The Teacher (1974)
Well, not really. In fact, there are no scenes which take place at the school at all, and the fact that the main character is a teacher is completely irrelevant.
Angel Tompkins, a very pretty (in a California Girl way) starlet of the time has the title role and provides the requisite nudity. The second lead is played by Jay "Dennis the Menace" North. He's an eighteen-year-old just out of high school. About one half of the movie is their, well, not May/December romance, exactly; let's say April/June. She's only twenty-eight.
The other half of the movie involves a creepy weirdo (Anthony James, who played a bunch of creepy weirdos) stalking Tompkins. One day he's at the top of an abandoned warehouse watching her sunbathe topless on her motorboat. Along come North and the creepy guy's younger brother, who happen to be after the same thing, but don't know James is there too. With one thing and another, little brother falls off the warehouse and gets killed. James spends the rest of the movie menacing North, blaming him for the death.
That's about all there is to it. It moves very slowly, and there's quite a bit of padding. Tompkins and North seem quite natural together, and their love/sex scenes are rather sweet. James is an expert at playing creepy weirdos. Some notable points:
*The title song, a sappy (but very well sung) ballad, which we get to hear three times.
Every boy needs a teacher/To show him the way.
*The odd, pointless scene in which two women come over to North's house for lunch with North and Tompkins and North's mother, get in a minor argument with Tompkins, then leave. One of the women seems to be dominant over the other -- reminding her to put on her hat, telling her that they're leaving -- and I had to wonder if they were supposed to be a couple.
*Barry Atwater of
Star Trek/Night Stalker fame has a brief scene as a cop.
*Two older women gossiping at a restaurant as Tompkins and North crawl all over each other are played by Gena Rowlands' mother and John Cassavetes' mother.
*The weird Freudian subtext to North's relationship with his mother. At one point she says "I do find him attractive, even if he is my son." Later, when his affair with Tompkins becomes obvious, she seems to approve of it, despite the difference in their ages and the fact that Tompkins is married (but separated from her husband.)
*This is the 1970's; don't expect a happy ending.