Color, 1973, 79 mins. 20 secs.
Directed by Jean Rollin
Starring Joëlle Cœur, Gilda Stark, Marie Hélène Règne, Willy Braque, Pierre Julien
Indicator (UHD & Blu-ray) (US/UK R0 4K/HD), Kino Lorber (Blu-Ray & DVD) (US R0 HD/NTSC) / WS (1.66:) (16:9), Redemption (DVD) (US R1 NTSC) / WS (1.66:1)


After the financial failure Schoolgirl Hitchhikersof his beautiful but extremely non-commercial The Iron Rose, filmmaker Jean Rollin shifted gears a bit and tried entering Schoolgirl Hitchhikersthe lucrative French sexploitation market for a while under the name "Michel Gentil." The first time he adopted that name was with 1973's Jeunes filles impudiques, a cheap and quick little nudie crime tale also called Schoolgirl Hitchhikers and, as revealed by its 2025 UHD and Blu-ray releases from Indicator, Girls Without Shame. Rollin would immediately follow this one with another amusing softcore diversion, Bachhanales Sexuelles, a.k.a. Fly Me the French Way, which incredibly made history as the first Rollin title to get a UHD release anywhere in the world (courtesy of Le Chat Qui Fume). Following two more horror films, Rollin tried fusing the fantastic and pornographic under his own name with the fascinating Phantasmes before returning to Michel Gentil (and sometimes Robert Xavier) for far less committed XXX films into the early '80s. As for this inaugural erotic film from Rollin, it retains his charming fairy tale-style sensibility and features a welcome leading role for the magnetic Joëlle Cœur, who would stick with Rollin for another two films and completely set the screen on fire with her maniacal villain role in The Demoniacs.

The very slender plotline follows two young women, Monique (Cœur), or Monica in the English dub, and Jackie (Stark, a.k.a. Jess Franco regular Gilda Arancio), trekking through the countryside and deciding to crash for the night at a seemingly empty house. They manage to send each other off to sleep with some passionate groping in bed, but their idyll quickly turns dark thanks to a band of jewel thieves including horny Fred Schoolgirl Hitchhikers(Braque) and diabolical gang Schoolgirl Hitchhikersleader Béatrice (Règne) who believe their now-missing stash is the girls' fault. Pursuit and torture soon follow, with a private eye (Julien) entering the scene and Rollin himself even popping up in a turtleneck near the end.

After the opening act, the sex here isn't nearly as prevalent as you might expect given the title. This is thoroughly in Jean Rollin territory which means plenty of serial-style narrow escapes, gun fights, and the obligatory scene with a woman (Stark in this case) getting tied up and tortured. It's all very lightweight and goofy; if you're familiar with how Rollin works guns and budget-conscious peril into his vampire films, you'll basically get more of that here. However, its merits as a candy-color comic strip were impossible to appreciate for a very long time due to truly miserable home video editions, including its bootlegged, edited inclusion in some cheapo bargain bin sets and an awful U.S. DVD from Redemption's Salvation line that was non-anamorphic, ragged, and riddled with PAL conversion problems. In 2013, Kino Lorber added the film to its roster of Rollin releases but the result was easily the weakest of that batch, featuring extensive element damage and very washed-out colors; by default this was the best option to that point, but that wasn't saying much. Both the French and English dub tracks were included in DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles, plus a couple of bonus Rollin trailers.

The Indicator release from 2025, with UHD and Blu-ray options issued separately as usual in the U.S. and U.K., features a new 4K restoration that improves so radically in every possible way that this truly feels like a whole different film. The colors here are rich and vibrant especially with HDR10-compatible Dolby Vision on the UHD making it a really blazing viewing where even the Schoolgirl Hitchhikersvarious wallpaper choices are a tantalizing treat for the eyes. There's far more image info visible here as well, giving it a more balanced and spacious appearance, and finally no damage is sight anywhere. It's a truly miraculous stunner, and the Schoolgirl Hitchhikersfilm is presented with French or English LPCM 1.0 mono tracks with English translated or SDH subtitles in three different viewing options with their respective credits as Jeunes filles impudiques or the export English version as Girls Without Shame or Schoolgirl Hitchhikers. A new audio commentary by David Flint finds him as bemused as you might expect doing a scholarly analysis of this film, and he does a fine job of covering Rollin's career surrounding this film, the sexploitation market at the time, the trademark directorial trademarks here that mark it as his work, the backgrounds of the actors, and much more. In "Territoire mental" (24m40s), author and filmmaker Nicolas Stanzick assesses the film as a transitional work following his essential vampire cycle with a different take on processing libertinism, surrealism, and serials, which in turn informed some of the films that came in its immediate wake like Demoniacs. In "Les quatre années de cinema de Joëlle Cœur" (29m11s), actor, director and film historian Christophe Bier takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the leading lady's life, her place among erotic stars of the era, and some of her roles during her all-too-brief career that came to a close in 1976. A substantial bonus here is the 1972 erotic short Sexana (16m34s), a silent softcore short with Cœur about a mostly female underground sex cult featuring kinky imagery involving stockades and motorcycle gear. It's definitely wild and can also be played with a funky new score by Peninsula. Stanzick contributes a shorter piece about Sexana as well (10m29s) explaining the odd history behind its inception, its later incorporation into the film Baby Love, and possible readings of its erotic interpretations of fantastic myths. You also get separate image galleries for both the main feature (including shots of a love scene apparently excised from the final cut) and the short, a Jeunes filles impudiques trailer, and an 80-page booklet featuring a new essay by Lucas Balbo, material from the film’s pressbook, an archival article on the French sex film industry interviewing Rollin, an archival interview with Braque, and a new essay on Sexana.

Indicator (Blu-ray)

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Kino Lorber (Blu-ray)

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Reviewed on May 11, 2025.