Lemon Popsicle

Watching this movie is like listen to a CD with all the great songs of the 50s: Little Richard, The Chordettes, Bill Haley and the Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, and so many many more. It was the best soundtrack I have ever heard in a movie. Nineteen hits!

The movie is the original that The Last American Virgin was based upon. If you like to see the originals as I do, then you can't miss this. Did I mention the awesome soundtrack?

Yftach Katzur was fantastic as Benz. He and his two buddies, Momo (Jonathan Sagall) and Hughie (Zachi Noy), are on a mission to get laid. They get involved in several situations, and Benz just seems to be luckless in this department.

The main theme of the movie is Benz's infatuation with Niki (Anat Atzmon). He loses her immediately to Momo, and things go downhill. The ending is a heart-breaker.

Yes, there is a sequel, supposedly seven of them!

Originally available in the UK on Hokushin Home Video (remember them??), this, the first of the Lemon Popsicle series, kind of showed what growing up in the 60s was really like (after the sanitised schmaltz of GREASE). Three horny teenage friends spend most of the film searching for love, sex, and parties, and they find all three in abundance. This film has a magnificent soundtrack of late 50s early 60s classics (which was released on blue vinyl in the UK) and some way over the top comic sequences which belie its non-mainstream production values; this film was made as a German-Israeli co productionby director Boaz Davidson. One of the stars, Zachi Noy, Huey (the overweight kid) has gone on to become a major star in his home country (even starring in a 9th instalment of the series released this year - see the imdb for further details). So, besides the music, I love the romance, I love the comedy, and I love the sex scenes which come across as very dirty in certain scenes. The first two sequels, Going Steady and Hot Bubblegum are also sheer brilliance; the fourth film Private Popsicle is okay, but the fifth in the series BABY LOVE is possibly the most awesome teenage film EVER made!! See it if you can find a copy - come on lets have DVD releases please!! Number 6 is total rubblish, and 7,8, and 9 don't seem to have been translated into English yet (or released in English anyway).

Footnote: Lemon Popsicle was remade in the US in the mid-80s as THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN which also features a phenomenal 80s soundtrack and is recommended to all!! Any other fans of the series please contact me.

Taking a trip smack dab to the origins of Cannon Films founders Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan, I wanted to see the movie that (in a way) launched it all. Equal parts a coming of age story and prerequisite sex film, 'Lemon Popsicle' was pretty much what I expected ... but what a doozy that ending is.

The story is your simple boy meets girl and falls in love in 50's Israel. He tries to get her attention, but to no avail (she's not interested). He has two schoolyard friends and when the good looking, confident boy of the trio sets his sights on his dream girl he isn't able to say or do much. Saying anything more would venture into spoiler territory and give away the third act.

An Israeli production you can see it with an English dub or keep the original language and go for subtitles. The acting is raw, but solid. There's some light crude talk between the boys, but nothing highly offensive. Light nudity as well. There's a lot of vintage American music tracks featured.

'Lemon Popsicle' is a everyday tale at its heart beyond the lite sexual escapades. It holds a lot of real truths and hurts that young boys and grown men alike come to learn the hard way. Potent for 1978, director Boaz Davidson and Cannon Films would do an Americanized remake years later.

Although Lemon Popsicle is actually a sex comedy, it's not offensive at all and the fact that it is set in the early 60s provokes a feeling of innocence and naivety. It's about situations most of us have been through during puberty (and beyond) : chasing after some girl, going to parties hoping to make new acquaintances etc. The soundtrack is beautiful and adds a lot to the accurate depiction of that era. The direction is another story...

The first sequel was not as good.

6

Well now then after a comment like that how can I back it up. Well firstly by stating that this is obviously a subjective view.

But to the movie.

This was released in the UK on video in the early 1980's. It's the story of Benji, Bobby and Huey, well atleast those were the names in the English translation. This is an Israeli [not sure if that's how you spell that but you get the point] movie. It tells the story of the Boys search for Love and..... Sex basically. Making the point early on that the two are not necessarily connected.

Benji the "quiet" one falls for a girl who he invites to a party, she says no but then turns up with his best friend, the `good looking' one, True to life or what! She eventually succumbs to Bobby's advances, and gets pregnant, at which point he dumps her. Benji stands by her organising an abortion and paying for it, well I never said this was a family film. At which point as soon as they return home .. well check out the end yourself, if you can get a copy that is, why I don't know but this is almost impossible to obtain a copy of. Other stories revolve around the boys visit to a prostitute, their catching of an embarrassing condition, And their run in with an Italian nymphomaniac while delivering ice.

So basically if you want to categorise this movie it's a sex comedy set in the 1960's. But it's more than that. For a start it has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, and the story and characterisation is in my opinion well up to the standard of Hollywood