The Teacher 1974

It is summer, and Ralph Gordon—an obsessive stalker—fixates on Diane Marshall, a high-school teacher, watching her from an old warehouse as she relaxes on a boat in a swimsuit. Also watching are Sean Roberts, Diane’s 18-year-old student, and Ralph’s younger brother Lou Gordon, who observe as she strips down and exercises. An angry Ralph yells at them, brandishing a bayonet. In the confrontation, Lou is driven to tragedy and falls over the railing to his death, a moment Ralph later tries to pin on Sean.

That night, Ralph confronts Sean again, threatening to cut out the boy’s tongue should he reveal anything. The sheriff, Sheriff Murphy, questions Sean, who lies after being drawn in by Ralph’s menacing stare. The following day, Sean meets Diane, who invites him to tea and reveals that she knows about Ralph’s stalking. On their way home, they glimpse Ralph watching them, a constant reminder of the danger. Diane invites Sean into her house for a drink, and the moment grows into a heated, passionate scene as Ralph watches jealously from a distance.

Diane invites Sean to her boat the next day, only for Ralph to arrive and threaten Sean with a handheld harpoon. He flees when he sees Diane, but the tension between the lovers and the stalker persists. Diane later asks Sean to dinner, and Ralph again menaces him with the bayonet. She then tells Sean’s parents about Ralph’s threats, escalating the confrontation into the family sphere.

The next day, Sean drives Diane home after a pool party, and they share a intimate moment and make love. Diane receives a phone call from her drifter husband, who says he is coming back, but she makes it clear that she intends to divorce him.

As Sean prepares to leave in his van, Ralph restrains him with a bayonet and forces him to drive to the warehouse. Sean fights back, grabbing a rifle, but Ralph reveals the gun is loaded with blanks. In a struggle that ends in a chokehold, Sean is killed. Diane arrives at the scene with horror; Ralph tells her that he killed Sean so he could be with her. Gripped by anger and jealousy, Ralph tries to strangle Diane, who responds with a desperate act of self-defense, stabbing him with his own bayonet and fleeing. She finds Sean’s body and collapses in tears, overcome by grief.