This cult classic is about Tara Dawson (Dorothy Stratten), a young pretty affluent woman that is kidnapped. The orchestrator is her uncle, Grant Dawson, portrayed by Nate MacIntosh. The uncle seeks to keep control over Tara's substantial inheritance which he will lose shortly when she turns eighteen. To stop her, he employs a secluded school of discipline to break her will and compel obedience. Tara is subjected to a range of abuses. The headmaster is Victoria Morgan, a stern headmistress, played by Dory Jackson, who, along with her two deranged lackeys Philippe, played by Ihor Procak and Anne, portrayed by Gisèle Fredette, administer the punishment. The abuse works but there is a twist at the conclusion where the uncle becomes the next subject of the monstrous headmaster and her two lackeys.
The director was Lloyd A. Simandl and this was his debut. This film should be shown in film class at University to show students how not to light a set. Basically, two or three large spot lights were placed behind the cameras making for long shadows, uneven lighting, and terrible optics.
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (Stratten) was from Vancouver, British Columbia, As a teenager, she worked part-time at a local Dairy Queen where she met Paul Snider, a 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp with a violent temper. Paul had her pose nude and sent the pictures to Playboy. By 1978, Dorothy and Paul had moved to Los Angeles. She began working as a bunny at the Playboy Club in Los Angeles. She was named Playboy's Miss August 1979. On April 30, 1980, she became the 1980 Playmate of the Year and received a substantial prize package. As Dorothy's star rose, Paul became more possessive. She co-starred in the 1981 romantic comedy They All Laughed, directed by the acclaimed Peter Bogdanovich. While working on the film in New York City, Stratten began an affair with Peter and moved into Peter's mansion in Bel Air. Paul purchased a shotgun and both were found fatally shot.
Stratten’s story became the subject of 2 films, the made-for-television movie Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981), starring Jamie Lee Curtis as Dorothy, and the theatrical motion picture Star 80 (1983), directed by Bob Fosse and starring Mariel Hemingway as Stratten. Several songs were also penned in her memory, including Bryan Adams' The Best Was Yet to Come and Prism's Cover Girl. More recently, Stratten's story was revisited in the Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales, where she was portrayed by actress Nicola Peltz.
