California Dreaming (1979)

Director:

John D. Hancock

Writer:

Ned Wynn (written by)

Release Date:

April 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A state somewhere between fantasy and reality.

Plot:

Young T.T. comes from Chicago to spend the summer in California. He slowly becomes "California-ized,"...

Plot Keywords:

California | Bus | Party | Surfing | Swimming

Cast

Glynnis O'Connor	...	Corky
Seymour Cassel	...	Duke Slusarski
Dorothy Tristan	...	Fay
Dennis Christopher	...	T.T.
John Calvin	...	Rick
Todd Susman	...	Jordy Banks
Tanya Roberts	...	Stephanie
Alice Playten	...	Corrine
Ned Wynn	...	Earl Fescue
James Van Patten	...	Mike (as Jimmy Van Patten)
Stacey Nelkin	...	Marsha
Johnny Fain	...	Tenner (as John Fain)
Tom McFadden	...	Dan
Tom Rosqui	...	George Booke
Marshall Efron	...	Ruben

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Avila Beach, California, USA

Company:

Cinema 77

Trivia:

The little beach town of Avila Beach, as seen in the movie, no longer exists. Due to leakage from the Union 76 petroleum tanks outside of town, (seen at the beginning of the movie), the ground under the entire beachfront area was contaminated. To clean it up, they had to tear down and rebuild the entire beachfront strip.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end of the film, items on the windowsill replace themselves after T.T. knocks them off/over with the volleyball.

Soundtrack:

Forever

More interesting than your usual "teen flick"

This movie was released in 1979 and is different from both the purely exploitative (or "sexploitative") 70's films that came before it or the more adolescent-themed 80's films that came after it (the male protagonist here is definitely pretty horny and probably a virgin, but the movie is more than just the usual allegedly hilarious quest to "lose it"). The acting is really good, especially that of Dennis Christopher who plays the "fish-out-of-water" main protagonist (and who really should have gone farther than the other Dennis, Quaid, with whom he starred in "Breaking Away" that same year), and perennial character actor Seymour Cassel, who plays an older surfer who takes the protagonist under his wing.

The female cast is headed by Glynnis O'Connor, who plays Casell's daughter and the protagonist's improbable love interest. She is not a great actress, but is certainly easy to look at (and she provides all the movie's nudity). Supporting parts go to Tanya Roberts and Stacy Nelkin, but unfortunately the less talented one (Roberts) gets the much bigger (and regrettably non-naked) role as the neglected girlfriend of an egotistical surfer. There's a lot of gratuitous surfing (this being a California movie and all), but not as much of the dumb hijinks you usually find in these movies (OK, there is a stupid side-story involving one dumb guy who has to spend a month in his car as part of some bet he made with a rich kid, all so the rich kid can secretly get it on with the guy's gold-digging girlfriend. . .).

This movie kind of resembles "Malibu Beach", but with better acting and more of a plot. It probably wouldn't have gotten made a couple years later after "Porky's" had set the horny-teenagers-trying-to-"lose-it" template firmly in stone. But it is quite a bit more realistic than deluge of "teen comedies" that followed that later film, and (for me anyway) that makes it much more interesting.