First Love

I give this movie such a high score only for the nostalgic feelings it evokes for me. I saw it with my "first". I felt a kinship with Billy Katt as he stumbled through the the physical aspects of making and being in love the first time. It was a total hoot to hear him ask. "Did I make you come?" after the first time. Who the @#$! asks that?? The movie is beautifully photographed. Susan Dey was a gorgeous, if slightly untalented actress. William Katt did a decent job. I forgot that John Heard was in the movie. He is brilliant as always. So, this is not so much a review as a chance for me to remember my "first", who, by the way, I did not marry! I would recommend this movie for those of us who were in college in 1977.

It was quite a (welcome) surprise to find a love story that's focused on the guy, where the story's centered on him and his feelings, rather than the girl. (In this case, the girl's Susan Dey, who shows she has acting ability beyond her Laurie Partridge days. She's very good in dramatic roles.)

It's also a switch to find a college guy who's more concerned with love and a real relationship, rather than just being horny and getting sex whenever he can. He's tired of the playing around scene, he wants something meaningful, and thinks he's found it, until he discovers he has competition. How's an average college guy from a middle-class background supposed to compete with a wealthy, sophisticated older man, who's been part of her life a long time, despite being married?

Watch and find out!

I just caught this late night on TCM. I'd probably seen it 30-40 years earlier, but forgot it. My first thought -- this is like an after-school special for the over-18 set. I could tell it would be soft, and corny and talky, and a type of young romance that mostly appealed only to youth of that era. Then I "remembered" I was in college in that era. So I turned on the 70s Wayback Time Machine and tried to remember how I would watch this if I were 20. That's when I realized that this "fit" for a middle-class college kid of those days, who was still trying to figure out romance in a sexual context. I don't remember, but I bet this was hailed as soft-core porn by Playboy, since -- OMG -- Susan Dey's breasts were displayed, and not too briefly, and not in a non-sexual way. The same Susan Dey we all knew from the Partridge Family. Yowza. But old me looking at young Susan Dey? The thrill is long gone. I'm thinking "why were all of us boys so crazy about her?"

Writing-wise, I bet this was inspired by the wildly successful Love Story, another collegiate troubled romance in soft focus and long teary camera shots. It was only six or seven years earlier, and it was still being talked about in the popular culture when this movie released. This was, after all, the age of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the Joy of Sex, Looking For Mr. Goodbar, and all those other now-quaint social commentaries and racy cultural takes.

This movie's ok. It's not bad. It's tame-lame by modern standards, but hell -- it's over 40 years old. Like me.

William Katt is very cute as a sweet and naive college student learning about love and sex for the first time. The director does a good job conveying this simplicity as the overall motif for the film. A very appropriate Cat Stevens soundtrack also contributes to the proceedings. Susan Dey is quite good as Katt's older-woman love interest. Then, just when the film has us in its grip, it lets us go in an ending of meaningless platitudes. I still liked it overall, but felt a bit let down with the unimaginitve ending.

I was attracted to some fresh, honest scenes with some frank, honest conversation but it alternated with some inane scenes with some inane conversation. William Katt's acting was sometimes appropriate sometimes not and sometimes obviously limited. Susan Dey's performance was consistently strong and professional. The ending was unsurprising except for the quick, undeveloped writing. The directing of some scenes was strangely bad. So it's a strange and unsatisfying mixture. Dey's beautiful nude body was used naturally and was a pleasant bonus.