The Last American Virgin

The Last American Virgin is a 1982 American sex comedy film written and directed by Boaz Davidson. It is a remake of Davidson's 1978 Israeli film Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle).[1][2]

The Last American Virgin
Original film poster
Directed byBoaz Davidson
Produced byYoram Globus
Menahem Golan
David Womark
Written byBoaz Davidson
Starring
Music byDeborah Harry
Mark Allen
CinematographyAdam Greenberg
Edited byBruria Davidson
Distributed byCannon Film Distributors
Release date
  • June 26, 1982 (1982-06-26) (Japan)
  • July 30, 1982 (1982-07-30) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5.8 million
(North America)

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. The soundtrack, a major facet of both films, was also updated from the original's golden oldies to more contemporary new wave rock.

Plot

The plot closely follows the original Israeli film Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle), and revolves around protagonist Gary, a typical high school student in early 1980s Los Angeles, and his friends Rick, the slick ladies' man, and David.

Most of the plot involves their numerous attempts to have sex, which are usually successful for Rick and David, but rarely for Gary. Early in the film, the three boys pick up three girls with the promise of cocaine (instead they use Sweet'n Low). They go over to Gary's house where he gets stuck with the homely and overweight Millie, a friend of the other two more attractive girls. But their party is interrupted when Gary's parents return home and pandemonium ensues.

A love triangle develops between Gary, Rick and Karen, a beautiful transfer student to their school who is a virgin that Rick is determined to have sex with.

One day Gary delivers pizza to Carmela, a 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 go along with him. They drop by her home using the pretext they were nearby on a pizza delivery and decided to bring her over some extra pizzas. She lets them in, puts on music and performs a sexy dance routine, to the delight of the boys. She promptly fornicates with Rick and David, but her boyfriend Paco returns home just as Gary is about to have his turn, prompting them to flee.

Eventually, Rick gets Karen pregnant after they have sex only once, and he leaves her. Gary decides to help Karen pay for her 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 18th birthday party the following week. Gary scrapes up a few more dollars and buys Karen a gold locket for her birthday.

When Gary arrives at the party, his dreams of a lasting romance with Karen are shattered when he sees Karen making out with Rick. Despite what Rick had put Karen through, she apparently decided to take him back. Gary angrily leaves the party without saying a word to either of them, taking Karen's gift with him. Tears streaming down his face, Gary drives home alone, emotionally broken and defeated.

Cast

Home media

VHS, CED Videodisc

The film was released on VHS and CED Videodisc by Cannon Films, November 30, 1983.

LaserDisc

The film was released by Guild Home Video on LaserDisc with a digital stereo soundtrack in 1984.

DVD

The Region 1 DVD was first released in 2002 by Cannon Films. The only audio option is a 2.0 stereo mix in either English or French. The film was released on blu-ray in 2015 by MGM Home Entertainment/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment & Olive Films.

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:

Reception

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."[3]

In an essay written a quarter-century later, 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".[4]

gollark: Oh, and now it stack-overflow-errors...
gollark: It's still running. I think I broke it, since it seems to be processing the same stuff repeatedly.
gollark: Now to get an advanced monitor and put that in green text...
gollark: Amazingly, dumping the entirety of CC's environment works fine! Until serializing it crashes...
gollark: Is there a serialization library which does *not* do this?

References
  1. Dargis, Manohla (February 18, 2015). "Film Society of Lincoln Center Lauds Cannon Films". The New York Times.
  2. Maslin, Janet (1983-01-15). "Movie Review - The Last American Virgin - FROLICS IN FLORIDA AND OTHER ANTICS - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  3. Murray, Noel (2003-08-19). "The Last American Virgin (DVD) | DVD | HomeVideo Review". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  4. Selsberg, Andy (2006-05-01). ""They Want us to Look"". The Believer. No. 34. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
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