God bless Sylvia Kristel. Although teenagers of the '80s had many fantasy women including Phoebe Cates, Heather Thomas, and the girls of Bananarama, it was Kristel who provided sensuality to boot. Private Lessons was a different kind of sex comedy. While Porky's provided voyeuristic thrills in a shower room and Private School had the iconic image of Betsy Russell on a horse, it was Private Lessons that provided a full-fledged teenage dream where a young man has a romance with his hot, older housekeeper. To a teen, the character of Philly seemed like the luckiest guy in the world and this movie was huge at the time of its release making Kristel a major sex symbol with a younger crowd. She had already achieved this status with older folks with a starring role in Lady Chatterley's Lover and, of course, as Emmanuelle, where she became an iconic figure in erotic cinema.

Eric Brown stars as Philly Fillmore, a 15-year old rich kid who lives with his father, chauffeur, and housekeeper. Along with his chubby friend Sherman (Patrick Piccininni), Philly is starting to discover girls and they take every chance they get to feed their raging hormones even going so far as sneak glimpses of Sherman's sister through her window or sunbathing by the pool. In nearly every scene, it is evident that Philly is a complete horndog as you can see his eyes trying to snatch a peek up the skirt or down the shirt of nearly every woman he sees. It may sound overly lecherous but it comes across as innocent and natural for a boy of that age in that time period. Philly takes a liking to his new housekeeper,Nicole Mallow (Kristel), and she begins to flirt back with him which makes him embarrassed and nervous. She persists one night and invites Philly to her room to watch her undress. They soon begin a romance that is the wish of many teenagers but quite unrealistic as Ms. Mallow appears to be almost twice his age. Unbeknownst to Philly, she is also in cahoots with the chauffeur Lester (Howard Hesseman) with whom she has developed an elaborate scam to extort $10,000 from the Fillmore family.

The scene where Mallow undresses for Philly is one of the sexiest in a teen comedy. Kristel takes her time with the striptease and her soothing accent keeps Philly comfortable as she removes each piece of clothing makes the scene all the more erotic. There is more nudity to come later in the film including a bath and two bedroom meetings but their first encounter is the one that stands out. Over the years, the subject matter has become much more sinister than it was originally intended as today's society is not nearly as tolerant as it was thirty years ago in its attitudes towards underage sex. I still find the film to be quite innocent. Even though it has an R-rating, it is clearly aimed at either teenagers or those who remember what it was like to be a teenager and in this respect, it succeeds. We were all curious about sex in the way that Philly and Sherman were and while it is not acceptable for a grown woman to hook up with a teenage boy, it is something that many teenage boys have fantasized about. It is important to remember that this movie is exactly that: a fantasy and not an advertisement promoting statutory rape as some puritans have made it out to be. Frankly, this is a sex comedy that has since become a classic of the genre. The fact that it is a product of the times and could not be made today is not the point.

Hesseman is excellent as the grumpy, conniving Lester and you totally buy into him being a complete jerk. It is unfortunate that their scheme is so poorly executed that the only one who is feeling any sort of tension is Philly. It would have worked much better had the audience been considered as well. The scenes where Philly and Mallow carry out their romance in public places (movie theatre, restaurant) are another area where the film could have established more suspense. I would have thought that they would want to be more discreet in their encounters but Philly is practically flaunting the fact that he is banging his housekeeper and Mallow seems to have no concern that there may be repercussions. This is a small complaint, however, as this movie is a teenage Penthouse Forum letter and we need to just roll with it even though the second half trades the sexy stuff for a weak attempt at being a farce. Believe me, this is not the part you are going to remember. Look for Playboy Playmate Pamela Bryant (H.O.T.S.) as Sherman's sister and comedian Ed Begley Jr. as the tennis instructor who does his best to imitate Dirty Harry. One of the producers on the film is Jack Barry who people of my generation may remember as the host of the popular game show "The Joker's Wild". The director of photography is Jan De Bont who went on to a successful career as a cinematographer as well as the director of the Speed franchise. Star Eric Brown repeated the young man/older woman formula with Sybil Danning in They're Playing with Fire and all but left the movie business in the late '80s to pursue a career in communications. (Josh Pasnak, 7/21/13)

Directed By: Allan Myerson.
Written By: Dan Greenburg.

Starring: Sylvia Kristel, Howard Hesseman, Eric Brown, Meridith Baer.