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POPSICLES AND BUBBLEGUMS: THE EIGHTIES

By 1980, most key players behind the POPSICLE films had moved out of Israel. Golan & Globus bought an American production company, The Cannon Group, and started their track to conquer Hollywood. Boaz Davidson also moved to the United States and directed his first American film, SEED OF INNOCENCE in 1981. Cinematographer Adam Greenberg was scouted by Samuel Fuller during the filming of the first POPSICLE and hired to shoot THE BIG RED ONE (1980), after which he remained in the United States.

Zachi Noy spent most of his time in Germany and the United States, appearing alongside Shelley Winters and Alan Arkin in Menahem Golan’s THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN in 1979 and in 1981 as the heavy who is inevitably beaten by the white ninja, Franco Nero, in ENTER THE NINJA.

In 1981, the 3rd in the POPSICLE series was completed: HOT BUBBLEGUM. Now an Israeli-German co-production, the authenticity of the first 2 films was lost in the winning formula. Dr. Andreas Rauscher observes, “They turned away from the drama and into slapstick, stereotype comedy. Around part 3 Zachi Noy had a problem every 15 min”. Golan admits that, “Maybe we didn’t pay enough attention to it because in either case we had buyers in Germany and it became a brand-name.” The resulting film is very much in tone with the American teenage-sex-comedies of the 1980’s. HOT BUBBLEGUM became the most successful film in the series. Columbia Pictures picked up the international distribution rights and sent Zachi Noy and German actress Sybil Rauch on a PR tour around the world, from Brazil to Hong Kong and Japan.

The LEMON POPSICLE films were banned for their content in Russia and became a hit on the bootleg circuit. Teenagers would attend underground screenings in the back of video stores. Because they were never commercially distributed there, the actors or crew didn’t know of the phenomena. Zachi Noy: “When I got to Kiev, this cop looked at me and inspected my passport, I became really anxious. He started speaking Russian to his colleagues and the only word I understood was ‘Actor’. I ended up taking pictures with them, and then they carried my luggage!”

Unlike European countries, in the United States dubbing wasn’t acceptable and a subtitled, foreign, teenage movie stood little chance of turning a profit. “You can’t conquer the Americans as an Israeli because they had already conquered the world.“ says Yoram Globus “When you go to Japan with LEMON POPSICLE, you are like an American but you can’t be an Israeli to the Americans.”

AN AMERICAN VIRGIN IN HOLLYWOOD

In March of 1982, the Canadian production, PORKY’S, was unleashed upon theaters in the United States, spawning a new popular form of teen-sex-comedies. Many of those involved with the POPSICLE series believe that PORKY’S was inspired by it. Even though this is only an assumption, it doesn’t seem far-fetched. The LP films were released in Canada, and here was a 1950’s comedy about teenagers and their sexcapades, featuring some very similar sight gags and soundtrack, but lacking the heart. Incidentally, when GOING STEADY came out on VHS in Italy it was re-titled, PORKY’S ACADEMY (SCUOLA DI PORCELLONI).

In July of 1982, Cannon released THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, an American remake of the original LEMON POPSICLE, directed by Davidson and shot by Greenberg. The new film took place in a contemporary American suburb and featured the same story with some gags from the later films. LAV was a moderate success and forgotten until fairly recently. This may be due to its having come out the same year as PORKY’S and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and getting lost in the shuffle… Or it may be a result of its brutal honesty and depressing themes of abortions, STD’s and heartbreak.

Stephen Tropiano, author of “Rebels and Chicks: A History of the Hollywood Teen Movie”: “It was dealing with things like sexuality in an honest way, not a typical way that a film does. What I remember the most is the ending, you don’t find it in American films, very unusual. It’s like another film half way through when it becomes much more about the emotional, from the physical. They tried to market it as a sex comedy when they were selling the movie but it’s not what the movie ultimately is.”

Director Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER, HOSTEL), an outspoken fan of the LP series, helped revive LAV last year when he hosted a screening in Los Angeles that brought the cast of the film in for a Q&A. In an interview on the Mr. Skin website he pointes out: “Davidson is an underrated genius. He perfected the science of ’80s movies with the ‘Fat Guy/Cool Guy/Nerd’ formula, and everybody imitated his films after that.”

POPSICLES AND ICICLES: 3 DOWN, 5 TO GO

PRIVATE POPSICLE, the 4th installment was released in 1983. The funniest in the series, it portrays the trio’s misadventures in the Israeli army. It was also the last in the series made by the original crew. A sub-sequel followed, PRIVATE MANUEVERS, featuring only Zachi Noy’s character.

Davidson was frustrated by having to adapt the series to the international market and opted to vacate the director’s chair for the 5th installment, BABY LOVE, “The requests from the German producers were for more and more sex. It felt a little like selling your soul to the devil.” He stayed on board as an adviser and screenwriter alongside Eli Tabor (who scribed the series with him). The chosen director, Dan Wolman, was an artistic director who filmed his own personal projects and worked as a director-for-hire in between. In 1971, Wolman directed the Swedish film, MAID IN SWEDEN, under the pseudo-name of Floch Johnson. It starred Christina Lindberg (THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE) in her debut performance.

Wolman does a great job at giving BABY LOVE a personal touch. It is the story of Benzi’s love affair with Momo’s kid-sister and the feud that transpires as a result. Completely stripped down from anything that could set it apart as an Israeli film, the beach looks more like BEACH BLANKET BINGO than Tel-Aviv.

During production, a Japanese television crew came to Israel and produced a short documentary traveling the country with the stars – having fun in Jerusalem and at the Diamond Exchange District in Ramat-Gan. Upon release, all 3 were sent to a promotional tour in Japan. It did not disappoint at the box office.

In 1988, Davidson adapted the screenplay for BABY LOVE into Cannon’s SALSA: “It was Christmas, and I was told we need to make this film, SALSA, for release in April. There was no script and no story, and within 3 months it was to be shot and edited, so in those dire moments, I used material from various sources.”

The Cannon Group became the largest independent production company in the US. In 1986 alone they released 46 films – More then all the Hollywood studios put together. At their peak, they owned Thorn EMI, Elstree Studios, the London Theater and %39 of all film theaters in Britain, as well as the largest theater chains in Holland, Italy and Israel, and the Commonwealth Theater chain in the USA.

The LEMON POPSICLE films were left to run on autopilot. They were a profitable business all over Europe, especially with the spread of VHS. The films’ nostalgia soundtracks were selling like hot cakes. Being foolproof moneymakers, very little attention was paid to them and it was showing on their quality and, eventually, their popularity.

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