
Phillip Filmore is a naive, 15-year-old, preoccupied with sex, who develops a crush on Nicole Mallow, the new 30-something, French housekeeper and sitter to look after him when Phillip's father is out of town for the summer on a "business" trip. But Mr. Filmore's unscrupulous chauffeur, Lester Lewis, takes advantage of Phillip's crush on Nicole to hire her to seduce the youth, then draws her into a plot to fake her own death in a blackmail scheme aimed to drain Phillip's trus... (Full plot summary below)
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Phillip Filmore is a naive, 15-year-old, preoccupied with sex, who develops a crush on Nicole Mallow, the new 30-something, French housekeeper and sitter to look after him when Phillip's father is out of town for the summer on a "business" trip. But Mr. Filmore's unscrupulous chauffeur, Lester Lewis, takes advantage of Phillip's crush on Nicole to hire her to seduce the youth, then draws her into a plot to fake her own death in a blackmail scheme aimed to drain Phillip's trust fund.
Leave your thoughts about Private Lessons.
| The New York TimesJohn CorryPrivate Lessons is soft core -breasts, garter belts, heavy panting -with a touch of Walt Disney. There is a comic car chase, a funny fat boy and lots of California sunshine. After all, the film, which is based on ''Philly,'' a novel by Dan Greenburg, is supposed to be a comedy. Maybe this is another first, the old porn updated for the new consumer society. |
| Washington PostGary ArnoldAudiences flocked to see Kristel bare it all in an R-rated film, but "stunt" double Judy Heldon actually does the dirty work. |
| User ReviewpapallamaIn this political drama an illegal immigrant is forced into the under-age sex trade to escape deportation to an unstable third world country, France. Private Lessons was directed by Alan Myerson and written by Dan Greenburg, both screenplay and novel. Yes, you heard me right, novel (Philly, Simon and Schuster, 1969). Much like a perfect dream there are some boobs, sexual frustration, a nostalgic soundtrack (Clapton, Cougar, Air Supply, Rod Stewart three times, and Earth, Wind and Fire - was music free then too?) and a young Ed Begley Jr. Ms. Nicole Mallow, well portrayed by Sylvia Kristel, coaxes a reluctant fifteen year old boy, Philly, to sleep with her because the family chauffeur, Lester, previously a disc jockey from Ohio, is threatening to have her deported to facilitate his poorly planned blackmail scheme. She complies because I guess she’s really horny too (as established in the title sequence) and because it’s what Philly so obviously wants and needs so he can become an even larger creeper by the end. Throughout the film he demonstrates this by looking at several older women through expensive cameras, telescopes and an old-timey spyglass and, also, just his eye-balls. Eventually, Ms. Mallow concocts the five-move checkmate that is the final act, trapping Lester at the bottom of a pre-TSA LAX elevator, in a perfectly executed queen-side Begley bluff. By the end of the film Lester has ceded his $10,000 blackmail money back to Philly, which would be $10,100 in today’s money. Lester would later redeem himself by teaching gifted but surly children in a school on an outer-borough of Manhattan. Anthropologically, the film reveals American values and culture during the late-middle twentieth century. The title sequence features a voiced over date-rape in progress with Ms. Mallow’s legs in FM pumps slung over a couch. Ms. Mallow’s journey suggests women in vulnerable positions will trade on sex and once they do they might find they rather enjoyed it and come to consider it a fond experience, maybe falling in love a little bit, as some acoustic guitar strings raised in the soundtrack while the dialogue was lowered. But if they want to get out they better be damned clever. |