Little Darlings

One of the better, but forgotten, summer camp comedies is one that had the girls front and center, 1980's Little Darlings.

Rich girl Ferris, Tatum O'Neal, and Angel, Kristy McNichol, whose from the wrong side of the tracks, instantly butt heads on their first day of camp. The two make a bet to see who can lose their virginity first. Ferris sets her sights on the much older camp counselor Gary, Armand Assante. While Angel picks Randy, Matt Dillon, a bad boy from the camp across the lake. In their conquest, the two realize that sex is emotionally a bigger deal than they first expected.

What I dig about this movie is that it's the females that are trying to lose their viginity, a subject that you don't see a lot, or much at all, in movies. Plus it's two child stars playing these roles. Both McNichol and O'Neal are terrific and handle the heavy material with ease, especially McNichol who has the meatier part. Supposedly both actresses wanted McNichol's role, but Kristy won out in the end.Assante, who replaced Perry King about halfway thru the shoot, is also quite good. As is Krista Errickson, who plays a fellow camper who loves to stir the pot.

When this originally aired on network tv, they had to take all the sex talk out of it, making it a film about two girls looking for love. I've seen both versions and they feel like different movies.

This is a sometimes heavy, but really entertaing pic with two leads that were at the top of their game.

Unfortunately it's not available on dvd or blu ray.