bit of what was first there...and what ended up on the screen. i remember seeing the original cut of "incoming freshman" and being very pleased. it was funny, sexy, raunchy, all the main requirements of a drive-in film. you have to remember this was shot and released before all the rest...animal house, porky's, etc...so in its own way, this flick was truly ahead of its time. for whatever reasons, the film was given to the main distributors who editing out half the original film, and then edited in (should i say "shuffled?") THE most random scenes ever. the fat guy, the people with goat heads....what the heck was all that?! i'm sure it was put in for additional T&A, but it was so slowly paced, it caused anything going on prior to it to grind to a screeching and painful halt. but all in all, it's a fun memory for me...especially in that i'm able to say that the worst movie i've ever seen...i'm in!

The original edit of IF finally got a public showing on June 16, 2012 in Knoxville at the Relix Theatre, to an SRO crowd which included a couple of original cast members. The viewing was put on by the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound.

The original version is much better than what Cannon released, and the L.A. Times review from 1979 even mentioned that there seemed to be a disconnect between the two parts of the film.

Google "Knoxploitation" for a Metro Pulse story on the film and its production, which includes some fabulous stills shot during filming. A significant (or not) piece of the original was footage shot on US Highway 129 ("Deal's Gap" or "The Dragon" to tourists) from the back of a Ducati 750ss. This footage was included in the 2012 showing.

Actually, I typed this title just to see how thorough this database is. I was a bit surprised to see it here, but not that it hadn't been commented on. It played here in the early eighties with the far superior GAS PUMP GIRLS. It was a T'n'A ANIMAL HOUSE type of deal with a particularly cheap look. Stuff like this just doesn't make it into theatres anymore. There was a party scene where everybody wore goat masks. That's about all I remember. If I had seen this film by itself, I would have felt ripped off, but its companion film made the trip worthwhile.