In Praise of The Girl Most Likely To…, Joan Rivers’ Plastic Surgery Revenge Comedy

From 1969 to 1975, ABC put out weekly films. They functioned as TV pilots, testing grounds for up-and-coming filmmakers, and places for new and old stars to shine. Every month, Chloe Walker revisits one of these movies. This is Movie of the Week (of the Month).
When you nestled down in front of your TV to watch an ABC Movie of the Week during the first half of the 1970s, you’d often be greeted by the sight of familiar faces. Less often, but not infrequently, you’d witness a new star in the making. In a genre seen as inherently throwaway, there was little pressure to deliver the performance of their lives, and yet a number of gifted up-and-comers–both in front of and behind the camera–took the opportunity to establish themselves as exciting talents to watch.
The most famous example is Steven Spielberg, whose MOTW Duel was so phenomenally popular that it was later released in cinemas across the world, becoming the nascent legend’s theatrical feature debut. The list of actors to have got an early break in that humble slot is also formidable: Blythe Danner, Sam Elliott, Jeff Bridges, Billy Dee Williams, Katey Sagal, Kitty Winn and Sally Field all made pre-stardom appearances in an ABC MOTW.
1973’s The Girl Most Likely To… played host to two rising stars. While she’d been nationally famous for her guest spots on the Johnny Carson show since 1965, the MOTW was the first screenplay credit for Joan Rivers. It starred Stockard Channing–in her first leading role–as “ugly duckling” college student Miriam Knight, who’s mercilessly bullied by her classmates for her looks. When a car accident results in plastic surgery that turns her into a knockout, she decides to use her newfound beauty to enact lethal vengeance on her unwitting tormentors.
Between the prolonged cruelty of her bullying, and the esoteric nature of her retribution, The Girl Most Likely To… plays like a delightfully deranged riff on both Carrie and Theatre of Blood. Considering Miriam doesn’t start getting her own back until over halfway through the film’s 74 minutes, the sheer range and volume of her extravagant revenge schemes is mind-boggling; from a skydiving “accident” to a bomb in a billiard table, her lethal creativity knows no bounds. And somehow, there’s still room for a wonderfully askew romance between Miriam and the cop (a terrific Ed Asner) in hot pursuit–this is a movie that doesn’t waste a minute.