Where The Boys Are '84 - Wikipedia

1984 film by Hy Averback

Where the Boys Are '84
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hy Averback
Written by	Stu Krieger Jeff Burkhart
Based on	Where the Boys Are1960 novelby Glendon Swarthout
Produced by	Allan Carr
Starring	Lisa Hartman Russell Todd Lorna Luft Wendy Schaal Howard McGillin Lynn-Holly Johnson Alana Stewart Christopher McDonald Daniel McDonald
Cinematography	James A. Contner
Edited by	Bobbie Shapiro Mel Shapiro
Music by	Sylvester Levay
Productioncompany	ITC Productions
Distributed by	Tri-Star Pictures
Release date	April 6, 1984 (1984-04-06)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$10,530,000 (USA) (sub-total)[1]

Where the Boys Are '84 (onscreen title: Where the Boys Are) is a 1984 American sex comedy film that was directed by Hyman Jack "Hy" Averback (the last film he ever directed) and starred Lisa Hartman, Lorna Luft, Wendy Schaal, and Lynn-Holly Johnson. A remake of the 1960 film Where the Boys Are, it was produced by Allan Carr. It was the first film released by Tri-Star Pictures.[2]

Plot

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Four female students from snowbound Penmore College in the Northeast head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for spring break: Carole Singer is taking a separate vacation from her steady boyfriend Chip, but she winds up as a hot contender in a "Hot Bod Contest;" Jennie Cooper is courted by both rich classical pianist Camden Roxbury III and devil-may-care rocker Scott Nash; Sandra Roxbury is looking for the Mr. Right who will finally satisfy her; and Laurie Jameson is a sex crazed nymphomaniac who dreams of a night of unbridled passion with a real he-man. Laurie ends up getting her wish, albeit through a rather unexpected source.

During the week-long festivities, the young women meet Sandra's snobbish aunt Barbara Roxbury and her friend Maggie and get to sample much of Fort Lauderdale's nightlife. They are also invited to a formal party at Barbara's house, which ends up being crashed by hundreds of spring breakers.

Cast

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• Lisa Hartman as Jennie Cooper
• Russell Todd as Scott Nash
• Lorna Luft as Carole Singer
• Wendy Schaal as Sandra Roxbury
• Lynn-Holly Johnson as Laurie Jameson
• Howard McGillin as Chip
• Louise Sorel as Barbara Roxbury
• Alana Stewart as Maggie
• Christopher McDonald as Tony
• Daniel McDonald as Camden Roxbury III
• Jude Cole as Jude
• George Coutoupis as Ray
• Asher Brauner as Officer Ernie Grasso
• Frank Zagarino as Conan
• Dara Sedaka as Christine
• Barry Marder as Rappaport

Production

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Posters and advertising material presented the film's title as Where the Boys Are '84, the onscreen title is simply Where the Boys Are.

In an interview on the DVD, Wendy Schaal remembered it as a fun production with a party atmosphere, thanks to producer Allan Carr who was known for his parties. Schaal admitted they were smoking real marijuana in the beach funeral scene.[3] Russell Todd's singing was dubbed by Peter Beckett, vocalist with Player and Little River Band.[3]

Touted as a more "realistic" version of the popular 1960 film Where the Boys Are, with nudity and drug references, the date rape storyline of the original does not appear in this version. Where the Boys Are '84 was filmed from May 16 to June 26, 1983, at the following Florida locations: Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in Boca Raton; Lauderdale Beach Hotel, Bootleggers and City Limits Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale and Young Circle Bandshell in Hollywood.

Release

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Where the Boys Are '84 was produced independently by ITC Productions and was distributed by Tri-Star Pictures after Universal Pictures rejected it.[2] On April 3, 1984, it was screened at the National Theater in New York City with Allan Carr and the principal cast attending the premiere, as well as the post-premiere party at Studio 54.[4]

The film was released nationwide on April 6, 1984, and was both a box office and critical flop. It ranked No. 5 at the US box office grossing $3.6 million on its opening weekend. Its total domestic gross was $10.5 million.[1]

Reception

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Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 10 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[5] Janet Maslin, writing for The New York Times, called the film "dumb, vulgar and mostly humorless."[6] Roger Ebert, writing for The Chicago Sun-Times, reported, "It isn't a sequel and isn't a remake and isn't, in fact, much of anything."[7] Reel Film Reviews' David Nusair wrote: "There's ultimately not a whole lot within Where the Boys Are worth embracing or getting excited about..."[8]

Accolades

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Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Picture	Allan Carr	Nominated	[9]
	Worst Supporting Actress	Lynn-Holly Johnson	Won
	Worst Screenplay	Stu Krieger and Jeff Burkhart	Nominated
	Worst Musical Score	Sylvester Levay	Nominated
	Worst New Star	Russell Todd	Nominated

Soundtrack

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Where the Boys Are '84:Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	April 1984
Recorded	1983
Genre	Pop rock
Label	RCA Records
Producer	Denis Pregnolato Louis St. Louis Sylvester Levay Sparks Steve Smith
Singles from Where the Boys Are '84
"Where the Boys Are"Released: April 1984

Where the Boys Are '84: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack was released in April 1984 on vinyl and cassette tape by RCA Records. The soundtrack features ten songs, all of which appear in various scenes throughout the film. The title track cover version by Lisa Hartman was released as a single with the B-side "Hot Nights" by Jude Cole, however, it failed to chart. Lorna Luft recorded a disco version of "Where the Boys Are" released concurrently with the film although it was not a soundtrack item: produced by Joel Diamond, this version - credited mononymously to Lorna - featured background vocals by members of Village People.[10]

Side A

1. "Hot Nights" – performed by Jude Cole
2. "Seven Day Heaven" – performed by Shandi
3. "Mini-Skirted" – performed by Sparks
4. "Be-Bop-a-Lula" – performed by The Rockats
5. "Jenny" – performed by Peter Beckett

Side B

1. "Where the Boys Are" – performed by Lisa Hartman
2. "Woman's Wise" – performed by The Rockats
3. "Girls Night Out" – performed by Toronto
4. "Slippin' & Slidin'" – performed by Phil Seymour
5. "All Fired Up" – performed by Rick Derringer

Home media

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The film was released on VHS by 20th Century Fox offshoot Key Video. The DVD release was marred by copyright disagreement between Tri-Star and ITC Productions.[3] On February 6, 2018, Scorpion Releasing issued a remastered version of the film on Blu-ray, with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.[3][11]

See also

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Spring Break, a 1983 film with a similar setting and tone

References

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1. ^ a b Where the Boys Are '84 at Box Office Mojo
2. ^ a b London, Michael. "Tri-Star Bows With A Universal Castoff." Archived 2016-03-02 at the Wayback Machine Sarasota Herald-Tribune (February 18, 1984).
3. ^ a b c d Cotenas, Eric. "Where the Boys Are '84 (1984) Blu-ray". Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
4. ^ Where the Boys Are '84 premiere Archived 2023-03-05 at the Wayback Machine at Getty Images
5. ^ "Where the Boys Are Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2025-02-03.
6. ^ Maslin, Janet (April 7, 1984). "Film: Lauderdale quartet, 'Where the Boys Are'". The New York Times. p. 14.
7. ^ Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1984). "Where the Boys Are '84". Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
8. ^ Nusair, David. "Where the Boys Are – Reel Film Reviews". Archived from the original on 2021-10-01. Retrieved 2020-10-24.
9. ^ "Home of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation 1984 Archive". Razzies.com. Archived from the original on 11 September 2004.
10. ^ "Where the Songs Are". St Petersburg Times. April 8, 1984. pp. 6A.
11. ^ Skeen, Jesse (October 1, 2018). "Where the Boys Are '84". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.

External links

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• Where the Boys Are '84 at IMDb
• Where the Boys Are '84 at the TCM Movie Database
• Where the Boys Are '84 at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Where the Boys Are '84 at Rotten Tomatoes

v t e Films directed by Hy Averback
Feature films	Chamber of Horrors (1966) Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) The Great Bank Robbery (1969) Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970) Where the Boys Are '84 (1984)
Television films	The Love Boat II (1977) The New Maverick (1978) She's in the Army Now (1981) The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite (1981)

v t e Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress

Amy Irving (1980) Diana Scarwid (1981) Aileen Quinn (1982) Sybil Danning (1983) Lynn-Holly Johnson (1984) Brigitte Nielsen (1985) Dom DeLuise (in drag, 1986) Daryl Hannah (1987) Kristy McNichol (1988) Brooke Shields (1989) Sofia Coppola (1990) Sean Young (1991) Estelle Getty (1992) Faye Dunaway (1993) Rosie O'Donnell (1994) Madonna (1995) Melanie Griffith (1996) Alicia Silverstone (1997) Maria Pitillo (1998) Denise Richards (1999) Kelly Preston (2000) Estella Warren (2001) Madonna (2002) Demi Moore (2003) Britney Spears (2004) Paris Hilton (2005) Carmen Electra (2006) Eddie Murphy (in drag, 2007) Paris Hilton (2008) Sienna Miller (2009) Jessica Alba (2010) David Spade (in drag, 2011) Rihanna (2012) Kim Kardashian (2013) Megan Fox (2014) Kaley Cuoco (2015) Kristen Wiig (2016) Kim Basinger (2017) Kellyanne Conway (2018) Rebel Wilson (2019) Maddie Ziegler (2020/21) Judy Kaye (2021) Adria Arjona (2022) Megan Fox (2023) Amy Schumer (2024)