The Last American Virgin

The Last American Virgin is a 1982 American coming-of-age sex comedy film written and directed by Boaz Davidson, and starring Lawrence Monoson, Diane Franklin, Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo, and Louisa Moritz. A remake of Davidson's 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle,[4][5] it follows a Los Angeles high school student who, while attempting to lose his virginity, falls in love with one of his female classmates as she begins dating his rebellious best friend.

The Last American Virgin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBoaz Davidson
Written byBoaz Davidson
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAdam Greenberg
Edited byBruria Davidson
Distributed byThe Cannon Group, Inc.
Release date
  • July 30, 1982 (1982-07-30)[1]
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5.8 million[2][3]

After the success of the original film and its sequels in Israel, Davidson re-teamed with producers Golan-Globus to attempt to recreate the same success in the United States. Though the film's plot and characters remained largely the same, the setting was updated from 1950s Israel to then-present day suburban Los Angeles of the 1980s. The soundtrack, a major facet of both films, was also updated from the original's golden oldies to more contemporary new wave rock.

Released in the summer of 1982, The Last American Virgin received mixed reviews from critics, with some noting its nuanced portrayal of teenagers, and others deriding it for its crude sexual humor. In the years since its release, the film has been noted for its downbeat conclusion[6] and has acquired a cult following.[7]

Plot

In early 1980s Los Angeles, high school student Gary works after school as a pizza delivery boy for a place called Pink Pizza. His best friends are Rick, slick-talking ladies' man, and the overweight but confident David. While out at a soda shop one night, Gary notices Karen, a beautiful new student who has just moved to the area along with her new best friend Rose, and falls in love with Karen at first sight. After the girls leave he asks the cashier if he knows who they are and the cashier affirms he’s never met them before in his life. Afterwards Gary meets up with Rick and David in the same soda shop and the three boys pick up three girls with the false promise of offering them cocaine. At Gary's house, the boys present Sweet'n Low to the girls, who snort it. Rick and David prepare to have sex with two of the girls, leaving Gary paired with the overweight and awkward Millie. As Gary attempts to cut off Millie's bra with scissors, his parents return home, and pandemonium ensues.

In the locker room at school the next day, Gary, Rick, David, and others find their classmate Victor spying on the girls' locker room through a peephole and tease him. In response to their bullying, Victor asserts he has a larger penis than all of them, prompting the boys to have a contest where they measure each other's erect penises to see whose is largest.

A love triangle soon develops between Gary, Rick, and Karen. In an attempt to get closer to Karen, Gary deflates her bike tires and invites her to ride to school with him. During and after the ride, he makes multiple attempts to woo her, much to her indifference. That evening, Gary attends a party at David's house and is devastated to find Karen in close company with Rick. He tries to entice her away from his friend but she treats him with blank disinterest. He becomes drunk and makes a fool of himself, then creates an embarrassing scene in front of his parents' dinner guests when he goes home.

One day Gary delivers pizza to Carmela, a glamorous Latina woman whose sailor boyfriend is never home, and she tells him she wants more than just pizza. Being too afraid to follow up on it, he goes away and convinces his friends to return to her house with him. Carmela has sex with Rick and David, but her boyfriend Paco returns home just as Gary is about to have his turn, prompting them to flee.

In order to keep Rick and Karen apart, Gary and David persuade Rick to join them with a patronizing and tart-tongued prostitute known to work a busy highway corner in the neighborhood. Gary's encounter with her is awkward and unpleasant, causing him to vomit. The next day at school, all three boys realize they have contracted pubic lice, and after trying unsuccessfully to drown them in a public swimming pool, they have to bring their problem to an amused middle-aged pharmacist.

Eventually, after Karen and Rick have sex, she becomes pregnant, and he callously dumps her. Enraged Gary confronts Rick in the school library and a physical fight occurs, with Rick calling Gary jealous and Gary denouncing Rick as a lowlife. Gary decides to help Karen pay for an abortion by selling most of his possessions and borrowing money from his boss. After the abortion, Gary and Karen spend the remainder of the weekend alone together in Gary's grandmother's house. While nursing her back to health, Gary tells Karen that he sincerely loves her. Karen appears to reciprocate and they both share a tender kiss. Karen invites Gary to her eighteenth birthday party the following week. Gary scrapes up a few more dollars and buys Karen an engraved gold locket for her birthday.

When Gary arrives at Karen's birthday party, his dreams of a lasting romance with her are shattered when he walks in on her making out with Rick. Despite what Rick had put Karen through, and despite Gary's devotion and support, she has still rejected Gary to be with him. Gary leaves the party without saying a word to either of them, taking Karen's gift with him. He drives home alone, dejected, with tears streaming down his face.

Cast

Production

Development

The film was directed by Boaz Davidson, and is a remake of his 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle, which features a similar plot.[8] Lemon Popsicle had been produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan, who had then recently acquired the American film distribution company Cannon Films.[1] Davidson, Globus, and Golan developed the project, with Davidson retooling some elements to appeal to an American audience.[9]

Casting

Davidson intentionally sought inexperienced teenage actors to appear in the film,[10] and held casting calls in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.[8] Lawrence Monoson, who had originally auditioned for a minor part, was selected by Davidson to star as Gary, beating out 200 other actors contending for the role.[8] The film marked the debuts of several actors, including Joe Rubbo, Steve Anton, Kimmy Robertson, and Winifred Freedman.[8]

Filming

Principal photography of The Last American Virgin began in late 1981 in Los Angeles and Malibu.[8] Birmingham High School and Reseda High School served as the principal locations for the school sequences.[8] Approximately seventy percent of the film was shot using handheld cameras.[8] Filming was completed in early 1982, with some additional photography occurring in New York City.[8]

Release

Box office

The Last American Virgin opened regionally in several U.S. cities on July 30, 1982.[11][12] It premiered in Los Angeles on September 24, 1982, and in New York City on January 14, 1983.[8]

The film remained in theatrical circulation for 21 weeks, with its widest release comprising 158 theaters.[2] By its tenth week of release in October 1982, the film had ranked at number eleven at the U.S. box office.[2] It ultimately grossed a total of $5,829,781 domestically.[2]

Critical response

Candice Russell of the Sun Sentinel praised the film as humorous and distinctive from other teen films of the time, such as Porky's (1981) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), adding: "The awkwardness, frailty and passion of young people is portrayed with uncommon honesty. There isn't a patronizing or false line of dialogue in the whole film."[13]

Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times disliked the film, finding moments of it "distasteful and offensive", summarizing it overall as "conventionally and crudely told."[14] The Atlanta Constitution's Eleanor Rigel similarly felt the film was "needlessly tasteless" and "completely wastes a potentially interesting theme as well as some acceptable performances by its cast of newcomers."[15] The film's depiction of an abortion also garnered it some controversy.[16]

Responding to criticism dismissing The Last American Virgin as distasteful, critic Noel Murray of The A.V. Club commented: "Really, the film's frankness makes it more honest than its dreamy-eyed descendants; even the shallow treatment of girls captures the point of view of a luckless teenage boy."[17]

In an essay written a quarter-century after its release, critic Andy Selsberg noted that, unlike the other teen sex comedies of the 1980s, The Last American Virgin was the only one truthful enough to have a "main character... left longing for his dream girl", whereas all the others were "acheless".[18] In another retrospective assessment for MovieWeb, Evan Jacobs lauded the film for its conclusion, describing it as "nothing short of soul crushing....  the ending is truly what makes The Last American Virgin a special film...  it elicits the same feelings no matter how many times you watch it, this supposedly disposable movie (from Cannon Films no less!) rises to the level of art."[7] Writing for Birth.Movies.Death, Todd Gilchrist notes of the film's conclusion: "The first time you see this, it’s shocking, almost laughable. But subsequent viewings of the movie expose just how calculated and methodical its escalation is over the course of its running time, watching these kids playing at being adults, then having to deal with the real consequences of their actions, and finally, being confronted by the emotional realities of a world that can and will betray their best intentions and deepest desires."[19]

As of June 2023, The Last American Virgin holds a 77% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on thirteen reviews.[20]

Home media

The film was released on VHS, Betamax and CED Videodisc by Cannon Films in 1983. The film was released by Guild Home Video on LaserDisc with a digital stereo soundtrack in 1984.

MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in 2003.[21] Arrow Films released a Blu-ray and DVD combination edition in the United Kingdom in 2013,[22] followed by a North American Blu-ray released in 2015 by Olive Films.[23] In January 2023, MVD Visual, in association with MGM, released a new special edition Blu-ray.[24]

Soundtrack
The Last American Virgin
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
Released1982
Recorded1980–1982
GenreRock
Length37:02
LabelColumbia JS 38279
Side 1
No.TitleArtistLength
1."Teen Angel Eyes"Tommy Tutone3:30
2."De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"The Police4:07
3."Whip It"Devo2:38
4."When I Find You"Phil Seymour5:13
5."Better Luck Next Time"Oingo Boingo3:30
Side 2
No.TitleArtistLength
6."Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?"Gleaming Spires4:00
7."Since You're Gone"The Cars3:30
8."I Know What Boys Like"The Waitresses3:14
9."Airwaves"The Fortune Band3:46
10."I Will Follow"U23:34

Additional songs in the film include:

The 1982 Japanese release of the soundtrack (Polydor 28MM 0206) replaced the Tommy Tutone track with The Human League's recording of "Love Action (I Believe in Love)". While "Just Once", which featured prominently over the final scene, was not included on the soundtrack album, Ingram was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 1982 Grammy Awards.

On all DVD and Blu-ray releases, at request of the band themselves, "Love Action" has been omitted and replaced with a repeated use of "Whip It" by Devo in one scene.[25] The original MGM VHS tape has the original song intact though.

References
  1. Trunick 2020, p. 131.
  2. "The Last American Virgin". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  3. Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 292. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  4. Dargis, Manohla (February 18, 2015). "Film Society of Lincoln Center Lauds Cannon Films". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015.
  5. Maslin, Janet (January 15, 1983). "Frolics in Florida and Other Antics". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2023.
  6. "Cinematic Void Presents: The Last American Virgin". American Cinematheque. 2022. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023.
  7. Jacobs, Evan (June 20, 2020). "The Last American Virgin: Why a Disposable 80s Movie Still Resonates 40 Years Later". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023.
  8. "The Last American Virgin". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  9. Trunick 2020, pp. 131–132.
  10. Trunick 2020, p. 137.
  11. "The Last American Virgin – Now Playing". The Kansas City Star. July 30, 1982. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Opening Today". The Wichita Eagle. July 30, 1982. p. 27 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Russell, Candice (September 1, 1982). "'American Virgin' Honest and Funny". Sun Sentinel – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Gross, Linda (September 29, 1982). "Love Is a Tacky Thing in 'Virgin'". Los Angeles Times. p. 93 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Rigel, Eleanor (September 2, 1982). "'American Virgin': Case for chastity". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 41 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Trunick 2020, pp. 136–137.
  17. Murray, Noel (August 19, 2003). "The Last American Virgin (DVD)". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on June 12, 2023.
  18. Selsberg, Andy (May 1, 2006). "'They Want us to Look'". The Believer. No. 34. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021.
  19. Gilchrist, Todd (August 2, 2018). "A Case for Greatness: The Last American Virgin". Birth.Movies.Death. Archived from the original on June 12, 2023.
  20. "The Last American Virgin". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  21. Rizzo, Francis III (July 22, 2004). "The Last American Virgin". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on September 24, 2013.
  22. "The Last American Virgin United Kingdom Blu-ray + DVD". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023.
  23. "The Last American Virgin Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023.
  24. "The Last American Virgin Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023.
  25. The Last American Virgin Blu-ray, retrieved September 11, 2022

Sources
  • Trunick, Austin (2020). The Cannon Film Guide: Volume I, 1980–1984. Orlando, Florida: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1-629-33581-0.
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