Pink Motel

Phyllis Diller (comedian) and Slim Pickens (from Dr. Strangelove) are husband and wife who run a cheap motel in Southern California. Since it's called the "Pink Motel", they wear matching pink shirts. According to Wikipedia and the LA Times, there really is a Pink Motel in Sun Valley, California, north of Burbank, and has been used many times as a filming location over the years. We can still see it with the same sign out front ("Air Conditioned... by Refrigeration") on google maps! We watch the various couples arrive, and there is a confrontation in the parking lot..... which never turns into anything. The only conflicts occur within the couples that check into each individual room. I kept waiting for a big blow-up ending, Three's Company style, where Diller would tell Pickens to go investigate that racket, and they would all get kicked out, or the police called to the scene, or some such Hollywood ending, but it never happens. Everyone ends up going their separate ways, some happy, some sad.

I'm sure glad I didn't pay to see this film in a theater....Too much talking, too little plot, and less than stellar acting and directing. There IS female nudity. The only big names in this are Diller and Pickens, and the writers didn't even give THEM any good lines. Those interested in seeing actual photos of the landmark Pink Motel can find them on flickr.com. And the credit for the theme song Pink Motel shows performed by NILE; acc to wikipedia, the rock group Nile wasn't formed until 1993... which is a little odd, because the film was made in 1982, and the VHS tape from Thorn EMI appears to have been distributed in 1991.... or maybe it was performed by Willie Nile ? I think if the film were more interesting, I probably wouldn't care about this other trivia. Its also interesting to note that the children's book "Pink Motel" by Carol Ryrie Brink was written in 1959 (!) and is also still available on amazon.... I wonder if her family had stayed there at one point, or maybe she lived nearby...

My review was written in June 1983 after a Times Square screening.

"Pink Motel" is an interminably dull attempt at sexploitation situation comedy. Filmed last year under the title "Motel", film's opening credits actually read only "Motel", but in pink lettering, indicating the distributor didn't bother to make the title change on the prints.

Cheap about sums up this annoying, unfunny picture. Slim Pickens and Phyllis Diller portray the owner-managers of a small California motel. The film recounts the brief stays one night of five couples, using sluggish cross-cutting between them in a vain attempt to hold the viewer's interest. Format and content resemble the 1970 tv series "Love -American Style", but production values are inferior to most hardcore porn films.

The attractive cast of familiar thesps is okay, but burdened with unplayable cliched roles: a massive fullback who is still a virgin, bedding down a hooker; adulterous lovers quibbling over the chintziness of the motel; a conceited young stud who could give even porn star Jack Wrangler lessons in smug, ham acting.

Writer M. James Kouf Jr. Has delivered a nonstop stream of banalities in his talky script, directed by Mike MacFarland in static, extended shots or catatonic series of reverse-shot choker closeups. Though there is a modicum of nudity, "Motel"'s few sight gags don't come off and it lacks the raunchiness which has allowed many schlock comedies recently to ride the box office coattails of "Porky's".

Tech credits are unimpressive, with murky color.

I like Pink Motel and remembered it from the 80s (MY decade). I can quote several lines and have watched it more times than I care to admit. I found it on VHS at a street fair and treasure it because as far as I know it isn't out on DVD...I hope one day..please!

Phillis Diller hates the idea that her husband (Slim Pickens) sank their money into a motel and likes to nag and insult him. Slim: "These pink outfits, our pink motif" Phyllis: Yea, "we get all the drunks because they think they are checking into a bottle of Pepto Bismol". "I'm still not convinced the money isn't in fried chicken". Slim: "what we have here is a gold mine". Phyllis: "the only gold here is in our teeth".

One by one people check in from different walks of life. Each persons story gets more detailed as to why they are there and why they picked that motel.

To top it off, the movie actually has its own catchy theme song "pink motel, nobody kiss and tell, rendezvous, room for me and you at the pink motel, American tradition, keeps you in condition..."

Yes the movie is cheesy, but it is quality cheese and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the fun eighties like I do.

Do not go into this expecting a riotous comedy, because a few chuckles are all you will get. Do not go into this expecting to see Phyllis Diller and Slim Pickens a lot, because they are criminally under used. What you actually get is a full length feature film that plays like a sex education and relationship primer. Plenty of female hand holding, along with lots of male begging. The story revolves around four couples, a virginal stud football player and his latest admirer, a pair of "first time" high school kids, a married lawyer and his "main squeeze", and two frat-type stuck on themselves "loverboys", and their pick ups from a local bar. The movie almost talks itself to death, but there are moments of nudity that might make you forget how boring things seem. - MERK

Eight o'clock on a Friday evening several couples rock up at the cheap, but welcoming Pink Motel, with one thing on mind. You got two teenagers looking to further development their relationship, a couple whose affair seems to be wailing, a star running back of a local university football team enlisting the help of a hooker to overcome his virginity and two supposed studs looking for a one-night-stand.

Some films seem to come and go without making much of a scene. Usually there might be circumstances surrounding it. "Pink Motel" is one of those films that are never talked about. Coming out around that period when teen sex comedies were the in thing. I guess "Pink Motel" just didn't cut it for most and I can see probably why? It's a sex comedy that's more concerned about telling a story, focusing on its characters and thoughtful narrative arrangement with the sex shenanigans becoming seconds to the every growing drama that's developing. Sure it can be silly, but I found amusing. Characters come and go with the action being limited to the hotel rooms. For some it could be too talky, but I found the writing to be clever and the dialogues sharp and punchy. It's not all that daring or raunchy, but consisting of a sweet charm. The cast are mainly no-names with the likes of Phyllis Diller and Slim Pickens (who share are great rapport as the hotel owners and this would be Pickens final film) being the headliners, but they're not in it all that much. The rest of the cast give acceptable performances with the busty Kathi Sawyer-Young being the pick of the lot. What's going on behind these doors differ and the circumstances surrounding them bring their own unique laughs.