Growing Pains (1984)

Director:

Robert Houston

Writers:

Robert Houston (writer)
Joseph Kwong (writer)

Release Date:

November 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Two kids on the run from an orphanage spring a kid from a rich family, then trash the whole house. |

Plot Keywords:

Orphanage | Sports Car | Food Fight | Walkie Talkie | Sunglasses

Cast

Pamela Adlon	...	Girl Joey (as Pamela Segall)
Georg Olden	...	Piper
Michael Hentz	...	Mouse / Bartholomew
Joey Coleman	...	Whitey
Christopher Brown	...	Blackie
Anne De Salvo	...	Sister Serena
Murphy Dunne	...	Mr. Kurtz
Karen Black	...	Gladys Fitzpatrick
Martin Mull	...	Warren Fitzpatrick
Stephen Stucker	...	Dr. Bender
Kimmy Robertson	...	Sarah Fitzpatrick
John Paul Lussier	...	Garth Fitzpatrick
Edy Williams	...	Mrs. Slatt
Hy Pyke	...	Mr. Slatt
Gertrude Flynn	...	Mother Celestina

Also Known As:

Bad Manners

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Growing Pains

Quotes:

Sister Serena: I hope you realize you're going to eat that, young man. All of it!
Piper: I'm not hungry.
'Chubby': Looks good to me.
Sister Serena: Can it, Chubby! Piper, eat.

Trashy, enjoyable, surprisingly focussed kids-in-prison movie

This is a really, really obscure movie - doesn't make the Leonard Maltin guide under either title - which, for trash movie lovers, offers more than a lot of better known flicks.

For those familiar with the women-in-prison genre of campy movies, this is kind of a kids-in-prison equivalent. You don't want to do "Growing Pains"/"Bad Manners" the disservice of taking it too seriously, since it doesn't demand anything of the sort, but unusually for this kind of film, it has the odd serious undertone, and good acting from the kids.

Where it wins, is its unsentimental, hilariously upfront portrayal of the kids and their language - it kind of pre-dates the "South Park" approach in a small way. The adults are routinely presented as gross caricatures. These two factors, in 1984, probably account for the film's howling commercial success, ahem.

Martin Mull and particularly Karen Black give some good value mugging in the grotesque adult category, but it's the kids' film. In a way it also kind of parallels kid rebellion movies like "Over the Edge", which preceded it. Not great, but very watchable, and unusual enough to be a real curio.