A very goofy tribute to teenage beauty contests, this is probably best known for featuring Melanie Griffith in a small role, playing one of the contestants, basically just part of the ensemble. This is mildly amusing, definitely a product of its time and featuring all the typical types of Acts you'd see on beauty contest at the time or bad variety shows. And that's actually not a bad thing because the worse they are, the more the merrier. One young comic hopeful does an impression of Ernestine from "Laugh-In" meets Edith Bunker while a variety of young female singers and dancers perform everywhere from horribly to sonewhat decent. There are the loose, boy crazy flirtatious girls; shy, innocent ones completely virginal, and the son of pageant director Bruce Dern hoping to score along with his group of constantly horny friends, saying truly tactless things about them when with his buddies that get mostly eye rolls but a few get chuckles simply because of the way they say their lines with typical teen innocence disguised through their false immature macho hormonal changes. Tommy Rall gets to be over the top as the show goes, but Barbara Felden is completely wasted.
The TV movie, 'The Great American Beauty Pagent", deals with more mature candidates and is probably better as a drama, but this one, a light comedy, is equally entertaining in spite of being so dated. It's easy to see why this was later made into a Broadway musical, although as a show, it didn't last long. Not much time for any real character development so the screenplay is just average, but everyone seems to be having a good time, and certain girls stand out more, particularly the Mexican-American one whose enthusiasm over being in the contest is joyous. This is a case of too many ideas involved in one film that really needed to focus on one or two stories rather than he basically a plotless sketch show. Yet its impossibile not to find certain elements of it irresistible, so it's definitely a cult movie of the '70s that is nostalgic if thankfully a view of a past kind of lifestyle that much of society now sees as phony, pretentious and audacious.
The TV movie, 'The Great American Beauty Pagent", deals with more mature candidates and is probably better as a drama, but this one, a light comedy, is equally entertaining in spite of being so dated. It's easy to see why this was later made into a Broadway musical, although as a show, it didn't last long. Not much time for any real character development so the screenplay is just average, but everyone seems to be having a good time, and certain girls stand out more, particularly the Mexican-American one whose enthusiasm over being in the contest is joyous. This is a case of too many ideas involved in one film that really needed to focus on one or two stories rather than he basically a plotless sketch show. Yet its impossibile not to find certain elements of it irresistible, so it's definitely a cult movie of the '70s that is nostalgic if thankfully a view of a past kind of lifestyle that much of society now sees as phony, pretentious and audacious.