Little Darlings

1980 "Don't let the title fool you."
6.5| 1h35m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 March 1980 Released
Producted By: Paramount Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Two 15-year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.

Genre

Drama, Comedy

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Little Darlings (1980) is now streaming with subscription on Paramount+

Director

Ronald F. Maxwell

Production Companies

Paramount Pictures

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Little Darlings Audience Reviews

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
SnoopyStyle Rich girl Ferris Whitney (Tatum O'Neal) and poor tough girl Angel Bright (Kristy McNichol) are 15 year olds going to summer camp. They get into a fight right away. They don't get along but they are both teased as being virgins by mean girl Cinder Carlson. Cinder sets up bets to see whether Ferris or Angel loses her virginity first. Ferris falls for coach Gary Callahan (Armand Assante) and Angel takes hunky streetwise Randy (Matt Dillon) from the boys' camp.It starts out with a good mean girl and two great child actors of their era. I like what it's setting up to do. The problem starts with the males. Assante is way too old and a bit awkward. Dillon is hunky hot with super fine hair. However he's a bit too empty. I like the girls' drama together but their time with the guys aren't that compelling. McNichol acts her little heart out bringing on the waterworks. It's not a broad teen comedy but it doesn't rise to be an intense coming-of-age story either. The girls are good but this could be better.
ncook19 "Little Darlings" Whoa! I fell in love with this film in my late teens after watching Kristy McNichols' performance as "Angel" even though this is one movie that would be more recommended and appealing for coming-of-age girls rather than boys and for good reason: From the very beginning scene where the tag-line "Don't Let The Name or Title Fool You" is quickly established as she drops an annoying boy (who's trying to hit on her) right to the ground with a good swift-hard powerful kick to his balls to the very sweet emotional ending, her entire performance as a spunky, tough virgin teenage tomboy is indeed sensational. Besides she also looked so hot in those denim jeans, jacket and very painful Converse sneakers. She's awesome cute and sexy!
HelloTexas11 In his capsule review of 'Little Darlings,' Leonard Maltin writes, "(it's) not quite as sleazy as it sounds, but not very inspiring either," which pretty much sums up reaction to this 'coming of age' film. I tend to mostly agree with that sentiment, though I find it a bit unfair. While certainly no classic, 'Little Darlings' does have its moments as well as two fine performances by Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol. The young actresses had already established themselves as up-and-comers, O'Neal by being the youngest actress to win an Oscar (for 'Paper Moon') while McNichol had garnered favorable notices for her tomboy-ish role in the TV series, 'Family.' In 'Little Darlings,' O'Neal plays Ferris, a precocious teen girl of privilege and McNichol plays, well, a tomboy named Angel with a lot of street smarts who is more sensitive than she lets on. So neither actress is really playing against type here. They do show their acting chops though and they're both better than the material. They go to a girls' summer camp and find themselves in the center of a contest to see which of them can lose her virginity first. The other girls at the camp split into competing teams and place bets. This is where a lot of confusion about the film comes from; it was marketed as sort of a female version of 'Porky's' and this is a wholly inaccurate portrayal of the movie. Much of it could be lifted straight from a Disney flick; there's a predictably lame food fight and an 'oh gosh, aren't we wild' hijacking of a school bus. 'Little Darlings' can't decide if it wants to be a G-rated kids flick or a serious drama about growing up. But it certainly has nothing in common with 'Porky's.' Angel sets her sights on a suitable prospect (Matt Dillon) at the boy's camp across the lake; she seems less worried about having sex, since her floozy mother has described it as "no big deal." Ferris is a bit more ambitious. She targets a camp counselor, Gary (Armand Assante), a grown man no less, and envisions them having a romantic candle-lit dinner before whatever happens when you have sex takes place. In the end, Angel does have an intimate encounter of sorts with 'Randy' (good name) but it turns out to be disappointing and disturbing to her, more so than she envisioned. Ferris, on the other hand, blithely concocts in her mind a night of passion with Gary as she imagines it might be, which she describes in such rapturous terms to the other girls that they all believe she did, in fact, go to bed with him. The moral, no doubt, is that for a 16-year-old girl, fantasizing about sex is much better than actually having it. Or at least it was in this case. Some of the scenes toward the end are so well written and performed, it seems a shame they have to share screen time with the goofy nonsense in the middle. 'Little Darlings' wants to be more than it is, but only occasionally gets it right. It's also a shame that both Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol were unable, for various reasons, to capitalize on their early successes and continue with interesting and successful roles. They showed a lot of promise, and 'Little Darlings' is worth seeing for their performances alone.
liednangel Oh my God! It's a shame I couldn't have rented it neither on VHS nor DVD, the only time I watched it was in the movies, the film is about the rivalry and the competition for becoming the "first woman", a race to loose the virginity and fulfill the transition from being a a girl to be a "grown up girl" in the camping, even Tatum O'Neal was the star of the movie, Kristy McNichol's performance was so terrific and amazing, I was touched with her performance because her first time disappointed her and in a second she showed in her expression face: What did I do? it was terrible, it wasn't as cool as I thought and finally she realized that she could have waited or the first wasn't a big deal when it was made with rush an too many expectations, then she wasn't ready for that crucial experience. So 27 years later, the subject still matters about the first time, but there is a big difference, in the beginning of eighties there was innocence and no fears about sexual transmission diseases and NOW the teenagers are in really danger with AIDS, Hepatitis and other diseases, comparing this film with updated teens movies, those years won't be back anymore.