Private Lessons

Name: Private Lessons
Genre: Comedy
Released: August 28, 1981
Duration: 87 min
Rating: 34
Cast: Beans Morocco, Ed Begley Jr., Eric Brown, Howard Hesseman, Meridith Baer

1981

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

No score yet

tbd

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

tbd	Your Score
tbd	User Score No score yet

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Private Lessons

Now Playing: Private Lessons

Movie Details & Credits

Jensen Farley Pictures | Release Date: August 28, 1981 | R

Starring: Beans Morocco, Ed Begley Jr., Eric Brown, Howard Hesseman, Meridith Baer, Pamela Jean Bryant, Patrick Piccininni, Peter Elbling, Ron Foster, Sylvia Kristel

Summary: A house maid seduces a 15-year-old boy and later fakes her own death as part of his chauffeur's blackmail plot. Troubles arise when the two start to fall for each other.

Director: Alan Myerson

Genre(s): Comedy

Rating: R

Runtime: 87 min

See All Details and Credits

More You Might Like

Private School

Private Resort

Driving Lessons

Private Benjamin

Private Parts

Watch Now

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Staff (Not Credited)

Dan Greenburg’s script from his own novel [philly] is very effective in presenting an innocent youth’s point-of-view confronted with the sexual stimuli that pervade modern society. Inability to flesh out this central notion into a feature-length screenplay is a pity, but Private Lessons should satisfy general audiences with its diversions of frequent nudity, softcore sex, dominant rock music score and gags. Read full review

John Corry

Private Lessons is soft core -breasts, garter belts, heavy panting -with a touch of Walt Disney. There is a comic car chase, a funny fat boy and lots of California sunshine. After all, the film, which is based on ''Philly,'' a novel by Dan Greenburg, is supposed to be a comedy. Maybe this is another first, the old porn updated for the new consumer society. Read full review

Gary Arnold

The setup is so conducive to hedonistic wish-fulfillment that it's a pity writer Dan Greenburg and director Alan Myerson lacked the wit to capitalize on it. [20 Nov 1981, p.C3]

Staff (Not Credited)

This particular wet dream is wrapped in a vacuous blackmail plot (which enables the young hero to fantasise that he's f.cked Sylvia to death, and her to reveal her heart of gold) and padded with lots of horrible Adult Oriented Rock (Clapton, Rod Stewart, etc). Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Audiences flocked to see Kristel bare it all in an R-rated film, but "stunt" double Judy Heldon actually does the dirty work. Read full review

SEE ALL 5 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

papallama

Nov 2, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In this political drama an illegal immigrant is forced into the under-age sex trade to escape deportation to an unstable third world country, France. Private Lessons was directed by Alan Myerson and written by Dan Greenburg, both screenplay and novel. Yes, you heard me right, novel (Philly, Simon and Schuster, 1969).
Much like a perfect dream there are some boobs, sexual frustration, a nostalgic soundtrack (Clapton, Cougar, Air Supply, Rod Stewart three times, and Earth, Wind and Fire - was music free then too?) and a young Ed Begley Jr.
Ms. Nicole Mallow, well portrayed by Sylvia Kristel, coaxes a reluctant fifteen year old boy, Philly, to sleep with her because the family chauffeur, Lester, previously a disc jockey from Ohio, is threatening to have her deported to facilitate his poorly planned blackmail scheme. She complies because I guess she’s really horny too (as established in the title sequence) and because it’s what Philly so obviously wants and needs so he can become an even larger creeper by the end. Throughout the film he demonstrates this by looking at several older women through expensive cameras, telescopes and an old-timey spyglass and, also, just his eye-balls. Eventually, Ms. Mallow concocts the five-move checkmate that is the final act, trapping Lester at the bottom of a pre-TSA LAX elevator, in a perfectly executed queen-side Begley bluff. By the end of the film Lester has ceded his $10,000 blackmail money back to Philly, which would be $10,100 in today’s money. Lester would later redeem himself by teaching gifted but surly children in a school on an outer-borough of Manhattan.
Anthropologically, the film reveals American values and culture during the late-middle twentieth century. The title sequence features a voiced over date-rape in progress with Ms. Mallow’s legs in FM pumps slung over a couch. Ms. Mallow’s journey suggests women in vulnerable positions will trade on sex and once they do they might find they rather enjoyed it and come to consider it a fond experience, maybe falling in love a little bit, as some acoustic guitar strings raised in the soundtrack while the dialogue was lowered. But if they want to get out they better be damned clever.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 1 REVIEWS