Theme Song: A lot of people who are nerds will complain that John Barry did an entire soundtrack to First Love, which was scrapped in favor of Cat Stevens and Paul Williams songs.
“That’s Enough For Me” by Paul Williams plays like four times in the movie, and it is a really good ballad.
“Child For A Day” by Cat Stevens plays only twice.
Interesting Dated References: A college-aged male with any type of moral compass; filming an entire movie with Vaseline on the lens.
Social Context: Definitely a member of the “young love in moral crisis” genre of filmmaking from the 70s/early 80s. Think: Love Story, Summer of ‘42, Brian’s Song, The Other Side of The Mountain, even Ice Castles. This genre should be more widely studied.
Summary: Wasp-y college student Elgin Smith (William Katt) is a handsome jock who lives in the dorms, hates one-night stands, and is overly focused on finding the perfect “first love.” He repeatedly rejects promiscuous Shelley (Beverly D’Angelo), the sometimes lover of his neighbor.
After seeing another coed, Caroline (Susan Dey), he focuses all his attention on her, endlessly following her until they eventually fall in and make love.
There’s an interesting part of this movie where the love-making scenes go on and on and are somewhat progressive but also totally weird as Elgin keeps immediately trying to analyze the coitus. It’s well-meaning but clumsy, mainly because William Katt has too much of a perm to be taken seriously when asking someone, “Did you cum?” It’s made even more silly when her reply is, “Elgin, I was cumming all over the place.”
It’s a soapy romantic movie, so the progressive talk feels out of place. Further bumming things out, Caroline’s dad committed suicide some years back, and she is also having an affair with her father’s former legal partner John (an under-used Robert Loggia).
Eventually, there are a few confrontations. Even though Caroline has a change of heart about her affair, the hilariously insecure Elgin can’t get over it, and they part ways. Directed by Joan Darling, all the sex-positive, female-forward aspects of this movie are negated by a male lead whose primary motivator seems to be trivial jealousy.
Worth Mentioning:
– John Heard is the promiscuous neighbor who eventually decides he loves Shelley. There’s also a tonally terrible scene where he and Elgin get into fisticuffs just because he gave Caroline a ride home. Again, the trivialness of Elgin’s jealousy knows no bounds.
– Filmed in and around Portland, Oregon. Most notably at Reed College.
– Yes, there are boobs in this movie for those keeping score.
Poster and Box Art: A soft focus cover, which is okay, but hiding at the bottom is a nice title treatment.
