Mel Damski mainly did TV — episodic and movie — but man, this movie, he hit it out of the park for every teenage male in 1985, who all probably taped it off Cinemax. The number of folks I know that had a copy of this and know about this movie is pretty astounding. It was written by Noel Black, who directed the classic Pretty Poison as well as the not as much of a classic Private School.

The reason for all the attention to this movie was, well, we didn’t have the internet and the love making scene with Jonathan Bellah (Doug McKeon) finally hooks up with his crush Marilyn McCauley (Kelly Preston) was like a bolt from heaven. I’m not proud of it, but porn magazines didn’t always just turn up in the woods in those days. But some days, they totally did.

His friend, Gene Harbrough, is in love with their friend Bunny (Catherine Mary Stewart), who already has a man in Kenny Brubaker (D. W. Brown). Plus, Jami Gertz is in this, as is Terry O’Quinn as Jonathan’s father. We had not yet arrived where the thought of O’Quinn as a father was a terrifying concept.

There’s a great soundtrack as well with so much of the music of the time, like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, The Platters, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Skyliners, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and more.

When you watch this movie in 2021, you realize that the hero is pretty much a jerk, not understanding that no means no, that women aren’t just objects to be grabbed, that if a date agrees to sleep with you that you’re responsible for birth control and if you agree on the pull out method, actually pull out. I kind of hate him, to be perfectly frank.