Porky’s ** (1981, Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson, Kim Cattrall, Art Hindle) – Classic Movie Review 5650

Writer-director Bob Clark’s irrepressibly, joyfully vulgar and smutty 1981 Canadian coming-of-age sex comedy Porky’s hit the jackpot, following in the wake of Animal House (1978). It cost only $5 million and earned $106 million at the US and Canada box office, and was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1982.

A Canadian movie with much Florida location filming (Miami, North Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale), it is set in 1954 Florida where the testosterone-fuelled randy mid-teen male students of the fictional Angel Beach High School are typically frustrated in their desperate attempts to lose their virginity.

It stars Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson, Kim Cattrall as Honeywell (!), Art Hindle, Wayne Maunder, Alex Karras, Nancy Parsons, Susan Clark, Scott Colomby, Kaki Hunter, Cyril O’Reilly, Tony Ganios, Boyd Gaines, Doug McGrath and Chuck Mitchell as Porky.

Despite its cult and iconic reputation as a defining teen sex comedy and its undoubted vulgarity, it all seems rather innocent and naïve with its adolescents-versus-adults theme and the harmless odd brief flashes of nudity, but with some F-words.

Clark’s handling, the decent production values and a good sense of time and place help to make it fairly engaging, and the performances by the ensemble cast are above average.

There are fair marks for marks for laughs and sex appeal, so it is sneakily enjoyable as a guilty pleasure. But it is let down by its Carry On-style smutty innuendos and voyeuristic attitudes, unless of course you are after smutty innuendos and voyeuristic attitudes, in which case, no problem.

The main cast are Dan Monahan as Edward “Pee Wee” Morris, Mark Herrier as Billy McCarty, Wyatt Knight as Tommy Turner, Roger Wilson as Mickey Jarvis, Cyril O’Reilly as Tim Cavanaugh, Tony Ganios as Anthony “Meat” Tuperello, Kaki Hunter as Wendy Williams, Kim Cattrall as Miss Lynn “Lassie” Honeywell (!), Nancy Parsons as Coach Beulah Balbricker, Scott Colomby as Brian Schwartz, Boyd Gaines as Coach Roy Brackett, Doug McGrath as Coach Fred Warren, Susan Clark as Cherry Forever, Art Hindle as Ted Jarvis, Wayne Maunder as Cavanaugh, Alex Karras as Sheriff Wallace, Chuck Mitchell as Porky Wallace, Eric Christmas as Mr. Carter, Jack Mulcahy as Frank Bell, Will Knickerbocker as The Bartender and Bill Hindman as Coach Goodenough.

It proved the first of a trilogy. Porky’s II: The Next Day, also directed by Bob Clark, followed in 1983 and Porky’s Revenge! [Porky’s 3] directed by James Komack followed in 1985 after Clark did not want to make another film in the series. A belated further sequel, Porky’s Pimpin’ Pee Wee, was released via video on demand in 2009.

Although written and directed by the American Bob Clark and filmed in Miami, Florida, Porky’s was produced by the Canadian company Astral Media after every studio in Hollywood turned down the project. The film had to be partly made in Canada to obtain government tax benefits. It also grossed $25–30 million overseas, for a worldwide gross of more than $130 million. Porky’s is therefore the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time in the US and Canada.

Bob Clark got the idea to make the film in 1972 and based it on occurrences at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale High School in the early 1960s, and on a venue called Porky’s Hide Away in Oakland Park, Florida.

When Clark fell ill in 1979, he dictated the story of Porky’s to Roger Swaybill, who then wrote a draft of the script, but Clark got sole screen credit as writer. Swaybill was reimbursed with a six-figure sum and was co-writer on the sequel, Porky’s II: The Next Day.

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