The Head Mistress

The Head Mistress Poster Available DVDs Poster Art

Taglines

• FILMED ON LOCATION...Inside a Girl's Dormitory.

• Based on the two tales from "The Decameron"

• A film for those in advanced stages of adulthood

Main Details

• Released in 1968
• Color
• Running Time: 70 minutes
• Distribution Co: Marden Films (1974) (Canada) (theatrical)

Film Review

• Directed by B. Ron Elliot (a.k.a. Byron Mabe)
• Written by David F. Friedman
• Starring Marsha Jordan, Victor Brandt, Julia Blackburn
• Produced by David F. Friedman
• Cinematography by James Wrong When

Film Review

Based on two stories from Boccaccio's notorious adult book The Decameron, writer/producer David F. Friedman's The Head Mistress concerns a handyman at an all-girl school in the 17th century who has grown past his prime and desires to retire. Another younger man has his sights set on turning all the girls at the school into notches on his bedpost, and the two devise a plan whereby the young man will act deaf and mute and become the older man's successor. He gains entrance to the school and immediately starts to work on the pretty student body (pun intended), but the ever watchful head mistress (Marsha Jordan) soon finds out what is going on and has a few surprises in store for the unsuspecting new handyman.

Though not quite as ambitious as Friedman's other "literary" adult films such as Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide and The Erotic Adventures of Zorro, The Head Mistress is still an interesting entry into his stable of glorious nudity filled "epics". Never having read The Decameron, I'm not sure exactly how close to the book the film keeps, but its done with such a campy tone that I'm sure a totally faithful adaptation was not a big issue. Nonetheless, the movie is one of those "so bad, it's good" type of films that defy logic, but still manage to entertain.

Plot is negligible in the film, despite its book beginnings, but what is there is sometimes hilarious. Story threads weave in and out of the film, such as the head mistress's tearful story about how some lodgers killed her boyfriend, who then turned into a killer plant with the ability to enact his revenge on his killers. Another subplot involving a girl who hangs herself when she finds out she is pregnant (supposedly from the handyman's work), features some bizarrely funny developments when her boyfriend comes to the school to uncover the reasons for her suicide despite the fact that he is actually the cause. The ridiculous fight the boyfriend and the handyman get into over the girl's suicide is one of the funniest moments in the film.

As with many of Friedman's films the women provided herein are all attractive. Marsha Jordan's headmistress is certainly fairly fetching, but the young women who make up the students of the girls school are all stunning. The handyman goes through three major women over the course of his tenure at the school (that we see) and all of them are certainly nice to look at, but the one that he takes in the lavishly decorated bathtub is particularly of note. Not only is she attractive, but she also gets involved in a little impromptu S&M and lesbian action after the scene she has with the handyman. Her presence alone makes this film a worthwhile watch.

Film Review Courtesy of Pockets of Sanity