Frank Sprague Movies
In this uneven teen comedy, an aspiring female high-school journalist assumes a fake male identity after her essay on just that subject -- a woman posing as a male jock -- is rejected in a contest. Miffed by what she assumes is a bias against her gender in the rejection of her essay, Terry (Joyce Hyser) dons the right garb, gets a new haircut, drops her voice down to a suitable male-sounding register and passes herself off as a guy (okay, not believably, but one is willing to go along with the conceit to see what happens). As she soon discovers, moments in the locker room and at phys ed classes can be harrowing, but worse yet, she becomes seriously enamored of Rick (Clayton Rohner) a quiet, good-looking guy who does not run with either the macho or preppie pack. How can she broach the subject of her real identity? Terry's friends have their own romantic interests, all of which are resolved at the high school prom. It just had to be -- this film was followed by one titled Just One of the Girls with another director, and a male cross-dresser as the featured protagonist. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, (more)
In what can only be described as a dramatic change of pace, Robert Altman directed this raunchy teen comedy based on the antics of two characters featured in a series of stories published in the National Lampoon. Oliver Cromwell Ogilvie (Daniel Jenkins), aka O.C., and his buddy Mark Stiggs (Neil Barry), are a pair of misfit teenagers whose greatest joy in life is making those around them miserable. O.C.'s ancient grandfather (Ray Walston) has just had his insurance cancelled, and when he discovers that suburbanite salesman Randall Schwabb (Paul Dooley) is responsible, O.C. and Stiggs swing into a summer-long campaign to get revenge on Schwabb and his family. While it received some of the most brutally negative reviews of Altman's career, O.C. and Stiggs is worth a quick look for its cast, which includes fellow outcast auteurs Dennis Hopper and Melvin Van Peebles, comics Louis Nye and Jane Curtain, the one-time glamour girl of the Clifford Irving scandal Nina Van Pallandt, and Thomas Hal Phillips, reprising his role as Hal Phillip Walker from Nashville. World music superstars King Sunny Ade and his African Beats appear and provide the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Jenkins, Neill Barry, (more)
