The Vals

The house on San Joaquin St and Magnolia belonged to my mothers aunt Connie. House next door was radio station KWG and we sat on grass and watched them film when i was a kid. The parlour where the scene was filmed was only place we went when visiting her. It wasnt until early 90s when I got to go upstairs to help my dad fix one of the pipes in bathroom.

"The Vals" has very little going for it but the charm here is that bottom row rental store feel. The acting is bad, the plot is easily the weakest part of the whole movie. HOWEVER! The 1980s valley girl slang makes up for all of that within the first few minutes of the film.

I first heard of this film in 1991 when it came on USA network.. I kinda liked it, it was filmed in 1982. It had some hot chicks, Low budget music and made for almost nothing.. The story centers around 4 high school valley girls who are spoiled and hang out with college dudes. The girls are pretty good looking. Now there are no real big names in this film, except for sonny bono who has a quick scene. I liked the relationship between the 4 friends. The acting seems cheesy , but the vals acting is actually pretty well recieved.. The subplot is the bored girls try to save poor kids from drug dealers.. And save thier shelter from being closed.. And there is two diffrent versions of this film, one is a Usa network version. And an R-rated video version with some nudity and cussing, not really that bad. In the r-rated version there is a scene at a frat party where one of the vals is screwing a line full of horney guys. Well, not much nudity is shown, it could have been more. The film sat on a shelf from 82 till 86 when vestron video picked it up.... It is now out of print...And hasnt surfaced on cable again. and probley never will..

The house scene in Morada was not filmed in the Michael Blatt house as it was stated in a earlier post. It was filmed at the Stagi family house on Hildreth Lane. I lived about 500 feet away from the house. Michael Blatt built and lived in his Morada home which was really close to the Stagi home around 1987 until his legal problems forced him to sell and relocate. Little did I know they were filming in the area which I was in total disbelief when I watched the film and saw the Morada home and Weberstown mall. It brings back memories watching it today thinking I use to hang out at the mall at the time it was being filmed.

Just saw this on Youtube 2017. I like the 1980's era of films, esp. similar movies like Valley Girl, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Wild Life. I had never heard of this title til today. I guess it didn't get a theater opening, went straight to cable. Um, I don't want to throw too much shade on it. It seems like this was someone's 1st time directing and writing a screenplay.Im sure it was a good learning process for them, but for the audience, yikes. There are 2 things that stand out that I wish they had done better. 1. The night exterior lighting.I can barely see the actors in many scenes, as if they only had one lamp to put on people.Why shoot night ? Wouldn't shooting day be better and less expensive? 2. The soundtrack needed help. What really made a lot of the 80's teen flicks stand out was the music by pop bands of the time. Again, I'm sure it was because of budget constraints.But at least that would've helped folks stay interested. The script & 1 -dimensional characters are too easy to take shots at , but it probably would've been helpful to get writing feedback from professional writers.

On the positive side, like other posters have said, it was cute & lighthearted at times.There was a good story here that needed to come out. The ladies were beautiful & charismatic.I hope everyone in it is successful today, and all went on to better projects after.