Crazy Love - love in black and white

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Crazy Love - love in black and white
Original title Secret Admirer
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1985
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director David Greenwalt
script David Greenwalt,
Jim Kouf
production Steve Roth
music Jan Hammer
camera Victor J. Kemper
cut Dennis Virkler
occupation

Crazy Love - love black on white (Original title: Secret Admirer ) is an American feature film from 1985. The film can be classified into the category of romantic teenage sex comedies, the wave of which reached a peak in the mid-1980s was. Director David Greenwalt , who co- wrote the script with Jim Kouf , made his debut in the role at the same time.

action

Sixteen-year-old Michael Ryan finds a passionate but anonymous love letter in his locker at high school . Since Michael has had his eye on the blonde class beauty Deborah Anne ("Debbie") Fimple for some time, his friend Roger promptly persuades him that this letter must have come from her - which quickly turns out to be a mistake. In his obsession with Debbie, Michael fails to notice that his longtime school friend Toni Williams is secretly in love with him.

Through Michael's little brother Jeff, the letter happens to get into a book by his father George, which he has for evening school . Michael's mother Connie believes that her husband is having a secret affair, while the latter mistakenly suspects that Debbie's mother Elizabeth, who is his night school teacher, is interested in him.

At Toni's suggestion, Michael also writes an anonymous love letter to Debbie and hands it to Toni, who is friends with Debbie and should therefore pass it on to her. Toni secretly opens the letter and notices that it only consists of a string of quotes from greeting cards . She then rewrites it in a romantic and passionate way. Debbie hides the letter in her mother's purse from her friend Steve Powers, a student at a local college . Debbie's father Lou, a spirited police officer, now thinks his wife is cheating on him. Elizabeth, for her part, assumes that George is also interested in her, although both she and her spouse have long been friends. Lou, who has been secretly following his wife, sees the two of them coming out of the school building together. He then drives to Connie and informs her of his observations, whereupon both see their fears confirmed.

When Michael writes a second letter to Debbie, Toni secretly rewrites it and then arranges a meeting between the two. When Michael identifies himself as the sender of the letters, Debbie immediately agrees to meet him. However, Michael quickly realizes that Debbie is different from what he imagined and realizes that the two of them do not go together. This is also clear at Michael's birthday party, which Toni hosts at her home out of friendship. Debbie wants to sleep with him there as a birthday present for Michael, but Michael ultimately fails.

At the same time, on a bridge evening, the tensions built up between Debbie's and Michael's parents are discharged in a wild scuffle. When Debbie and Michael come home afterwards, they find their parents arguing loudly reading their love letters. Outraged, they both explain the origin of the letters, which also clears up the misunderstandings that have arisen. Michael has meanwhile become more and more aware that he too feels more than friendship for Toni. So he visits Toni again after the party and asks her if she would one day go out with him. Since Toni feels taken advantage of by him and Debbie, she gives Michael a firm rebuff.

Just before the start of the next school year, Debbie returns both of her letters to Michael, disappointed. By comparing the handwriting on it with the one on the love letter addressed to him, it suddenly becomes clear to Michael that this is also from Toni. When he calls her, however, her mother tells him that Toni is about to leave. She wanted to spend the next school year on board a school boat and was absent during this time. After a brief argument with Steve, who has since learned of Michael's relationship with Debbie, Michael rushes to the port in his car. However, he does not arrive there until the school boat has just left. Calling after Toni from the pier, Michael confesses his love to her. After Toni has done the same to him, they both jump into the water, swim towards each other and kiss.

background

Most of the film was shot in Burbank , Los Angeles County , with the opening scenes filmed on former Burbank High School grounds. Only the final scene was recorded in the harbor of Long Beach at what was then Pier 2, which is now Pier D. The ship shown there as a school boat is a replica of an 18th century schooner completed in 1983 as the Pilgrim of Newport , which today bears the name Spirit of Dana Point and is currently stationed at the Ocean Institute in the port of Dana Point .

Leading actor C. Thomas Howell worked with his father for the second time after The Red Flood in this film, who was the stunt action coordinator in both films. He also took on all of the action scenes in the film himself.

The official grossing film in the United States was just over 8.62 million US dollars .

The film had its cinema premiere on June 14, 1985, on January 7, 2003 it was also released on DVD .

Reviews

On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the film only received around a third of positive reviews.

The All Movie Guide criticized that the film suffered from "some fundamental weaknesses of its genre" such as a clichéd, predictable plot, naive adult characters and clumsy dialogues. However, the “moving and lovable” portrayal by Lori Loughlin is worth seeing .

Janet Maslin commented in the New York Times, in particular with regard to the atmosphere and dialogues about the film, similarly negative and described the portrayal of Fred Ward , who shows an "unexpected comedic talent", as "the only ray of hope".

The lexicon of international films described the film as “shallow puberty clothes borrowing from melodrama , which tries to entertain mainly through mistaken comedy, without exploring characters and partner relationships more deeply”.

Others

The role of Toni Williams, working for a friend than amorous ghost writer operated, has certain parallels with the title character in the drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand on. The triangular story between the three main characters portrayed in the film is accordingly in some ways similar to that in Rostand's drama.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Synopsis for Secret Admirer on Allmovie.com , accessed November 29, 2014
  2. ↑ a b Secret Admirer (1985) - 80s Film Locations on sites.google.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  3. ^ Spirit of Dana Point at ocean-institute.org, accessed November 29, 2014
  4. ^ Full Cast and Crew for Secret Admirer on imdb.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  5. ↑ Trivia for Secret Admirer on imdb.com, accessed on November 29, 2014
  6. ^ Box office / business for Secret Admirer on imdb.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  7. ↑ a b Secret Admirer on rottentomatoes.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  8. ↑ Nathan Southern's film review on Allmovie.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  9. ↑ Janet Maslin's review on nytimes.com, accessed November 29, 2014
  10. ↑ Crazy Love - love in black and white in the Lexicon of International Films, accessed on November 29, 2014