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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: 8/25/2008
Director: Rafal Zielinski
Cast: Peter Keleghen, Kent Deuters, Linda Speciale, Alan Deveau, Linda Shayne, Jason Warren, Jim Coburn
Year: 1983
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The Movie:
When Bob Clark's Porky's struck box office gold in 1980 it only stood to reason that a wake of imitator's would soon follow and theater goers, video renters and late night cable TV watchers around the globe soon found themselves awash in a tidal wave of screwball teen sex comedies. While many of these imitators would up the raunch-factor considerably, a few even out-sexing Clark's original, Rafal Zielinski's Screwballs stands out as the most unrepentantly stupid film of the bunch.
While the bulk of the film is a series of goofy set pieces there is a basic plot here that strings it all together. In the hallowed halls of Taft & Adams High School, five boys meet in detention, each sent there for a different reason - sneaky Rick McKay (Peter Keleghan) disguises himself as a doctor and gives out free breast exams to the girls; spoiled rich kid Brent Van Dusen III (Kent Deuters) tries to get a classmate to fellate his phallic Eifel Tower in French class, portly Melvin Jerkovski (Jason Warren) is busted beating the meat in the walk in fridge at the school cafeteria; new student Tim Stevenson (Jim Coburn) is fooled into walking into the girl's dressing room; and nerdy science buff Howie Bates (Alan Deveau) rearranges mirrors on the staircase to look up girls' skirts.
As the five bond, they form an unlikely friendship over their mutual desire to see the legendary breasts of haughty-taughty 'perfect girl' Purity Busch (Linda Speciale), a snob who seems to consider herself better than everyone else and who, undercover of the darkness, has sexy dreams about making it with a giant teddy bear. While each guy individually tries to get a peek at her sweater puppies - Melvin hides under the sand on the beach while she sunbathes, for example - it isn't until they pool their collective resources and make their big play at the homecoming game that they'll have a shot at achieving their lofty goal…
When you boil the film down to its essence, Screwballs is a movie built around the quest to see boobs. That's it. That's the whole point of the film - to see a snobby girls rack. The filmmaker's were smart enough to at least surround this admittedly worthwhile premise with enough sight gags that you probably won't care that there's really not much of a story here or anything remotely resembling character development. Who needs complications like that when you've got Howie trying to hypnotize girls over the PA system and letter getting his wang stuck in a bowling ball. None of that matters because we've got scenes like the one that takes place in a strip club (look for Raven De La Croix of Russ Meyer's Up! on stage) where the guys get a photograph of their principal, Mr. Stuckov, in a rather compromising position. This is a movie where a dog pees on a guy hiding in the sand underneath a buxom blonde, spying at her out of a Coke can. This is a movie where a girl's boobs get pressed against the rear window of a van at the drive-in for no reason other than the people who made this movie know we like boobs. Yes, this is a movie where the boys voyage to a nifty old smut shop, pick up some 'industrial strength' Spanish Fly and put it in the punch at a school celebration with predictably stupid results. It's that kind of movie - there are no false pretenses here. No attempts to reach for any sort of lofty artistic merit, rather, it's a movie content to coast by on gratuitous nudity and bad, crass jokes.
Screwballs was produced and distributed by New World Pictures and while it may not have set the bof office ablaze the way that Porky's did, it still made some healthy returns and did well as an eighties video staple for years. Look for a few references to other Corman productions scattered throughout the movie - when the gang goes to the drive-in to watch 'Wild Women Of Wongo' they're actually seeing clips from The Arena (Pam Grier is plainly visible) and hanging on the wall in the restaurant in plain view are posters for The Wasp Woman and Machine Gun Kelly.
Those with an interest in location spotting will note the scene where Raven De La Croix (as a stripper named Miss Anna Tommical - get it?) takes place at Filmore's (note: this link will take you to a website for a nudie bar and is therefore not safe for work!), a long running hotel and 'gentlemen's club' located in downtown Toronto on Dundas Street East. This place has been around in Toronto for decades now and is still going strong and the building doesn't appear to have changed on the outside at all. Not so lucky, however, is the Te-Pee Drive-In where the kids go to watch Wild Women Of Wongo. Located in Pickering Ontario, the Te-Pee was open from 1964 until 1991 when it was closed and torn down. The venue enjoyed some fame as it was unique in its design which allowed cars to park under the open sky or indoors and still enjoy the movie. The film is supposed to take place in the United States but the filmmaker's didn't even try to disguise the Canadian locations used in the picture.
Screwballs is so horribly done that you can't help but love it. It's a true trash film, a film you watch for entertainment value alone. There's no artistic merit, no real witty dialogue or even much in the way of clever creativity to save it. It's a horrible film in pretty much every way possible - and that makes it completely watchable. A guilty pleasure is still a pleasure and sometimes simple things like bad jokes and bouncy, exposed funbags are enough to carry a film.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Presented in its original 1.66.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio and taken from the original 16mm internegative, Severin's transfer looks pretty good. There is some minor print damage here and there in the form of the odd speck or two but color reproduction looks pretty good and detail isn't half bad at all. The disc is well authored and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts or nasty edge enhancement to complain about and while the film's age and low budget origins shine through here, all in all the picture is in decent enough shape.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track won't blow the doors off your home theater room but it will get the job done. The dialogue is nicely balanced alongside the fun 80s style rockabilly soundtrack that's used throughout the movie. A couple of spots sound a little bit soft but generally the track is free of any problems.
Supplements start off with an audio commentary featuring director Rafal Zielinski moderated by David Gregory and John Creegan from Severin Films. Zielinski talks quite candidly about shooting this picture in Toronto, about a pep talk he got from Corman (who he states never visited the set), about the odd animated bits that appear early in the picture and what it was like shooting this film fast and cheap - it was shot in twelve to eighteen days. Zielinski is keen to talk about the efforts of his talented cameraman, about the importance of making sure your audience can accept the film you're making and how it's important not to take any of this all too seriously, equating the film to a party experience. There's a bit of dead air here and there but generally this is a well paced track with a lot of good information that the film's cult following should certainly enjoy listening to.
Up next is a great selection of cast and crew interviews, starting with director Rafal Zielinski (11:01) wh talks about making this picture right after finishing up a picture he'd made with Yasmine Bleeth and how he wound up shooting this picture in Toronto as well as what his initial thoughts were after reading the script. He also mentions that the original title for the film was Crazy Times and discusses the differences he sees in the American High School experience as he imagined it compared to the European High School experience he had growing up. From there we move on to co-Writers Linda Shayne (who also played Bootsie Goodhead) and Jim Wynorski (18:35) who talk about writing the picture and how they met while working on Saturday The 14th! They discuss the obvious influence of Porky's and what they were going for while writing the picture from the start. Not to go without his shot in front of the camera is star Kent Deuters (8:10) who starts his interview off by stating 'forget the script' which pretty much sums up the whole attitude of this picture. He discusses the cast members and who much fun he had working on this picture, and how he originally read for Peter Feldman's part and how the casting agents originally saw him as the jock in the film. Last but certainly not least is special FX artist Gerald Lukaniuk (6:43) who describes his experiences on the film as an adventure before talking about how he landed the gig on this picture and about some of the effects work that he conjured up for this movie - the most famous example being the penis' which throb in unison in the library as the boys read porno mags together.
Severin has also wisely included an interesting interview with Canuxsploitation scholar Paul Corupe (7:51) who describes Screwballs as The Third Man of sex comedies before discussing how and why the funding for Canadian films lead to a tax shelter program which, in turn, lead to a boom in the Canadian exploitation movie scene of the time. He then goes on to discuss some of the more famous films that played a part in the genesis of Screwballs and pointing out all of the anachronisms that are in the film.
Mr. Skin Talks Sex Comedies of the '80s (8:41) is an affectionate tribute to the film with Mr. Skin and his head writer McBeardo, both of whom discuss their love not only for Screwballs but for the teen sex comedy in general and how Screwballs sets itself out from the back by having no serious elements to it at all. They then go on to talk about how as a teenager seeing films like this was close to watching porn and about the influence that films like Screwballs have had on the resurgence of the screwball sex comedy in recent times.
Also included are some interesting deleted and extended scenes taken from an old Spanish VHS tape. While there's nothing here that changes the movie, and a play all option would have been nice (the disc only lets you watch one scene at a time) this material is worth sifting through. The alternate ending shows a cleaner version of the big reveal, while extended bits at the drive-in and bits shot around the school offer an interesting look at an alternate version of the movie. Static menus, chapter selection and the film's original theatrical trailer round out the extras, all of which are in anamorphic widescreen save for the deleted scenes and the Mister Skin interview bit.
The Final Word:
The screwiest of eighties era screwball sex comedies, Screwballs is gleefully dumb but fans of the film will already know that. As goofy as they come, the picture's still a whole lot of fun and Severin's DVD release is loaded with enough extra features to make fans want to grab this asap.