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Before he’d go on to make one of the most beloved holiday films of all time (A Christmas Story), writer/director Bob Clark took the teen sex comedy to new heights with Porky’s. An amalgamation of Clark’s high school experience and first-hand stories he’d been told, Porky’s takes place in mid-1950s Florida and revolves around a group of young men who spend much of their days pranking each other and pursuing sex. The plot is loose, giving remarkable time to spend on elaborate shenanigans as well as a surprising amount of character growth and development. But the main storyline centers around the boys’ conflict with Porky, the imperious owner of a honkytonk nightclub in the Everglades. After Porky steals money from the boys and roughs them up in a series of confrontations, they decide to get even in a climactic revenge sequence.
Preceded by six months of sold-out test screenings, this film was a cultural sensation upon release, eventually becoming one of the top five money earners of the year and one of the most profitable comedies from its era. Critics, then and now, tend to be dismissive of Porky’s, accusing it of being nothing more than puerile and exploitive. I beg to differ. Yes, the film features some transgressive, raunchy comic highlights. Who can forget the portly gym teacher, Miss Beulah Balbricker (Nancy Parsons), grabbing onto one of the boys’ penises after he sticks it through a hole in the wall of the girls’ shower room? Or discovering why, indeed, Kim Cattrall’s character is nicknamed ‘Lassie’? The film is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to such memorable, centerpiece comedy sequences. But the comedy wouldn’t work if the characters weren’t so likable and relatable, honest and true to what men of the ’50s and ’80s experienced as they came of age.
The character of Pee Wee (Dan Monahan) gets a lot of attention, because he’s the short, nerdy guy dying to get laid. However immature you find this endeavor, it’s nevertheless an overriding imperative in young men’s lives. Hiding it, or worse — shaming it — is a disservice. By dealing with male sexuality openly, as few films had ever done before, Bob Clark was able to win over his target audience with his sincerity. Yes, Porky’s is a very, very sweet film — not a dirty one. Other sex comedies released in Porky’s wake were more crude and less well-intentioned, but Porky’s does not grab for laughs at the expense of women. The female characters are relatively empowered here, while the male characters are the ones suffering embarrassment and humiliation. Clark is egalitarian with the film’s nudity, too, with the male stars all appearing nude more often than the girls do.
What I love most about Porky’s is that it celebrates male camaraderie — the kind that sustains boys and men when the weight of traditional gender roles becomes too heavy. In-between all the pranks and sensationalized moments in this film, there are genuine characters played by a number of surprisingly good actors. The most affecting character is Tim (Cyril O’Reilly), who starts the film as an antisemite whose father badly beats him after he loses a schoolyard scuffle with a Jewish student, Brian (Scott Colomby). These two characters become friends over the course of the film — not in a cheesy, sentimental way, but in a convincing way that mirrors the way men support each other in real life: with action more than words. Upon my most recent rewatch of this film, I was also struck at the way these characters police racism and antisemitism among each other — with subtle but effective nudging, instead of the instant and irrevocable condemnation that’s so stylish in the 2020s.
There were a few sex comedies before Porky’s and many after it, but the subgenre was never treated as earnestly and endearingly as Bob Clark treated it. It’s funny as hell, with a cast of characters in whom I see myself and many people I know. Yes, it’s raunchy. But every moment of raunchiness is earned and paid for with its abundance of heart and humanity. This film means more to me every time I see it.
With Wyatt Knight, Tony Ganios, Roger Wilson, Mark Herrier, Kaki Hunter, and Chuck Mitchell as ‘Porky’.