Pornonomy Reviews: Summer Camp Girls

Summer Camp Girls (1983)

Directed by:
Robert McCallum

Starring:
Brooke Fields
Danielle
Janey Robbins
Joanna Storm
Kimberly Carson
Shauna Grant
Tara Aire
Eric Edwards
Hershel Savage
Marc Wallice
Michael Holman
Paul Thomas

Camp Quim is a summer camp for priveleged trouble makers. Run by a woman named Olga (Honey Wilder, in a non-sex role), the camp seems to only have two counselors Marcy (Robbins) and Greg (Thomas). There are a couple of peripheral trouble makers; J.D. (Savage) is dating Carla (Aire) and his biker buddy Animal (Antonio Crabbe, also in a non-sex role).

A group of rich girls sent off by their families as punishment reminded me immediately of Charm School. Summer Camp Girls has only slightly more plot points holding the sex scenes together. Most of the action occurs after the girls give Olga the slip on a picnic. Veronica (Carson), Angela Cortese (Grant), and Brooke Fields's character set out together, the first two ending up in a bar, Fields content to hide out in a fisherman's (Edwards) camper. Veronica orchestrates a brawl between bikers and cowboys in the bar in order for Angela to escape - she's not as interested in getting laid as Veronica - and to determine the two manliest men in the bar.

Suzie and Tammy (Danielle and Storm) duck into a barn in order to escape some phantom rain. Predictably, shedding their wet clothes and trying to warm up in a horse blanket causes one thing to lead to another.

Meanwhile, back at a camp, Angela's father calls to let Olga know he's on his way to visit. In a panic, Greg sets out to find all the AWOL campers. He happens upon Suzie and Tammy, who delight in teasing Greg (so much so that, earlier in the film, he contemplates quitting until Marcy convinces him to stay by sleeping with him, allowing him to fantasize about the girls), finally prove to be too much for him to resist. I have to admit that they staged some of the more creative fmf positions I can recall seeing.

J.D. - who seems to be trying to rehabilitate his image in order to win Angela over - and Animal pass Angela walking home from the bar. After she turns down a ride back to camp, Animal convinces J.D. to go back so he can teach her a lesson for "teasing" him in the bar. (Call me old fashioned, but facilitating a rape seems like a weird way to win a girl's heart.) Ultimately, J.D.'s conscience wins out and he turns back to rescue Angela...by "trading" Carla for her. Instead of letting J.D. untie her, Angela asks him to have sex with her which will somehow "free" her from her sheltered upbringing. Or something.

At this point, Olga, Greg, Angela's father, and his henchman happen upon the scene, which seems like bad news for J.D. until Mr. Cortese finds out that J.D. is Catholic. The End!

The weird thing about Summer Camp Girls is that, for a film that is ultimately a pretty light piece of work, there's a somewhat unsettling undercurrent of violence throughout the film. The first scene in the film, between J.D. and Carla, is pretty rough - although shown as consensual, since that's how Carla "likes it"; the threat of sexual violence by the biker gang that happen upon Veronica and Angela in the bar; the threat of rape after Animal snatches Angela off the road, made darker by the glee with which Carla reacts when J.D. tells her that Animal is likely raping Angela; and even the fact that Tammy calls Suzie a bitch while pretending to be Greg.

Summer Camp Girls provides an interesting contrast with Hot Rackets, another McCallum film that, the more I think about, the more I think I underrated it before. Summer Camp Girls could have had the satisfying silliness of Hot Rackets, but instead turned out to be a series of loosely connected (though quite well-done) sex scenes. C+