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My Tutor
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| Year: |
1983
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Director: |
George Bowers
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| Stars: |
Caren Kaye, Matt Lattanzi, Kevin McCarthy, Clark Brandon, Bruce Bauer, Arlene Golonka, Crispin Glover, Amber Denyse Austin, John Vargas, Maria Melendez, Graem McGavin, Rex Ryon, Katt Shea, Brioni Farrell, Shelley Taylor Morgan, Kitten Natividad
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| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
It's the last day of school for Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi), and he's struggling his way through a written French exam. As he is the last one to leave, he knows all too well that he has failed, and his rich father (Kevin McCarthy) will not be happy because he wanted Bobby to get good enough grades to be admitted to Yale like he was. Once outside, the exam over, he bumps into his friend Jack (Crispin Glover) who has something to take his mind off his study worries: they're going to visit a whorehouse tonight to lose their virginities...
Yes, it's wholesome fun all the way in My Tutor... well, actually it's a lot less sleazy than it sounds, it's just that for the first two thirds of the film director George Bowers is more intent on packing in as many actresses taking their clothes off into the action as possible. I don't know why he loses interest in the final third, perhaps he thought, well, I'm spent now, that's quite enough - now on with the schmaltz! This was one of those billions of nudity-packed eighties comedies aimed at a young audience, and appeared to have been based around one of writer Joe Roberts' sexual fantasies.
The main gimmick is that Bobby, having failed his French exam, is ordered to resit by his father and receives tutoring from a twenty-nine-year-old teacher called Terry Green (Caren Kaye). Having got to know each other, they get even better acquainted as they seduce each other - it's not so much one taking advantage over the other, however, and the romance is surprisingly sensitively handled for a movie that relies upon brothel gags in its initial ten minutes. Terry is on the rebound from a rich cad, Bobby has been rejected by Bonnie (Amber Denise Austin), his main crush, so it's as if they were meant for one another.
As well as the nakedness, there's another reason My Tutor has attracted the attention of cult movie fans, and that is because it features Crispin Glover in his first ever big screen role. He's not quite as eccentric as he would become here, but he does play the nerd well and is decked out in a most extraordinary wardrobe, even for 1983. Unfortunately for his fans, his appearances are too few, as the romance between Bobby and Terry takes over and dominates so far that you begin to wonder if this is indeed a comedy or whether you've been duped.
It's not a hugely amusing film as far as laughs go, Crispin's outfits apart, and too often Bowers throws in a fantasy sequence or the characters being sexually frustrated, simply so they can have more topless scenes. No bad thing, some of you may think, but some witty lines wouldn't have gone amiss and the main problem with My Tutor is that it takes itself so seriously that it forgets it would be better off sticking with the fun. It's nice that Bobby and Terry's relationship is treated with sincerity and not with nudge nudge wink wink humour, but they're not a charismatic couple on the whole so very few sparks fly. For Lattanzi, marriage to Olivia Newton-John was around the corner so he obviously liked the older lady in real life too, but that link is the most notable thing about this. Music by Webster Lewis.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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