(MINOR SPOILERS)

First released in 1975 and subsequently included in a few hundred DVD box sets, Trip With The Teacher is yet another strange film from Crown International Pictures.

The film opens with a school bus driving through the California desert.  On board the bus is Miss Tenny (Brenda Fogarty) and four teenage girls.  One thing that I immediately noticed is that director Earl Barton — perhaps realizing that none of the girls had really been given any sort of individual personality — took the time to make sure each of the girls was color-coded so that the audience could keep them straight.  One is dressed in all blue, another in all green, and then another is wearing an unfortunate canary yellow.  Meanwhile, Julie (Cathy Worthington) is obviously meant to be the main girl because she’s allowed to wear not one but two colors — yellow and white.  When we first meet this group, we’re told that they’re on a field trip to see some Navajo ruins but, later on in the film, Julie says that they’re on a camping trip that has nothing to do with school beyond the presence of their teacher.  But the important thing is that they’re on a bus in the middle of the desert.  (The bus, by the way, is being driven by Marvin, who is played by an actor named Jack Driscoll and who might as well have “doomed” tattooed on his forehead.)

Also in the desert are two motorcycle-riding brothers — goofy Pete (Robert Porter), who has a big mustache and seems like a nice guy up until he starts trying to kill people, and Al (Zalman King), who is surly, wears weird sunglasses, and suffers from narcolepsy.  When Pete gets a flat tire out in the middle of the desert, he’s helped out by a passing motorcyclist named Jay (Robert Gribbin).  (Al sleeps through the entire encounter.)  Jay, who is oddly friendly and talkative, decides that he’ll ride along with these two strangers.

I’ve seen Trip With The Teacher a few times and I have to say that I have never really been able to figure out what’s supposed to be going on with Jay.  He’s the film’s nominal hero but Robert Gribbin plays him as being such a talkative and outwardly friendly character that my natural impulse is to distrust him.  Maybe I’ve seen too many films where the good Samaritan always turns out to be a psycho but Jay is simply too good to be true.

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The Way Too Friendly Jay

Briefly, this suspicion seems to be confirmed when Jay, Pete, and Al come riding up on the school bus and Jay sees Julie through a window.  Julie smiles and waves at Jay and I don’t blame her because I probably would have done the same thing, because Jay is cute, motorcycles are sexy, and you have to do something to pass the time while you’re being driven through the desert.  But then 30-something Jay smiles and starts to wave back at 16 year-old Julie and mouths something like, “Come over here!” before flashing a huge grin and the scene gets undeniably creepy.

(The creep factor is not lessened by Jay later telling Pete, “Gee, that Julie is a really cute girl.”)

Anyway, when the school bus eventually breaks down, the three motorcyclists stop to “help.”  In this case, helps means that Pete and Al use their motorcycles to tow the bus to a remote desert cabin.  After a fight that leaves Marvin dead, Pete and Al decide to take the teacher, the girls, and Jay hostage until they can figure out what to do….

Now, I said earlier that Trip With The Teacher is weird and, believe it or not, it’s not just because of Jay.  In the role of Al, future director Zalman King gives one of the oddest cinematic performances that I have ever seen.  King alternates between underplaying and overacting, randomly going from mumbling to such an extent that you can barely understand him to literally yelling out every single line.  It’s a performance that is so strange that it transcends such mundane concepts as good or bad.  Single-handedly, Zalman King creates a reason for people to actually sit through Trip With The Teacher.

Zalman King in Trip With The Teacher

The other odd thing about Trip With The Teacher is that, despite all of the bad things that happen on screen, the film features some oddly cheerful music.  The film’s theme song is played over the end credits, which  juxtaposes the music with scenes from the movie.  It’s an odd experience, watching all of these tense scenes play out while listening to that cheerful music.

And you can watch those end credits below!  (This, needless to say, is where the spoiler warning comes into effect.)  In order to get the full effect, be sure to stick with the credits all the way until the music stops playing.

(A quick warning: Though Trip With The Teacher is actually pretty mild as far as 70s grindhouse and drive-in films are concerned, the end credits still feature a few images that some may find disturbing — especially if you haven’t actually seen the film.  Once you’ve actually sat through the film and can put everything in context, it’s pretty much impossible to take any of it seriously.)