--- title: "Porky's" year: 1981 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/porkys" fi1m_id: "porkys" imdb_id: "tt0084522" tmdb_id: 10246 wikidata_id: "Q1284961" fi1m_score: 58 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-04T17:10:52.655988+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T17:10:53.240048+00:00" region: "AZ" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Porky's (1981) Directed by Bob Clark · 1h 34m · Comedy ## Identity Porky's - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/porkys - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** porkys - **IMDb ID:** tt0084522 - **TMDB ID:** 10246 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1284961 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084522/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10246, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1284961 **Fi1m score: 58** · Critics 66 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Grown men playing schoolboys drill a hole in the girls’ shower wall and the film calls it growing up > Bob Clark’s high-school farce has two or three set pieces that are properly funny and a great deal around them that is not, and its idea of a good time has aged badly. Nancy Parsons is the reason to stay. ## Synopsis Angel Beach, Florida, 1954. The boys of Angel Beach High want one thing, and Pee Wee (Dan Monahan), the smallest and loudest of them, wants it most. Billy (Mark Herrier) and Tommy (Wyatt Knight) arrange an evening with a woman called Cherry Forever (Susan Clark) that does not go as advertised, so the gang drives across the county line to Porky’s, a roadhouse on stilts over the swamp, with the money for what they have been promised. The owner takes the money and sends them home wet. Back at school, the gym teacher Balbricker (Nancy Parsons) patrols the girls’ changing room, Wendy (Kaki Hunter) likes the boys rather more than they deserve, and Meat (Tony Ganios) is the one the others stand behind when things go wrong. ## Review Bob Clark made *Black Christmas* in 1974 and [*A Christmas Story*](https://film.one/film/a-christmas-story) in 1983, and in between he made this: 94 minutes of boys in Angel Beach, Florida, in 1954, trying to lose their virginity and being punished for it by every adult in the county. *Porky’s* is crude, it is sometimes funny, and it has dated in ways that are hard to laugh past. We can see why it was a phenomenon. We are less sure it deserves to still be one. The set pieces are the point and the best of them are built with real care. The Cherry Forever evening, in which the older boys set the younger ones up with a woman in a shack and then stage an interruption, is a proper farce, timed to the second and shot from the floor where the frightened are. Susan Clark plays Cherry with a bored professionalism that is funnier than anything the boys say. And then there is the principal’s office. Nancy Parsons’s Balbricker marches in, states what happened to her in the changing room, states what she grabbed and how she would know it again, and demands a line-up. We laughed out loud and were still laughing a minute later, which almost never happens to us. It is Parsons who does it, playing outrage as if it were grief, while Doug McGrath’s Coach Warren and most critics try to keep their faces straight and fail. Reginald H. Morris shoots the daytime in flat, bright Florida sun, so that the school and the beach look like a holiday brochure, and saves his shadows for Porky’s itself. Reuben Freed builds the roadhouse as a long wooden barn over black water, lit red inside, with a floor you learn not to trust. Mary E. McLeod and Larry S. Wells put the boys in letterman jackets and rolled jeans, which does most of the work of telling us the year. Stan Cole cuts the big sequences from the wrong side of the wall, so we watch the boys watching rather than what they are watching, and that is the only reason the shower scene is bearable at all. Carl Zittrer and Paul Zaza’s music stays out of the way and lets the jukebox songs carry the period. The trouble is everything between the set pieces. There are six boys and after an hour we could reliably tell apart three of them: Pee Wee because he is small and shouts, Meat because he is large, Tommy because he is the one who keeps going back to Porky’s. Mark Herrier’s Billy and Roger Wilson’s Micky are interchangeable, and the script gives them nothing to want except what everyone else wants. The girls are a wall with a hole in it. Kim Cattrall’s Honeywell has one scene in the gym and plays it with total commitment, and we admired her for it while noticing that the film had given her a nickname instead of a character. Kaki Hunter’s Wendy is the exception, dry and game and clearly brighter than any boy on screen, and the film keeps forgetting her. Then there is Tim. Cyril O’Reilly plays him as a boy with a bigot for a father, and the film decides, around the middle, that this is where its heart is. A Jewish boy transfers in, Tim says the ugly things, and the matter is resolved in about four minutes with a fight and a handshake. Clark means it kindly. Meaning to say something is not the same as saying it, and dropping a serious subject into a film about peepholes and then picking it up again with so little weight leaves a worse taste than any of the jokes. Against [*American Graffiti*](https://film.one/film/american-graffiti) (1973) this is a step down in every department except nerve, and against *Animal House* (1978) it is less witty and less sure of who its idiots are. Against Clark’s own work it is the odd one: he had already shown he could frighten an audience and would soon show he could make them tender about a boy and a BB gun. Here he settles for making them snigger. It carries an 18 and it is worth remembering that when the school holidays start. Watch it, if you watch it, for Clark, for Parsons, for the shack and the office, and skip forward through the rest. The gags that land are still landing; the film around them has not aged so much as gone off. *Fi1m score 58, published 4 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 4 reviews in so far, the picture is tentative, and two of those reviews cannot be fully read, so the lean rests on the pair that can. Those two agree the film is crude and agree it is funny: Empire finds it exuberantly so and credits Clark with a real understanding of adolescent boys and their friendships, while Radio Times calls it tasteless yet strangely charming, with slapstick on a grand scale. The reservations cluster where you would expect, on taste, with Radio Times also objecting to how the film handles its more serious material. Nobody so far dislikes it; nobody so far is more than warm. ## Straight answers **Is Porky's worth watching?** *Porky's* is worth watching only for its two or three properly funny set pieces, and we scored it 58. Nancy Parsons's furious march into the principal's office and the Cherry Forever shack farce still land; the hour of interchangeable boys and a peephole in the girls' shower wall around them has aged badly. **How long is Porky's, and what is it rated?** *Porky's* runs 1h 34m. It is a comedy film. **Where can I watch Porky's in Azerbaijan?** *Porky's* is not on any streaming or rental service in Azerbaijan at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Porky's, and is it suitable for children?** *Porky's* carries an 18 certificate in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not suitable for children. The violence is a schoolyard fight and a dunking in a swamp; the problem is the sex, with constant talk about losing virginity, a shower-wall peephole, nudity and a bigot's ugly language, played for laughs. Teenagers are the audience it imagines and the one it is certified against. **How does Porky's compare to American Graffiti?** *Porky's* is a step down from [*American Graffiti*](https://film.one/film/american-graffiti) in every department except nerve. Both spend one night in one small town with boys who want more than they can get, but Lucas has grace, affection and better songs, while Clark settles for making the audience snigger. Choose *American Graffiti* unless you want crude farce rather than feeling. **What should I watch after Porky's?** After *Porky's*, try [*American Graffiti*](https://film.one/film/american-graffiti) (1973, Fi1m 84): One night, one town, the same yearning, done with far more grace and better songs. Then [*Fast Times at Ridgemont High*](https://film.one/film/fast-times-at-ridgemont-high) (1982, Fi1m 70): A year later, a teen comedy that lets the girls be people too; and [*A Christmas Story*](https://film.one/film/a-christmas-story) (1983, Fi1m 79): Clark two years on, same decade, same boys’ world, and this time with a heart. ### Reviews we read (4) - **Empire**, Adam Smith (75/100, inferred): The critic calls the film crude but exuberantly funny, and sees it as a key influence on teen comedies. He praises Clark’s understanding of adolescent boys’ anxieties and the film’s focus on male friendship. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-porky-review/) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. No praise or complaint can be identified from the available text. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/porkys-1981) - **Time Out**, DP (64/100, inferred): The available text does not reveal the critic’s verdict. The description presents the film as a high-school farce, but offers no specific praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/porkys) - **Radio Times**, John Ferguson (3/5): Ferguson calls it a tasteless but strangely charming comedy that is often hugely entertaining. He praises its vulgar sexual gags and spectacular slapstick, while noting its misguided treatment of serious issues. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-i1oai7/porkys/) ## Details - **Director:** Bob Clark - **Director:** Bob Clark - **Writer:** Bob Clark - **Cinematography:** Reginald H. Morris - **Editor:** Stan Cole - **Music:** Carl Zittrer, Paul Zaza - **Production design:** Reuben Freed - **Costume design:** Mary E. McLeod, Larry S. Wells - **Producer:** Don Carmody, Bob Clark - **Cast:** Dan Monahan as Pee Wee; Mark Herrier as Billy; Wyatt Knight as Tommy; Roger Wilson as Micky; Cyril O'Reilly as Tim; Tony Ganios as Meat; Kaki Hunter as Wendy; Kim Cattrall as Honeywell - **Runtime:** 1h 34m - **First release (the US):** 13 November 1981 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Budget:** $4 million - **Box office:** $160 million ## Where to watch in Azerbaijan Not streaming, renting or buying in Azerbaijan at the last check. Also available in: CA, ES. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *American Graffiti* (1973), Fi1m 84: One night, one town, the same yearning, done with far more grace and better songs. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/american-graffiti.md) - *Gregory's Girl* (1981): Scottish schoolboys want the same thing and are gentle, hopeless and funny about it. - *Fast Times at Ridgemont High* (1982), Fi1m 70: A year later, a teen comedy that lets the girls be people too. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fast-times-at-ridgemont-high.md) - *A Christmas Story* (1983), Fi1m 79: Clark two years on, same decade, same boys’ world, and this time with a heart. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-christmas-story.md) - *Superbad* (2007), Fi1m 82: The same quest a generation later, with the friendship taken seriously and the sex not. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/superbad.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/porkys