| Screwballs | |
| Director: | Rafal Zielinski |
| Producer: | Maurice Smith Nicky Fylan Peter McQuillan Roger Corman |
| Starring: |
|
| Music: | Tim McCauley |
| Cinematography: | Miklós Lente |
| Editing: | Brian Ravok |
| Distributor: | New World Pictures |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $800,000[1] [2] |
| Gross: | $2,082,215[3] [4] |
Screwballs is a 1983 Canadian teen sex comedy film[5] that was inspired by the success of Porky's.[6]
In 1965, five boys at Taft and Adams High School try to see the bare breasts of Purity Bush, the most beautiful girl in school. After being set up, reprimanded and sent to detention by the principal because of Purity, they plot their revenge.
Following the success of Porky's, Roger Corman told Linda Shayne, who had worked for him, that he was interested in a low budget teen sex comedy. Shayne wrote one with Jim Wynorski, who did Corman's advertising and had written scripts for him. Corman liked the script, originally entitled Hide the Salami, and agreed to provide $500,000 of the budget. Shayne arranged for the balance to be found in Canada where the film was shot.[7] The rest of the money came from the Canadian Film Development Corporation, a Canadian physician and a Canadian theatre chain. Filming took place in Toronto.[8]
The movie was originally called Crazy Times and was set in 1962 but then this was shifted to 1964.[2]
Jim Wynorski designed the poster and said that he was inspired by Mad magazine.[9] Linda Shayne posed for the blonde figure on the poster.
Variety magazine called the film "a poor man's Porky's... full of youthful exuberance and proves utterly painless to watch, but it is so close in premise and tone to its model that negative comparisons can't help but be drawn".[10] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on seven reviews.[11]
The film was released in U.S. theaters by New World Pictures in April 1983 and grossed $2,082,215.
The film led to two sequels, Screwballs II (1985) and Screwball Hotel (1988).[12]