EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Carrie (Jillian Kesner, Firecracker), Chicago (Janice Heiden) and Mitzi (June Fairchild, the jumper in Head) are going to be in prison forever after they take part in a riot. Then they get volunteered into a program being researched by Dr. Blalock (Warren Stevens). He believes that his methods can reduce how socially unredeemable criminals are by using observation, therapy, drugs and a nurturing environment. But mostly drugs.

Each of the girls is supposed to be with a set group of boys, but Carrie is fascinated by the doctor’s violent alpha male son Carter (Peter Hooten, proving that his demented line readings in Night Killer are no accident; he talks the same way here). We soon learn that the Blalocks are getting poor, so Mrs. Blalock (the girl across the hall in Eraserhead) has talked him into this study, where the girls will live in their house and be given drugs by a shady government organization in an MK Ultra’s style conspiracy. The drugs don’t calm the girls down at all. It makes them want to have sex nonstop, get into brawls and, for some reason, stay in public fountains.

Some of the therapy works. Mitzi is constantly laughing and hard to understand, sure, but she also decorates her room with penguins and wears a tuxedo t-shirt. Dr. Blalock learns that she’s obsessed with them because they remind her of the man who abused her as a child, a Catholic priest. She has this revelation that basically a penguin raped her just in time for a boy to come over that has a crush on her and knows that she loves penguins. He dresses up as one and she loses her mind and smashes his head in.

Gus Trikonis knew how to make a drive-in movie. The Evil, Nashville Girl, The Sidehackers, Moonshine County Express, Supercock and The Swinging Barmaids aren’t great movies. But they’re good drive-in movies and there’s a difference. These movies are better when you’re half awake, drinking or smoking, and maybe even making out and catching moments of them. When you pay attention to them, they fall apart. When watched when distracted, they’re exactly what they should be. You can say the same for the films that Hugh Smith wrote, like Black Oak Conspiracy, Night Creature and The Glove.

I love that Jillian Kesner’s character is so matter of fact. If anything, the drugs sharpen her and allow her to navigate the world in a way that she never has before. When the doctor comes on to her, she doesn’t react in shock or shame; she just tells him that in no uncertain terms will they ever have a relationship beyond doctor and patient. She’s the one who figures all of this out and has the tools to escape the place that fate has trapped her in.

There are a lot of people who’ve reviewed this online and really were let down by it. I have no clue what movie they saw. A science fiction conspiracy version or a Corman nurse cycle movie with fistfights, car races and a penguin-based freakout? How can you not enjoy that?

This was re-released by 21st Century as part of a double feature that had The Swinging Barmaids renamed Eager Beavers and this movie titled The Classroom Teasers.

You can watch this on YouTube.