The Hollywood Knights

Inexplicably, 1980's THE HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS got my mother's seal of approval for my pre-teen viewing.  Following a painfully embarrassing moment when I watched CADDYSHACK with my her for the first time, she and my father had to preview any future R-rated feature that played on pay TV before I could delve.  Despite HOLLYWOOD KNIGHT's occasional female nudity and raunchy humor, mom didn't see any serious issue with my watching.   There are also numerous mooning scenes, unfortunately only via the prankster males of the film's title (and lovely poster seen above).

The movie really isn't any more vulgar than most of its type, and is actually fairly innocent by comparison.  It also has at least one quasi classic moment - "Volare" performed with punctuations of flatulence.  This is courtesy a guy named Newbomb Turk (Robert Wuhl), leader of the titular gang who, on Halloween night in 1965, do his damndest to sabotogue pep rallies and dances in response to that stupid Beverly Hills Residents Association who have finalized plans to close a beloved local hamburger stand/drive-in. Meanwhile, some up and coming pledges to the Hollywood Knights suffer the usual hazing humiliations.   There will also be numerous pranks involving urine spiked punch and um, a one armed violinist.  And mooning.  The gags are pretty funny, even if the adults in the film do a fairly terrible job of being convincing in their outraged reactions (especially that old guy).

There is also a fairly bland subplot involving other actors (both in their film debuts and who would go on to great success) who look too old to be in high school: a gearhead named Duke (Tony Danza) and his girlfriend Suzy Q (Michelle Pfeifer), who wants to branch out and become an actress.  Another guy is about to go off to Vietnam.  Does all of this remind you of another movie? The cribbing of AMERICAN GRAFFITI is evident through and through, though George Lucas didn't include a flaming bag of dog poop in his opus.

Writer/director Floyd Mutrux, who seemed at the time most interested in nostalgia trips (AMERICAN HOT WAX, etc.) uses music and cars and a generally convincing evocation of time and place to give his pre-PORKY's romp an agreeable background to the hijinks.  His script drops some more reflective, dramatic moments along the way that make the film at least seem slightly more insightful than many others.  The final scene shows the lights shutting down one last time on Toby's Drive-In, and it's actually fairly poignant.  You may have come for the jokes, but Mutrux leaves you with something to think about.

For me, I wondered how Newbomb Turk would've turned out, say, twenty to thirty years after graduation.  Did he finally get his "shit together", at least in that standardized way society defines it: well paying job, marriage, children, house? Or did he just stay drunk, drifting from one casual affair to another? When I was at my most recent high school reunion, I ran into the Newbomb Turk of my day, a guy whose name was always read off by the dean during morning announcements.  Very intelligent guy, but couldn't resist troublemaking.  He is now the CEO of an historic society for his town.  Wife and two daughters.  He and I caught up briefly.  Still the same funny rascally guy, but more grounded.  That's how I think Mr. Turk would've fared.  Thinking about that makes THE HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS more fascinating.