After the success of 1981's Porky's, there was a flood of teenage sex comedies that tried to deliver the most nudity and crude humor possible within the confines of the R rating. Their general plot dealt with guys trying to score with any willing member of the opposite sex, and most of them went on to become staples of home video and cable TV in the 1980s- while I don't remember The Last American Virgin from its 1982 theatrical release (and was too young to see it then) I remember seeing the poster for it in one of my town's first video rental stores. Back then, people I knew with access to VCRs or cable would brag about seeing these movies with or without their parents' permission. While the genre pretty much died out by the mid-80s and didn't come back until 1999's American Pie, I've always had a soft spot for these because they were exactly the sort of movies my parents didn't want me to see and were pretty much shameless in their intents- they were not out to win awards or be considered cinematic masterpieces by any means. Most of them have only gotten better with age however, with styles, colors and music of the 1980s making them more fun to take in as they become more dated.

The Last American Virgin was released by the legendary Cannon Films (best known for its action movies) in the summer of 1982, and was a contemporary remake of director Boaz Davidson's 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle which was set in the 1950s. (I've heard that this was meant to be the first in a series of movies all with "The Last American" in the title, but the rest never got off the ground. There were several of the Israeli "Popsicle" movies, only one of which Private Popsicle was released on video in the US.) It follows the misadventures of three high school friends in Hollywood, mainly Gary (Lawrence Monoson) who is quite lovesick but rather shy. He works delivering pizzas for "The Pink Pizza" and often borrows its pink station wagon for his own use. Besides being shy, Gary's face seems to be stuck on the SAME expression throughout the entire movie. I don't know if this is how the character was intended to be played or if it's solely from Lawrence Monoson's performance, but it's one of the main elements of the movie that makes me laugh.

Gary hangs out with David (Joe Rubbo), nicknamed "Big Apple". Yes, he's a bit fat and awkward in his own way though he appears a bit more confidant. He provides most of the comic relief here, with a running joke being that he's the only one with money and carries a notebook to write down all of the group's expenses. Rick (Steve Antin) is quite the stud compared to these two and it's not too clear why he hangs out with them. He attracts the opposite sex much more easily (always being the first one to "score" in the situations they get into) and eventually causing Gary a great deal of pain.

It all starts when the lovely Karen (Diane Franklin) moves into town at the start of the school year. Gary falls in love with her at first sight, but just about all he can do is stare at her with his one facial expression at a loss for words. He gets brave enough to put a few moves on her, but at a party he soon sees that she's fallen for Rick. Gary gets a bit jealous but not enough to end the friendship just yet. Roughly the first two-thirds of the movie consists of this plus a number of scenes that don't necessarily advance the story but are just good dirty fun- among them an impromptu penis-measuring contest in the school locker room and a visit to a Cuban "nympho" pizza customer played by Louisa Moritz. The last third takes a darker and more serious turn (almost as if the movie had been hijacked by different writers) which then leads to one of the most infamous endings in movie history- I'm not going to spoil it here for anyone who hasn't yet seen the movie; there are plenty of other places online to find that out should you wish to do so.

It's definitely an ending you don't see very often in movies though, and the reason why some people hate this movie while others love it. (I can't resist sharing here the time long ago when I showed my VHS copy to a female friend, sarcastically saying that it had a "happy ending"- she didn't pick up my sarcasm and ended up crying as she ran out at the movie's climax. From then on I've called this "the movie for people who love movies with happy endings.") With the numerous test-screenings most films go through now, it's almost impossible that any current studio wouldn't demand some happier changes be made and you do have to respect Cannon for releasing it as it was.

Watching The Last American Virgin today, half the fun is the trip back to the early 1980s it gives you. The soundtrack is filled almost wall-to-wall with popular songs of the time (although this disc release still omits The Human League's "Love Action" from one scene as did the DVD release a few years ago.) The 80s fashions worn by the characters are a sight as well, most of them very brightly-colored and there's even a background character wearing a Devo "energy dome." Bright neon is seen in many locations- in fact, you could almost spend an entire viewing just observing all of the background details. After all these years I still have to wonder why the house where the party takes place has a large Bufferin aspirin sign on the bathroom door- just one of many questions I have about this movie.

Regardless of one's opinion of The Last American Virgin's content, it should be noted how well-made it was for this type of movie at the time it was released. I've always felt that it was very well photographed, with only one glaring error picked up from this most recent viewing- a microphone pole reflection in one indoor scene. The soundtrack is in Dolby Stereo, which only select films were released with at the time. Keep in mind that 1984's The Terminator was released with a mono sound mix primarily because its budget would not have afforded a Dolby mix without spending less on the special effects. Not all theaters then were equipped for it then however, and with the other, bigger movies that were out at the time of release it's likely most theater-goers saw this in mono.

Olive Films uses MGM's current HD transfer, bookended by the roaring MGM lion. It appears to be from the same elements as MGM's DVD, although comparing the two I saw a sliver of black space on the left side of the screen which was not present on this Blu-Ray. It looks about as nice as a new theatrical print, with intentional film grain but little to no signs of wear. No compression artifacts or banding are present, a relief as I have noticed those on several other Olive Blu-Ray discs. The picture quality is a definite upgrade from the DVD, as details like the metric system posters in the classroom are much easier to read.

The matrixed Dolby Surround mix is presented here in DTS-HD Master Audio, and thankfully the disc is authored to output this as a PCM signal thus sparing the surround decoding problems my receiver has with 2-channel DTS tracks. (I can only wonder why Blu-Rays rarely use uncompressed PCM sound to begin with instead, as that was one of the format's early selling points.) The music really shines through here, and there's a good amount of ambient sound effects showing off the stereo for the select few theaters (and home video users) at the time that were equipped for it. Dialogue still isn't recorded perfectly, and on this disc it was also at a lower volume level than the foreground-level songs. As mentioned earlier, the music replacement on the MGM DVD is still present here- the scene about 52 minutes in originally had the Human League's "Love Action" playing in the background, but is replaced with a second playing of Devo's "Whip It." The original tape and CED videodisc releases had the original song intact- I had heard that it was used in the movie without the band's permission, and they were rather angry about it after seeing the movie and not liking it so much.

Oh wait, you were looking for the Extras here? Sadly there's absolutely none on this Olive release, although a Blu-Ray disc has been available in the UK from Arrow Video with some extensive interviews with the cast and crew (which I would have imported if it did not also suffer from the music change.) I have heard that disc included an interesting booklet as well, but this one only has the usual insert showing other Olive Films titles. I have no idea why the original poster art (present on the old tape and CED releases) was not used here either, as the front cover looks almost like a bootleg.

The Last American Virgin is an essential 1980s film, and one that will leave you wanting to find out more about afterwards. This Blu-Ray discs presents the movie likely the best it will ever look, although the music replacement is a huge let-down for me as is the omission of the UK disc's bonus features.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.