moonspinner55
Half-serious drive-in flick has two teen girls, driving up the coast from Southern California, picking up a handsome hitchhiker, a soldier who is experiencing bad flashbacks from his time in the Army; meanwhile, the police are searching for a serial killer who targets female hippies. May be one of the earliest movies of the Vietnam-era to imply that killing for the military leads to the damaged mental states of the veterans here at home--but even so, the movie is so pedestrian and amateurish that no underlying message can rescue it. Michael Ontkean proves to be a self-assured young actor, and Ralph Waite amusingly turns up as a hippie guru with mutton chops, but the young ladies are vapid and unlikable. Cinematography is by David M. Walsh, who quickly became the go-to director of photography on some of the most popular films of the decade (his wavy, green-tinted flashbacks would be witty under different circumstances). * from ****
John Seal
Girls On the Road has absolutely no socially redeeming value, but it is incredibly entertaining. Dianne Hull and Kathleen Cody star as Karen and Debbie, a pair of just out of high school waifs who drive off in their station wagon for a life of adventure on the road. First order of business: taking their bras off and wiggling their breasts around! Ah, freedom at last! But things take a turn for the wacky when the youngsters pick up hitchhiking veteran Will (Michael Ontkean), who's on his way back to a Big Sur commune run by future congressional candidate Ralph Waite. Activities at the commune revolve around spouting the most egregious psycho babble whilst sitting in a circle holding hands, and this soon attracts the interest of rejected ugly duckling Debbie. Meanwhile, Karen and Will are in the early stages of a budding romance, but their beachside strolls are disturbed by the local serial killer, who enjoys strangling young women. There are plenty of red herrings, flashbacks galore (complete with distorted camera angles), some truly awful clothing and hair cuts, and one of the worst folk-pop songs of the era--and that's saying a lot! Top quality garbage that will have your jaw repeatedly hanging open.
chet19
Seeing Ralph waite, the father on The Waltons, play a hippie who runs a commune and hits on 17-year-olds is worth the price of this baby! Plus, you gotta see his sideburns! The plot is no worse than any other road movie, and this is one of many, many female road movies that came before Thelma and Louise and gets no credit.
stayedhere
Saw this one late one night on television in Sweden, and went on watching, mostly because of Michael Ontkean. It's supposedly a thriller about two hitch-hiking girls. But this movie is just hilarious, with bizarre flashbacks, a freaky hippie community, and an ending that makes you wonder whether they had a script writer at all. A must-see for lover of bad films. You'll get at lot of laughs.
AD
