Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The acting in this movie is really good.

Released in 1980, this was another crazy teenage comedy which tried to emulate the exceptional '70s films "American Graffiti" and "Animal House", and comes up short. The loose plot takes place in 1965 (even though some of the characters retain their late-seventies hairstyles) and is centered around the closing of Tubby's, a favorite local teen hangout. There's a group of pranksters called The Hollywood Knights who decide to say farewell to Tubby's' by playing practical jokes on stuffy adults and police officers. This includes spiking the punch at a party, stuffing the toilets, and doing other such childlike shenanigans. A few of these are humorous, but most of them fall flat. Throughout the movie are strewn many classic old '50s and '60s tunes, something of a consolation. Stand-up comedian Robert Wuhl plays the lead gang member, called Newbomb Turk. He's got at least one funny bit involving Fran Drescher as a gorgeous bimbo who he manages to get in the back seat of his car, but not for very long (it's the best scene in the film). There is a fat cop who becomes the frequent victim of the Knights' gags, which isn't too bad. And last and least, we get Michelle Pfeiffer and TAXI's Tony Danza taking up unnecessary screen time as a couple going through some troubles in extraneous segments which are completely unrelated and take you out of the movie. ** out of ****

Just watched this movie that had aroused my curiosity for the last 29 years on YouTube. Unfortunately, because the Warner Music Group has boycotted any of its recordings from the site, part 7 in a series of 10-minute segments of The Hollywood Knights had no audio which I figured had the three Atlantic artists that were credited at the end. As a result, I missed the dialogue of Tony Danza, Michelle Pfeiffer, and some Knights with a Doo-Wop group, one of whom I recognized as T.K. Carter. If I eventually hear this missing segment, I'll add my comments of it to this review. Now, for the most part I enjoyed this movie especially the scenes with Robert Wuhl, Stuart Pankin, and Fran Drescher especially her attempt to have sex with Wuhl in the car. The cop scene in the clogged bathroom was a little embarrassing. The "punch" scene with some of the comments made afterwards was pretty hilarious. Many of the Danza/Pfeiffer scenes were a nice drama though I didn't really see a connection with the more prankish scenes. And I loved all those scenes with that adulterous school faculty woman and the man she's fooling around with especially those with Pankin. And how about Wuhl's version of "Volare"? Or the "one-armed violinist"? So on that note, yeah, I recommend The Hollywood Knights. P.S. It's now several hours later and I've heard the missing scene I mentioned earlier. Touching speech from that guy about to go to Vietnam about if anything happens to him just before The Mamas and the Papas "California Dreamin'" plays on the 8-Track. And the Doo-Wop group sings a fine version of The Drifters "Under the Boardwalk" as they help the pledges out. And then there's the hilarious police superior's recount to those dumb cops at Tubby's of what happened earlier in the movie...

Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer are ostensibly the stars of "The Hollywood Knights", but cheap, flashy Robert Wuhl walks away with the picture (though it's no mean feat). Playing hell-raising youth Newbomb Turk, Wuhl is glinty-eyed like a mischievous pervert, causing non-stop comic chaos on Halloween in Beverly Hills, 1965. Predating "Porky's" with the same locker room humor, the flick apes "American Graffiti" and "Animal House" but substitutes wit with raunch, replacing adolescent sexual embarrassments with undiluted smut. It didn't catch on with audiences in 1980 but gained a small cult on cable. If there's anything good about the picture it is Wuhl: taking charge, as if he were the visiting brother of Belushi, Wuhl bellows and cackles and urinates in the punch bowl. It's tough for any actor to upstage Michelle Pfeiffer, but Wuhl proves it can be done (and with C-minus material!). *1/2 from ****

American Graffitti became a classic because of it delved into issues of high school graduation, the Vietnam War, and moving on from your roots and comfort in a small California town in the early 1960's. The Hollywood Knights (HK), in many ways, examines similar issues at a similar time except it departs any semblance of maturity and seriousness.HK touches all the silliness a film can muster yet the cast here pulls it off in a fun way. The situation is this...we're in Beverly Hills, CA. in the mid sixties and Tubby's Drive-In, the local hang out for teens, is closing its doors for good when it closes that night. The members of the "gang" Hollywood Knights are determined to cram into one night all the pranks and mayhem they can. Their ringleader is Newbomb Turk, played wonderfully by Robert Wuhl long before he created the character of ARLI$$ for HBO.You'll get to see some very notable actors and actresses here. Following in the fine tradition of real Hollywood a movie such as this tends to bring to the public some terrific future talent. Among the people you'll recognize are Michelle Pheiffer, Tony Danza, and Fran Drescher. Danza had already been discovered as a boxer turned cab driver in the great TV series "TAXI". Pheiffer is so young and beautiful here that it is easy to see the star potential movie makers saw in her. Drescher, shortly before developing her signature role as "The Nanny" for TV, plays her role with the same nasal Brooklyn charm that made her endearing to audiences.One final note about HK...some of the scenes are slapstick funny. As in Animal House this movie will have you remembering pranks you tried and moronic silly things you laughed at yet it will take you back, I'm betting, in a good way.