Odd mixture of elements in a coming-of-age flick made for teenagers but rated R in 1980. It's a sensitive 'first time' story for two 15-year-old girls at summer camp (naturally, one girl is poor and street-smart--and smokes--and the other is rich and sheltered). The writers want laughs so bad, they're shameless enough to throw in a food fight, stealing a bus, and an unlikely condom-machine hijack. There are continuity errors all through the film--not to mention bad blunders by the editor (Tatum O'Neal gets crush Armand Assante in trouble, but there are no scenes confirming this, and no scenes confirming his acquittal). One of the TV-versions (still shown today) features cut-footage to replace the risqué stuff (the scenes with Assante were filmed but got dropped). Kristy McNichol is wonderful trying to talk her way through a lovers' night with Matt Dillon, or when they finally warm to each other and she says, "Don't laugh...but do you care about me a little?" Those moments are much preferable to the slapstick interludes, and indeed Kristy looks more comfortable with her role than Tatum does as Ferris (whom we never get to know). Still, it's an enjoyable piece of fluff, better in its time I think than today. **1/2 from ****
Review of Little Darlings
