Private Popsicle ספיחס ‎(1982)

Country: Tel Aviv, Israel
Production company
: The Cannon Film Group

Director: Boaz Davidson
Producer:
Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
Writer: Boaz Davidson, Eli Tavor

Starring:
Yiftach Katzur, Jonathan Sagall, Zachi Noy, Sonja Martin, Joseph Shiloah, Dvora Kedar, Menashe Warshavsky, Moshe Ish-Kassit, Devora Bakon

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

  • Eis am Stiel 4 Hasenjagd (Germany)
  • Boot Camp (Canada)
  • Galna grabbar i armén (Sweden)
  • Caramelo De Limon (Spain)
  • Le Tombeur, le Frimeur et l’allumeuse (France)
  • Reclute e seduttori (Italy)

SYNOPSIS

Huey, Bobby, and Benji have been drafted into the army and decide to celebrate their last night of freedom by seducing an older married woman who needs help in getting her drunken husband home. The boys happily oblige and it is not long before Bobby follows her in the bedroom whilst Benji and Huey keep her husband busy in the living room.

The next morning they arrive at the camp and meet Sargent Ramierz who is determined to get them in shape!  Of course the boys want to have a good time,  so they sneak out for the night.

Benji soon falls head over heels in love when he meets Renee, a private from the women’s section of the camp, asleep on the job. She agrees to a date with him but she doesn’t know that he is only a soldier like herself. 

The boys go along to meet Renee the next night with her friends but their plan is ruined when they notice the Sgt Ramierz. To escape,  the boys dress as women to sing and dance on stage, and Huey is particularly convincing as Julie who Ramierz falls for!   Huey is forced to go back to the barracks with Ramierez who has trouble keeping his hands off off “Julie”!  

Benji and Renee’s romance is short lived when she discovers that he lied and he is not really a Captain in the army after seeing him training with the rest of the soldiers. Benji is sorry for deceiving her, but he knows she wouldn’t have agreed to date him otherwise.

After trying to make her forgive him, Bobby and Huey come to rescue and persuade her to get back with Benji.

TRAILER

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BEHIND THE SCENES

The fourth installment of the movies, Private Popsicle, is set around the trio’s misadventures in the Israeli army. It was also the last of the Lemon Popsicle movies to be helmed by Boaz Davidson. The director felt that he was beginning to repeat old material and invent things that didn’t happen to him.

The films story had now moved leaps and bounds away from the blend of comedy and drama and was now mostly purely slapstick comedy tailored around the plot, rather than the reverse which was displayed in earlier Popsicle movies.

Filming of the movie took only seven weeks to complete with a budget of one million dollars. For it’s authenticity, scenes for the movie were filmed at a military base in Park Afek near to Rosh Aiin. Another memorable scene in the film sees the three actors perform in drag and was filmed at a hotel in Ramat Aviv.

Austrian born Sonja Martin joined the cast as Benji’s love interest in Private Popsicle. The model and actress proved to be a popular choice with Popsicle makers and also starred alongside Zachi Noy in Die Unglaublichen Abenteuer des Guru Jakob around the same time.

To promote the films release, Sonja Martin joined Yiftach Katzur on a promotional tour of Japan, and Zachi Noy around Germany, where the films were becoming more and more popular with each installment.

To cater for the growing trend and demand of more nudity and sex from the films German investors, Playboy model Bea Fiedler was cast as the bored housewife who satisfies the boys sexual urges before joining the army.

Lemon Popsicle Forever favourite Joseph Shiloah was cast as the randy Sgt. Ramirez. The veteran actor Shiloah hailed from long acting roots in his career before being cast in Private Popsicle as the drill Sergeant and the source of ridicule and amusement for the boys in the film, a role which amused audiences alike.

The film proved to be popular, and even spawned it’s own Spin off feature, Private Manoeuvres, featuring most of the Private Popsicle cast, minus Yiftach Katzur and Jonathan Sagall.

PROMOTIONAL TOUR (JAPAN & GERMANY)

CAST

Yiftach Katzur
Jonathan Sagall
Zachi Noy
Sonja Martin
Joseph Shiloah
Dvora Kedar
Menashe Warshavsky
Moshe Ish-Kassit
Devora Bakon
Bea Fiedler
Shumel Eiser
Olga Spondorf
Louis Rosenberg
Leonid Yophitar
Savich Goldreich
Anatol Constantin
Noam Aviram
Gili Klein
Mimon Ruth
Rina Levi
Meira Arazi
Dietmar Siegart

CREW

Director: Boaz Davidson
Producers: Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
Executive Producer: Amnon Globus 
Assistant Director: Uri Nusbaum
First Assistant Director: Shaul Dishy
Writers: Boaz Davidson, Eli Tavor
Cinematographer: Adam Greenberg
Film Editor: Bruria Davidson

SOUNDTRACK

  1. Lucky Lips – Cliff Richard
  2.  I Like It – Gerry and the Pacemakers
  3. Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On – Jerry Lee Lewis
  4. Mr Sandman – Robin Merrill
  5. Charlie Brown – The Coasters
  6.  See Ya Later, Alligator – Bill Haley
  7. Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals
  8. Who Put The Bomp – Barry Mann
  9. Strictly Private – The Rookies
  10. Let There Be Drums – Sandy Nelson
  11. Speedy Gonzalas – Pat Boone
  12. With All My Heart – The Tymes
  13. I Want My Mama – The Popsicles
  14. Livin Doll – Cliff Richard
  15. Bend Me, Shape Me – Amen Corner
  16. My Special Angel – Bobby Helms
  17.  Silence Is Golden – The Four Aces
  18.  Soldier Boy – The Shirelles
  19. Rise and Shine – The Rookies
  20. Mr Blue – The Fleetwoods

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