The Last American Virgin

Two thumbs up for genre fans - a movie that stands above others in the genre, and accomplished quite a bit without spending a lot of money.

Scoop's comments in white:

WARNING: COMPLETE SPOILERS

If you read the comments about this movie at IMDb, you would think it is some kind of lost and forgotten cinema classic, like the first cut of The Magnificent Ambersons. That isn't true. In many ways this is just another 80s youthsploitation movie turned out by the cinema chop-shop of Golan and Globus. The editing is clumsy, some of the scene transitions seem to be missing critical footage, and crucial elements of the storyline seem to be missing.

Yet, in many ways it is a special film. Here are some of the things I liked about it.

1. These films always feature some T&A, and this film's T&A is gorgeous. Diane Franklin was a beautiful young woman with an angelic face, and this film catches her at her most completely ethereal and heavenly. Louisa Moritz did some crazy sex scenes.

2. The sound track is terrific, and is a great time capsule for that era. It is the greatest collection of 70s and early 80s "lost love ballads". These filmmakers were smart enough to set aside enough of their meager budget to get the best songs available.

3. The DVD transfer is perfect. There aren't any extras, but it is a simply luscious 1.85:1 widescreen anamorphic transfer. This cheap 80s T&A film looks better on DVD than many acclaimed classics. The colors are vivid, the scenes are uniformly clear and bright, and the entire print looks absolutely pristine.

4. Of all the youthsploitation films ever made, this is the one that could most likely have been written by a great soulful artist like Dostoevsky. Although it contains all the standard elements of "young guys want to get laid" movies, it also includes a very profound and realistic central thread. There are three main characters. The really shy sincere guy falls in love with a new girl at their school. His confident, scheming, womanizing friend gets to the girl first, takes her virginity, then dumps her, fully aware that she is pregnant. The shy, nice guy then gets her an abortion in such a way as to hide everything from her parents. He pays for the abortion, then nurses her back to health. A couple days later, he catches her back with the slick guy who dumped her. The movie ends right there, with our hero in tears.

I'm not saying that ending is better or worse than the ending of American Pie or Fast Times. There are plenty of objections that you could raise, like (1) "whoa, what a downer for a relaxing summer T&A movie, dude!", or (2) the "hero" of this film is the weepiest-ass, sorriest, most moon-eyed lovelorn teenager ever. I agree with those sentiments but, dammit, you have to admire a filmmaker that could have taken the easy way out and let the guy get the girl, Hollywood style, yet chose instead to try to dig in and expose some real truths about human nature. Whoda thunk it from Golan and Globus?

NUDITY REPORT

Diane Franklin: breasts more than once, and the top of her pubic hair.
Louisa Moritz: breasts, and a brief flash of pubes.
Gerri Idol - breasts
Tessa Richarde -breasts.
The requisite shower room peeping tom scene include full frontal nudity from one woman and a side view of pubes from another.
Steve Antin and Joe Rubbo show their buns

DVD info from Amazon

see the main commentary
there is also a full screen version

By the way, in case you recognized the plot, this film is a remake (with update and relocation) of an Israeli film made just four years earlier. The first version was Lemon Popsicle, made in 1978 about growing up in the 50s, also produced by Golan and Globus, and also written and directed by Boaz Davidson.

1982 was the big bang year for great teenage sex comedies. The Last American Virgin came out at about the same time and shares some plot elements with Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It also came out at about the same time and covers some of the same ground as Porky's. Those three were the groundbreakers for a genre which would dominate comedy in the 80s, including Risky Business, Ferris Buehler's Day Off. Better Off Dead (also with Diane Franklin), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (also with Diane Franklin), Revenge of the Nerds, and many lesser efforts.

TUNA's THOUGHTS

The Last American Virgin (1982) was covered well by Scoopy, who made all of the points I would have. I couldn't think of an interesting way to regurgitate the same information. As he mentioned, the comments at IMDB point to a cult following, and this film, indeed, has fan sites devoted to it.

Scoop mentioned the producers Golan and Globus several times in the course of his review, and it struck me that I don't recall seeing much about them on the site, so put a ditto under Scoopy's review for me, and let's talk about Golan and Globus.

If you watch many films, you can't help but have noticed that their name comes up very frequently. In fact, Yoram Globus, and Menahem Golan have been involved in 205 films together and separately, beginning in 1964, and as recently as 2002. Ratings range from 1.4 to 9.1. So who are these people? Menahem Golan was born Menahem Globus of Polish parents in Israel, but changed his name to Golan for patriotic reasons in 1948. After a stint in the then new Israeli Air Force, he worked with Roger Corman on The Young Racers in 1963. His first producing partnership with his younger cousin Yoram Globus was the same year, with El Dorado. At their height, the pair owned a large string of theaters, insuring distribution for anything they produced, and are much better known for quantity than quality.

In 1979, the two bought Canon Group, Inc. By 1987, they had built this floundering company into one that produced 35 films. They were, by then, heavily in debt, and their company was purchased in 1989. It was at this point that Golan split from Globus and the new management, and worked on his own, but the pair reunited and split several times in the years since.

Perhaps a quote from Golan best sums up their approach to film making. "If you make an American film with a beginning, a middle and an end, with a budget of less than five million dollars, you must be an idiot to lose money." The lower rung at IMDB is full of their films, but they also produced some credible work, including All of the Death Wish sequels, Runway Train, Bar Fly, 52 Pick-Up,10 to Midnight, and a couple of personal "sleeper" choices, Murphy's Law, and Hot Resort.

Whenever I see them listed in the opening credits, I expect low budget, largely unknown players, and female nudity. Since I am always on a quest for female nudity, I find the world a better place with them in it. Their highest grossing film was Cobra, at $49M, and their median score at IMDB is around 4.1.

They will not be pushing anyone off of the 10 greatest film maker lists, but have contributed several films worth the watch, including some pleasantly off-beat sleepers, and hence deserve a place next to people like Roger Corman, who has produced lots of films, many of them watchable.

The Critics Vote

no reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 4.7/10. I don't "get it". The IMDb comments seem to overrate the film, or at least to exhibit real affection for it, but the numerical score seems to UNDERrate it. (I guess it should be around six.)

It grossed about $6 million in the USA.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C+. If you like coming of age T&A movies, this is quite a good one. Some goofy laughs, a beautiful female star, plenty of breasts, and some agonizing reality. People remember this movie over time. The ending is certainly soulful and depressing for a youthploitation film, but that's what tends to make the story memorable.