As clueless but compassionate high school educator Esther Williams is a fish out of water in this sensationalized hot for teacher drama featuring a variety of lurid fetishes and poor performances. A contemporary of Blackboard Jungle and Rebel without a Cause it finishes dead last in the teen angst genre of its day, setting the bar so low it defies any other glossy flic to limbo under it.Attractive Lois Conway (Williams) is a high school boy's daydream and fantasy who begins to get unwanted attention through mash notes and stalking. A woman has been murdered in the generally crime free suburban setting but Conway brazenly agrees to meet her stalker under the football stands at night without back-up. A firm believer in coddling youth she is rewarded by being assaulted. Detective Harry Graham (George Nader) handling the murder case tries to talk some sense into Conway who brusquely ignores his warnings with bullheaded charges back into harm's way. It's bad enough Conway spends most of the film displaying the common sense of a teen in a hacker film going into dark places by herself especially with the pedestrian dramatic acting abilities of Ms. Williams. In dry dock and without her signature aquatic acrobatics her performance is one long dive. Nader's detective is just as unemotive as Williams and John Saxon debuting as the latest entry in the new Brando sweepstakes seems to catch what the leads have; lack of conviction. Only Edward Andrews as the restrained at first misogynistic father of Saxon offers a performance of interest. An iconic figure of condescending authority in television and film he's allowed to stretch with a disturbed detachment and runs away with the film.Director Charles Kelleher is no Sirk or Ray but he does have William Daniels lensing and there are some excellently lit and photographed evening scenes that build maximum suspense in a film however that can only be enjoyed for the wrong reasons.

Wow, what a great piece of 50's trash! Lush, colorful sets, great old cars and Esther walking around in sexy 50's tight dresses. The plot has already been mentioned above so I won't rehash. One question that sticks out in my mind, who would say no to John Saxon, he is a sex god in this movie, like an hunkier, hornier Sal Mineo! If they had gotten George Nader to take his shirt off more in this it would have been a 50's wet dream! Sexual repression doesn't get any better than this movie! Even Saxon's dad played by Edward Andrews is an old perv..everything was so subtle in this era...Esther Willaims actually was a pretty good actress here, they should have used her in more movies like this!

This is an AMC, Tuesday afternoon flick that you CANNOT STOP WATCHING! Great trash! Here we see Esther Williams (and not a glimpse of a swimming suit) as a sexually harassed high school teacher. The object of her harrassment... a young, and not hair challenged John Saxon. Great sets, great love interest in the cop who comes to her aid... This is a very interesting time capsule about sensibilities in the 1950s. It is implied, if not stated, that if poor ole Esther would only give up her crazy career notions and settle down, she's not be in so much trouble!While Saxon gives a wooden performance (in more ways than one), veteran character actor Edward Andrews shines as the boy's demented father. What a champ he was to go into this B-movie and give it his all. It's not as if he wasn't in demand as a character actor. (He was second only to Whit Bissel as the guy you knew, but couldn't name in the movies.) He was always turning up as the client on "Bewitched" or in a small supporting film role. He was perfect as the big, rotund, Babbitt-like small town banker who got his in the end.The sets are perfect 50's, especially the school. Esther Williams gives a good performance in a Rosalind Russell script, although after this one, she hung up her bathing suit and retired to a life of luxury. Still, isn't it odd that her character is so naive? She walks about in a daze, wondering how a teenage boy could have a sexual interest in her. Even in middle age, she was quite an attractive woman. Why is this so surprising to her? Of course, this film does what ALL good, exploitive trash films do... it opens doors, says one thing while doing another and asks us to stretch our sensibilities a bit.Next time you're home, sick from work, flip on AMC on TV. It might be 9am or 1 in the afternoon. If it's "The Unguarded Moment', the trash flickering in front of you will keep you captivated. You'll still be thinking about it at dinner time too!

An extremely enjoyable film which sees Esther Williams battle the stereotype of the single woman in the not-so-fabulous '50s. For anyone who prefers the noir side of 1950s cinema (ie Cape Fear as opposed to Oklahoma) it portrays both the dark side of human nature and the seething naivety of the decade. After hearing about Esther's biography it was amusing to see her in a role which so strongly defended her sexual innocence!