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UP YOUR ANCHOR

Dan Wolman was back on board for the 6th film, UP YOUR ANCHOR (1985). But the production was a mess. The stars were unhappy with their financial compensation and with being stereotyped as their characters, making it hard to land different roles. Jonathan Segal, who was more interested in working behind the camera, couldn’t be satisfied and did not appear in the film. His absence is quickly explained in the opening scene as the friends read a postcard sent by him from his travels abroad. A plot device also cleverly used in HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI (1965). (Frankie Avalon, who asked for too much money, appears for a few minutes as vacationing on a tropical island, using a witchdoctor (Buster Keaton) to spy after Annette Funicello back on beach.)

UP YOUR ANCHOR has the boys as sailors on a cruise-boat. It is the definite turning point of the series, trying to capitalize on old jokes and situations, not offering much but a series of sexual and comedic innuendos. It’s a mess.

From the start, Wolman’s vision didn’t fit Cannon’s: “I told Menahem that what I am interested in was the innocence and he said ‘forget about the innocence, they were innocent in the first film’.” Davidson was completely out of the picture and Eli Tabor was to write the screenplay with Wolman but the two didn’t mesh well. The script wasn’t even finished and Wolman had to rush into production: “The producer told me ‘The contracts have been signed, we start shooting today’.”

Feeling miserable throughout the shoot, Wolman tried to make the best in the editing room of what he thought was good material. After 3 weeks he was told the cut was to screen for Golan and Globus. He protested that only 15 minutes were any good, the rest in rough-cut form. But the film was screened and the producers were not happy. A new director, Joel Silberg (BREAKIN’), was hired finish editing the film. To fix the not-quite-long-enough running time, a lengthy scene was added in which the friends hold a screening of their past adventures, strangely projecting the original film’s most famous sex scene… Not unlike a flashback episode in a sitcom.

In the December, 1985 issue of the British Monthly Film Bulletin, Tim Pulleine summarized: “To describe the continuing proliferation of the LEMON POPSICLE series as depressing would be a considerable understatement”. But as the late producer Itzik Kol, who represented Cannon in Israel, told a reporter when the film started shooting: “I am already thinking of POPSICLE number 7”.

LOVE POTION NO. 7 & 8

Austrian director, Walter Bannert: “For many people working in the German-speaking Film industry, the question that posed itself most frequently was: why are we not able to create something like this in Austria and Germany?”

It was Bannert who directed the 7th in the POPSICLE series, YOUNG LOVE, in 1987. With the exception of the actors and producers, there was no involvement from the original crew. The 3 friends (with Jonathan Segal back in action) wreck Yudale’s parent’s car and in order to pay them back, take up jobs at a hotel resort. It bares resemblance to Cannon’s 1985 hotel comedy, HOT RESORT.

SUMMERTIME BLUES (1988), the 8th and last in the series, features the 3 friends as they take over an abandoned beach-house, turning it into a club. Very much a curiosity, it was helmed by Austrian director, Richard Schwabenitzky who re-wrote the script from an original by Zachi Noy. It places Noy as the lead with Katzur and Segal playing second and third fiddles to him. When a character laughs at Momo, who can’t dance very well, and jokes: “He thinks he’s John Travolta”, any illusion that the 1950’s setting was authentic is broken. The actors being 30-something didn’t help as well. Globus and Golan took their name off the film and didn’t distribute it in Israel up until the DVD release a couple of years ago. It is only available in its German soundtrack; a Hebrew one may have been recorded but was never used on any print.

Dr. Andrea Raucher: “The series outlived itself, it continued for too long. Those guys are almost 10-12 years older and it became absurd. The funny part is that the later ones, the co-productions, were comparable to cheap imitations, the irony is that they were part of the series themselves.”

THE AFTERMATH

Cannon lost its steam in the late 1980’s. When it was taken over by Pathe, Golan chose to break out on his own and started the 21’st Century Film Corporation. After a few years of commercial flops (such as CAPTAIN AMERICA, 1990) the company dispersed. Golan kept directing and producing films all over the globe, which, admirably, he still does at almost 80 years of age. Globus stuck around with Cannon-Pathe and was appointed President of MGM for a short time in 1991. He now heads one of Israel’s biggest production companies.

In 2001 Globus’ company produced a 9th LEMON POPSICLE titled, THE PARTY GOES ON. The production was originally intended as a television series, featuring a new cast and Zachi Noy as the owner of the Ice Cream Parlor. The episodes shot were eventually edited into a film for theatrical release but it was hardly up-to-par and is rarely considered as a part of the franchise.

The Israeli film industry has been experiencing a critical and commercial resurgence in recent years, from Cannes to the Academy Awards, but the LEMON POPSICLE series is rarely mentioned and has never been seriously considered for its international relevance. It has been unjustly looked upon with shame by the local industry, as if resenting their mainstream success. But it is unlikely that any Israeli film will ever take POPSICLE’s place in history.

The Cinematographer, Adam Greenberg, has been incredibly successful in the US. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1991 for shooting James Cameron’s TERMINATOR 2 and most recently took charge of the camera in SNAKES ON A PLANE.

Boaz Davidson stayed in the United States and is now the President of Production at Nu Image / Millennium Films, owned by two other Golan-Globus protégée’s, Avi Lerner and Dani Dimbort. His recent productions include RAMBO, THE BLACK DAHLIA, the upcoming RIGHTEOUS KILL, and Werner Herzog’s BAD LEUTANANT remake.

The actor trio had a love/hate relationship with the POPSICLE films, frustrated by financial disagreements, leading to various lawsuits that are unsettled to this day. The actors always got the short end of the bargain and did not see royalties from any of the many VHS and DVD releases throughout the years. Noy is the only one who embraces the films and stands proud beside them. He was able to shift his career and turned into a successful children’s star in Israel, appearing in a slew of musicals throughout the years alongside television and film appearances. A few years ago he was invited to appear in a German television special, a tribute to the 1970’s. His entrance to the studio was welcomed with a standing ovation.

Nowadays, Zachi Noy’s basement is an incredible museum, a shrine, offering glimpses of his past. Drawers and bags filled with fan letters from Germany and Japan, magazine articles from all over the world and a collection of beautiful personal and press-related photography ranging from the 70’s until today. Piles of VHS tapes, many unlabeled, contain footage from his films and international television appearances. The walls are covered from top to bottom with framed posters of Noy’s Israeli, German and American films; there is a letter with a dedication from Jerry Lewis, letters from Columbia Pictures and personal photos of Noy with directors that range from Tobe Hooper to Roman Polanski. He recalls a time he used to socialize with Polanski, “I would beg to him and say, ‘Give me a part in your movie’ and he would respond, ‘Why don’t you make another POPSICLE?’”

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* “Davar” newspaper, April 21, 1978.

** Unless otherwise noted, all interviews and quotes in this article were a part of the research for a LEMON POPSICLE documentary by the Israeli Entertainment Channel.

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There are 3 different box-sets of the POPSICLE films available online: Israeli (original Hebrew soundtrack with subtitles, fullscreen transfers), German (German soundtrack, widescreen) and British.

More LP resources: Lemon Popsicle Forever and Eis am Stiel Domizil (German)

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