Private School (1983)

Christine (Phoebe Cates), a student at an exclusive all-girls private school, is in love with Jim, who attends an academy for boys nearby. Christine's arch rival Jordan also has her eye on ... See full summary »

Director:

Noel Black

Writers:

Dan Greenburg, Suzanne O'Malley

Stars:

Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, Matthew Modine

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Phoebe Cates	...	Christine Ramsey
Betsy Russell	...	Jordan Leigh-Jenson
Matthew Modine	...	Jim Green
Michael Zorek	...	Bubba Beauregard
Fran Ryan	...	Miss Dutchbok
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Betsy
Ray Walston	...	Chauncey
Sylvia Kristel	...	Ms. Regina Copoletta
Jonathan Prince	...	Roy
Kari Lizer	...	Rita
Richard Stahl	...	Mr. Flugel
Julie Payne	...	Coach Whelan
Frank Aletter	...	Mr. Leigh-Jensen
Frances Bay	...	Birdie Fallmouth
Bill Wray	...	Bandleader

Storyline

Christine (Phoebe Cates), a student at an exclusive all-girls private school, is in love with Jim, who attends an academy for boys nearby. Christine's arch rival Jordan also has her eye on Jim, and she is willing to do whatever she can to steal him away. Jim's uber-slob buddy Bubba is going with Betsy, Christine's cynical friend, though he would probably be unfaithful if any other woman were willing to get near him. Bubba and his pals sneak into the girls' school dressed in drag in hopes of reaching the Promised Land (better known as the women's shower room), while Christine and Jim run away together for the weekend, though their escapade isn't as romantic as they had hoped.

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Plot Keywords:

girls' school | shower | bra removing | graduation | black panties | 

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Taglines:

You won't believe what goes on and what comes off in ... Private School

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 July 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Private School... for Girls

Filming Locations:

Cheviot Hills Recreation Center - 2551 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Unity Productions, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kathleen Wilhoite's film debut.

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Goofs

When Bubba is in the sauna in the girl's locker room, he watches a girl with long dark hair held back by a chrome barrette leave the shower with a blonde girl, go to her locker, and dry off to get dressed. When he turns and looks toward the shower, the same dark-haired girl can be seen in the shower again.

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Quotes

Mr. Flugel: What class are you in?
Ms. Copoletta: I'm not in any class. I'm a teacher here.
Mr. Flugel: Whaddya teach?
Ms. Copoletta: Sex education.
Mr. Flugel: What?
Ms. Copoletta: Sex education.
Mr. Flugel: Sex education? That's my favorite subject!

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Connections

Featured in Back to the Future: Making the Trilogy (2002)

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Soundtracks

"How Do I Let You Know"
Performed by Phoebe Cates
Composed by Bill Wray and Steve Goldstein
Published by Mel-Dav Music, Inc., Chinnithap Publishing, Inc. and the D.A. Venture
Phoebe Cates appears courtesy of CBS Records

User Reviews

Dumb but sexy horny teen flick

This is one of those horny teenager films that came out in the 1980's and it's easily just as dumb as most of them but looking at the young cast today this could be interpreted as a curio for this genre. Story is about horny teenagers from two prep schools where the boys and girls engage in raucous behavior from peering into windows to sneaking into showers. The girls side is Cherryvale and the boys Freemount and we see Jim Green (Matthew Modine) who dates Christine Ramsey (Phoebe Cates) and she has decided to give her virginity up and books a room in a cheap Mexican hotel.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Jim's friend Bubba (Michael Zorek) takes bets on the event but he also wants to try and score with the sexy Jordan (Betsy Russell) who is jealous of the fact that Christine and Jim have a solid relationship going on although he and Bubba dress up as woman and sneak into Cherryvale. The Dean is Miss Dutchbok (Fran Ryan) who tries to keep the shenanigans down to a limit but she gets caught in the back of a limo with a chauffeur (Ray Walston) with their lovemaking broadcast over an intercom system!

This film is directed by Noel Black who in 1968 made the terrific "Pretty Poison" but since then he has worked primarily in television and his feature film efforts were regulated to low budget sex romps like this. It would be easy to just unload one bad remark after another for a film like this but that would be too easy and instead I look back at this as something that was a trend and if you compare them with the few horny teen films that are made today you'll see how different they are. The abundance of nudity was actually the norm during this period and actress Betsy Russell has three nude scenes in the first 30 minutes and the scene of her riding the horse topless has gone on to be infamous. The familiar cast is also another reason to check this out and along with Modine, Cates, and Russell is Kathleen Wilhoite, Sylvia Kristel and Brinke Stevens in the shower scene. For trivia there are two things to point out like the fact that Cates sings two songs on the soundtrack and is actually pretty good and the other is that Paula Abdul was the choreographer for the outdoor calisthenics/dance sequence. I'm not really recommending this to anyone because this is one of those films that audiences can make up their minds about on their own but maybe my comments point out a few things to help others decide if they want to venture out and view this.