Sex Ed

In 1972, Alex Comfort became the Dr. Spock of the sexual movement, snicker, when he wrote the manual The Joy Of Sex. The book was an instant smash and Paramount Pictures thought they could profit off it as well and turn it into a movie. But how do you turn a sex manual into a movie? Today for my movies that should be released on dvd or blu ray, I look back at Joy Of Sex.

Paramount first hired actor Charles Grodin to pen a script. His finished draft was about the troubles a writer has writing a screenplay from a manual. Kind of like Charlie Kauffman's Adaptation. Paramount nixed the idea and Grodin sold his screenplay to MGM under the title Movers And Shakers. Paramount wanted more of a t&a comedy, so they teamed up with National Lampoon and were going to call it National Lampoon's Joy Of Sex. They hired a writer from National Lampoon magazine, a then unknown John Hughes, to write the script. They were also able to get the star of National Lampoon's biggest hit, Animal House, John Belushi. Penny Marshall was set to direct. Hughes script was set up in a bunch of sketches. A lot like Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex. When Belushi passed away, the project was put in another turn around. At the same time , there was a small, independent teen movie called Valley Girl that was a huge hit. Paraamount decided to nab it's director, Martha Coolidge to helm Joy Of Sex. Coolidge wanted to make it a sweet, coming of age story like Valley Girl, but Paramount forced her to put more emphasis on the sex scenes. They butted heads and eventually Coolidge was fired during the editing process. She even wanted her name taken off the credits, but didn't due to the advice of her management.

I know it sounds like a mess of a movie, but the final product isn't all that bad. Coolidge had two Valley Girl alums, Michelle Meyrink and Cameron Dye as her leads. Meyrink plays a teenage girl who mistakingly believes that she doesn't have long to live. She makes it her goal to lose her virginity before her demise. Dye is a guy in her class who is also desperate to lose his virginity because he is tired of being the only virgin amongst his friends. Of course they don't hook up right away or you would only have a ten minute movie.

The supporting cast for this is pretty great. Christopher Lloyd is Meyrink's overprotective dad. Ernie Hudson is the strict principal. And Colleen Camp is a narc.

This isn't as great as a lot of the 80's teen comedies, but it's definately not the worst either. I would love to see a dvd or blu ray release with Martha Coolidge commentary. That would be more interesting than the movie.

At the moment, it's streaming on Amazon Prime.