Filmed on "The University of the Pacific" campus in Stockton, R.P.M. (political REVOLUTIONS per minute) at the time of its 1970 release was regarded as the worst of the "counterculture-revolution-on-campus" sub-genre of films. It has not improved with age and almost 45 years later is notable only for two good "Melanie" songs "Stop! I Don't Wanna' Hear It Anymore" and "We Don't Know Where We're Going" which play over three nice montage sequences of the President of fictional Hudson College coming and going to the campus Administration Building.Its fundamental problem (other than having hacks like Stanley Kramer as acting for-the-camera director and Erich Segal as writer) is that the focus is on adults rather than on students. Although casting an aging Gary Lockwood as the student leader meant than no viewer at the time imagined the film would ever have an authentic texture. Even the extras playing the sundry students look to be in their thirties; perhaps their list of demands included unrestricted access to the swimming pool in "Cocoon".The adults are Ann-Margret (Rhoda) and Anthony Quinn (Prof. F.W.J. 'Paco' Perez), whose performances simply do not complement each other in the few scenes they have together (blame Kramer's directing). Ann's big emotional scene midway through the film is an absolute mockfest moment. Poor Ann was one of those women who did not age gently but rather by plateau; she hit her first one in the late 1960's - almost overnight losing all her youthful glow. The idea was to make a 53 year-old professor seem hip because he lived with his 25-year-old graduate student, but the age disparity seems less between them than between Rhonda and a typical graduate student.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

R.P.M. the abbreviation of Revolutions Per Minute is Stanley Kramer's attempt to get inside the head of the student movement of the late Sixties. It probably got a bit of box office coming out as it did in the year of the four students shot down by the National Guard at Kent State. But in the intervening years it really hasn't worn well.Anthony Quinn is a popular sociology professor of Hispanic heritage and has something of a following among the radical left on campus. When President John Zaremba just resigns in frustration because he can't deal with a bunch of students occupying the campus administration building. Quinn also has a student mistress in the person of Ann-Margret a rather open secret on campus.The Board of Trustees decide on what they consider a master stroke, make the popular Quinn the new president because they think he can talk the radical talk and make them walk. It doesn't quite work out that way as Quinn all too well realizes that he's now part of the 'establishment'.The students who are all too old to be playing campus radicals include spokesperson Gary Lockwood and black student leader Paul Winfield. Fine players but all showing their age. Ann-Margret is a graduate student, but even she looks a bit old to be college coed.It ends in a scene that was all too familiar in the Sixties, police raiding the school and making arrests. At some point the students have to get back to the business of education. Fascinating that the big threat they had was to destroy the giant computer that the college had if they didn't get their way. Now Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs would have a fainting spell dare they suggest such a thing.R.P.M. marked the beginning of when director Stanley Kramer started to lose his muse. It is truly truly dated.

Dull as can be. A terrific performance by Anthony Quinn not withstanding, Stanley Kramer's expose of college campus revolutionaries is a very bad movie. Quinn is a liberal Sociology professor promoted to college president to help squelch the political activities of students Guy Stockwell, Paul Winfield and their minions. Kramer infuses his film with absolutely nothing interesting. Instead of coming across as one of Hollywood's great progressives, this blunder makes him look like a very old fogie. Quinn is actually believable as a college professor and has great chemistry with sexy but smart coed Ann-Margret. However, very few in the supporting cast, aside from Ann-Margret, even register. Stockwell & co. are mired in pseudo-revolutionary chatter, throwing out the occasional dirty word while berating Quinn as just another square establishment figure. The didactic script is by Erich Segal, the genius who also concocted LOVE STORY.

Campus radicals threaten to take over their university; newly-appointed campus president Anthony Quinn attempts to act as a mediator between the angry kids and the stuffy deans. Dated, talky rabble-rouser from esteemed director Stanley Kramer, working from a weak script by "Love Story" author Erich Segal. Segal doesn't lend much insight into the students or their demands, but Kramer gets a pretty good performance from Quinn, trying hard in a hopeless role. Ann-Margret has a small but colorful part playing Quinn's girlfriend. Otherwise, what might have been a fairly timely melodrama is instead tired, drab, and ultimately pointless. *1/2 from ****