The Harrad Experiment (1973)

Utterly silly story - based on a novel, amazingly - about a hippie-era coed commune/college where the students have nude classes, etc. This could easily have been a comedy i.e. satire/parody of the hippie era - that's how ludicrous and awful it is.To say that time hasn't been kind to this laughable little oddity would be putting it very mildly; what was once regarded as a revolutionary new way of thinking about life and the universe comes off today as rather pathetic, extremely naive - and just downright idiotic. Hence it's no wonder that the dialog sounds unbelievably corny, phony, naive, and very often crosses over into B-movie territory. The beginning of the movie shows a girl hugging a tree: this pretty much sets the intellectual tone for the rest of the proceedings.The movie's pluses are the unintentional humour (obviously), the 70s charm, and some nudity. The nudity unfortunately isn't on the usual 70s high level; namely, the women are mostly flat-chested.The most inane moments: the lesson in properly doing the "zoom", Tippi Hedren trying to make a point to Don Johnson by suggesting sex in the field, the cowardly and unsatisfactory answer by Hedren and her husband when confronted with a question about their own hypocrisy of a monogamous marriage, Johnson getting punched in the nose, Kirby's initial encounter with his roommate and the ensuing dialog, Kirby being set up by Johnson suggesting a roommate switch - and the list goes on and on.If this piece of crap is funny NOW, I can't imagine how it will look in a couple of decades.

I just purchased the DVD of this movie and I wasn't very pleased. In fact the DVD was so bad that I can't really give the movie a fair rating or review. First, the print was awful..very washed out scratchy. Second, and worst of all, the film was obviously cut. It looked as if they used a "TV" version of the film. Every possible "bad" word was cut from the film any scenes that might offend, that is any and all nudity. And for a film such as this one that's really crime since the nudity is one of the main points of the film. The company that released this DVD (I think it was Platinum or something like that) deserves to go out of business. And if should be a crime to release any film on DVD that's been cut and that hasn't been remastered from the best possible source. A total waste of money.

The 1970's brought the movie rating system. The system allowed both nudity and overt sexuality into American films. Hollywood was trying to capture the youth market in a way they never had. This led to a number of "hip" youth low budget oriented movies. Some tried to capture a moments in time such as "The Trip". Some worked only as satire such as "The Seniors". Some tried social commentary as "The Harrad Experiment". All had common dominators: young people, sex and skin.Some hold up as a time capsule, "The Trip". Some as a silly nudie farce, "The Seniors". And some are just dull. "The Harrad Experiment" falls into this category. What was shocking to one generation, such as "The Chapman Report" and "Peyton Place", becomes boringly silly to future ones.It's not a bad film, its just a dumb film. Still, if you are interested in seeing youngish Tippi Hedren in bra and panties or a very young Don Johnson's backside; it's worth a look. Just remember, you've been warned.

Have to agree with a previous reviewer. Some outfit called Platinum Disc has put out a videotape of this movie that is not the theatrical version, but was instead apparently taped off a TV broadcast: low quality, no nude scenes, bleeped language. And the worse part is, way dated. This version gets a "2". Even with the missing 6 minutes restored, probably no higher than 3-4.