Pop lemon

If hollywood needed to learn from a script for 'The Last American Virgin', it would have come from this movie. The movie was made in the late 70's and depicts an early 60's Israel. The movie portrays teen-age situations, surrounded by a wonderfully rich soundtrack. In fact, the soundtrack is so good, you can just close your eyes and not watch the movie at all. HOWEVER, the soundtrack is thoughtfully mixed into the plot to provide a very nice effect.

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

Israeli teen sex comedy Lemon Popsicle was without a doubt a trip down memory for co-writer and director Boaz Davidson, who would have been a teenager himself at the time that the film is set: the late-1950s/early-'60s. Watching the film is also a big dose of nostalgia for me, reminding me of the early '80s when my teenage self and my best friend would attempt to hire the most racy videos from the local rental shop. The shop-keeper wouldn't let us have any of the Electric Blue titles from the top shelf (although we did somehow manage to rent a heavily-edited version of Dracula Exotica on one occasion); more often than not we would make do with one of the Lemon Popsicle films, which the man behind the counter was happy to let us take home despite the 18 certificates.

Lemon Popsicle details the sexploits of best friends Benji (Yftach Katzur), Bobby (Jonathan Sagall) and Huey (Zachi Noy), who spend their spare time trying to get laid. Benji thinks he has found the girl of his dreams when he sees Nikki (Anat Atzmon), the beautiful new student at his school, but to his dismay, she falls for Bobby, who is way more popular with the ladies. When Bobby pops Nikki's cherry and gets her preggers, he dumps her, leaving Benji, who is in love with the girl, to raise the cash for an abortion and care for her while she convalesces. Unable to keep it in their pants, the guys also take take part in a penis measuring competition in the high school locker room, score with a nymphomaniac called Stella (Ophelia Shtruhl), and pay for a prostitute (Denise Bouzaglo) who gives them all crabs.

The film definitely features enough T&A to satisfy a pair of horn-dog youngsters (Shtruhl and the lovely Atzmon get totally nekkid), but it is also a well told tale of teenage angst, with engaging characters, a strong script with lots of amusing escapades, a rockin' soundtrack featuring 24 chart bustin' hits of the '50s, and a wonderfully downbeat ending that goes to show that the course of true love never did run smooth. The film was big hit at the box-office (and on home video, its success helped just a little by yours truly) and was followed by numerous sequels, spin-offs and remakes.

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

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.