AllMovie

Far too many movies in the 1970s were based on hit songs, and Harper Valley PTA is one of them. All of them faced one common problem: taking a three-minute single and expanding it into a full length story. Harper's approach to solving this problem is to go through the "plot" of the entire song in about 15 minutes (including quoting liberally from the lyrics) and then spend the rest of the film creating stock sitcom revenge scenarios that are tiresomely repetitive. Viewers who get enjoyment out of seeing hypocrites get what's coming to them over and over and over again will find Harper just their cup of tea, but those who desire some spark of originality or, at the least, some progression in the sequence of events will be bored stiff. The level of humor is also set pretty low, and there's precious little in the screenplay that hasn't been seen or heard before. Richard Bennett's direction is trite and clearly based on the assumption that every point must be presented in as obvious a manner as possible so that the audience can't possibly miss anything. Fortunately, Harper has a game cast of talented actors. Barbara Eden brings as much spunk and sparkle to the lead role as she can muster, and such able supporting players as Nanette Fabray, Louis Nye, John Fiedler and Pat Paulsen are a big help in keeping viewer interest.