| Eskimo Limon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Boaz Davidson |
| Produced by | Yoram Globus Menahem Golan |
| Written by | Boaz Davidson Eli Tavor |
| Starring | Yftach Katzur Zachi Noy Jonathan Sagall |
| Cinematography | Adam Greenberg |
| Editing by | Alain Jakubowicz |
| Release date(s) | 21 April 1978 |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
Eskimo Limon (Hebrew: אסקימו לימון) is a 1978 Israeli cult film directed by Boaz Davidson which led to a series of sequels.[1]
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Eskimo Limon (English: Going All the Way, aka Lemon Popsicle) was first released on February 11, 1978, starring Yftach Katzur (Benji), Jonathan Sagall (Bobby), Zachi Noy (Hughie) and Anat Atzmon (Niki). The movie focuses on three high school kids growing up in Tel Aviv and deals with their relationships with each other and of course girls. The film, although a typical adolescence story, tackles subjects such as abortion and unrequited love, not happily resolved by a neat ending. It contains the memorable scene of an older woman (played by Ophelia Shtruhl) enticing the three kids into having sex with her in sequence, and then earning the nickname "Stella HaMegameret" ("A-cumming Stella"). Anat Atzmon makes an appearance in this movie as Niki - an adolescent girl who gets pregnant. Eskimo Limon recreates the life of a sixties teenager - including the clothes, music, behaviour, scenery and cars. The film was a great success all over the world and represented Israel at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival in 1978.[2] When the main actors toured Japan, they were mobbed by fans. The main characters had name changes in most international versions, known as Benji, Bobby and Hughie respectively to English audiences.
Stella, a lonely older woman whose sailor boyfriend is never home, manages to have the street's fresh ice delivery guy (a common practice in the 1950s) send over his helper Benji to her place with the ice instead of her coming down to the street to take it. When Benji puts the ice in its place, he breaks a jar of jelly and as they kneel over to pick it up, she picks up some of the leftovers, feeds his mouth and then hers. She then asks a bewildered Benji to stay over, but he uses the fact his boss calls out to him from the outside to apologize and leave in a hurry. He does so only to ditch work and get his two friends to come along with him to her place.
Stella lets them in, serves them some wine, puts on some music and starts dancing. Afterwards, she takes them in sequence - each in his turn - to have sex with her in her bedroom. Stella's characteristic is that she moans loudly during the intercourse, but as a stereotypical immigrant she mispronounces the language and continuously calls out "I'm a-cumming! I'm a-cumming!" (instead of "cumming"). Momo is the first to take initiative, and once he's done, he leaves her bedroom and sends in Yudale, who hesitates at first but Stella tells him not to be afraid of her. Yudale's scene is the most detailed. After they're done, she gives a suggestive look to Benji but her boyfriend then returns home. Momo and Benji manage to quickly dress before he sees them. Stella pretends she was helping her "neighbor boys from upstairs" with their algebra, but then Yudale walks out of her bedroom still in his underwear and says "She's a nymphomaniac all right." Stella's boyfriend gets furious and the protagonists (with Yudale just half dressed) have to run away.
In the beginning of the movie, Benji is in love with Anat Atzmon's character (Nini), but she prefers Momo, who uses her and even dumps her when she becomes pregnant by him. At this point Benji decides to give her the needed emotional and economical help she needs in order to have an abortion. Then, they have sex, but she does not desire to remain with him. During the rest of the movie Benji tries to make her want to have a relationship with him.
In 1982, Davidson wrote and directed an American remake, The Last American Virgin, which was not met with the same success as the original.[3]
The series became a success in Germany under the name Eis am Stiel. Most of the films were also dubbed into English enjoying theatrical releases in both the United States and United Kingdom.
In 1979 the first sequel Yotzim Kavua (Going Steady) was released. Anat Atzmon did not take a part in this movie, and there was an effort to find a new "Eskimo Limon girl". Like the original film, this film was about the same characters and included soft sex scenes and was similar in tone to Eskimo Limon. This time Benji tried dating a sensitive girl while Momo cheated on his girlfriend in favor of a large breasted girl.
Additional films in the series were produced, based on the three male actors. The second sequel, Shifshuf Naim (Hot Bubblegum) was significantly lighter and breezier, stepping away from some of the heavier conflicts portrayed in the first two films. Most likely influenced by the teen American sex comedies released around that time. Main segments included Momo having sex with Benji's visiting older blond German cousin (Sibylle Rauch), with Yudale replacing him and eventually getting stuck in her resembling a bulbus glandis. Another segment had the trio hearing about a local piano tutor who likes receiving handjobs from her students during her lessons. They immediately go waiting outside her place while Momo takes a lesson. During the lesson, Momo casually performs a handjob on the older large breasted blond tutor (Christiane Schmidtmer in her last acting role). She then gives him an off-screen fellatio in return. But when Yudale is next, he is paired with her uptight large and unattractive sister, who is furious when he attempts the same thing.
This lighter trend continued with Sapiches (Private Popsicle), which started with the trio convincing a married woman (Bea Fiedler) to have sex with them one night before they enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. As usual, Momo is successful, but Yudale is soon chased out by her husband. The rest of the movie involves their boot camp experiences with new cast member Joseph Shiloach as their Sergeant Shemesh—a stereotypical Persian Jew.
Sapiches had its own spin-off film, Sababa (Private Manouvers) centering around the characters of Yudale with Shemesh, still in the army. This movie lacked the characters of Benji and Momo, but had Yudale beating a frustrated Shemesh in getting in bed with The Swiss Ambassador's wife (the series' now regular Sibylle Rauch). This movie is not counted as part of the series.
Reuniting all the characters, the fourth sequel was directed by Dan Wolman, Roman Za'ir (Baby Love), which seemingly married the earlier style of the first movie with the later 'sex-comedy' approach. Dolly Dollar plays another of Benji's large breasted blond German cousins, only the glass wearing dozy cousin is after Benji. After Yudale loosenes her up by getting her drunk, she spots Benji's father sleeping. Mistaking him for his son Benji, she enters his bed and makes up with him before getting caught by his wife. Bea Fiedler also returns as a nerdy looking dental assistant who, when the dentist is not present, is rumored to mount on the dental chair any client who winks at her. As usual, Momo proves the rumors right, but Yudale gets caught in the act by the dentist, who punishes him by a rushed dental treatment.
Conflict plagued the fifth sequel Harimu Ogen (Up Your Anchor) resulting in lead actor Jonathan Sagall not participating in the project and later attempting to sue for the unauthorised use of earlier footage of him within the film. After Yudale is caught trying to have sex by his date's father (a returning Joseph Shiloach), he tries to get away by getting a work on a cruise ship. Benji joins him in order to get close to one of the female passengers he met on shore. Alas, Shiloach's character happens to be the worker in charge of both of them. Main segments included a Countess passenger (Bea Fiedler) having sex with the comically grateful character of Shiloach. She does so in order to allow her Count husband to plant stolen jewels in his shoes (and thus smuggle them without risking the couple themselves). Later on in a shore leave in Venice, Yudale learns some local fortune tellers are also hookers if being told the right secret phrase. His own fortune teller ignores his phrase though. But after he reaches under her cloak for her large breasts, she suddenly gives him a handjob, then lies down topless and signals for him. When he approaches her, she gives him another handjob but this time taking off her hood to reveal a disfigured face. Before he reacts, she already pulls him down and climbs on top of him. However, her fire breathing husband then comes in and chases Yudale out with fire breaths. The movie ends in a clash between the Count, Shiloach's character and Venice's police, followed up with Benji finally catching up with his love interest and sharing a romantic moment.
The sixth sequel, Ahava Tzeira (Young Love), was produced by Germany and seemed a rather effortless affair to cash in on the three character's likeability. The plot reunited the original cast. When they need money to pay for a car they crashed in a tree, they take up jobs in a beach hotel. Sibylle Rauch made her comeback to the series as a hotel guest who invited the hotel worker Yudale to her room to have sex. Alas, her husband soon enters the room to have sex with her himself, forcing Yudale to hide under their bed and pretend to be their dog. Eventually the husband catches him and chases him out.
The seventh sequel and final part featuring the original trio was Summertime Blues, largely unseen outside of Germany. In keeping in line with the popular TV edited versions of the earlier films, this had hardly any raunchy content at all but returned the well known versions of songs from the sixties, woefully lacking since the fifth movie, most likely due to budget. The trio open up a club. Sibylle Rauch returns as their worker (she gets the job after deciding to be interviewed in the nude), who also later dates Benji (which signals the only time in the series they paired up).
In 2001, a new sequel was made which was called Eskimo Limon - The Party Goes on and was done in an attempt to update the series by using young actors. The movie, directed by Tzvi Shissel, was a commercial success, but not in the magnitude of the first movie in the series. This movie introduced the first topless performances by actresses Miri Bohadana (as a girl who is tempted by Momo to cheat on her boyfriend with him) and Orit Fux (in the character of the large breasted singing teacher in the protagonists' school - in a somewhat new version of the piano tutor in the third movie in the series, Shifshuf Naim - to whom Momo reaches in the pretext of a personal examination for the school's band, and manages to make her ignore his age and sleep with him on the piano's keys, for the amazement of the other examinees in the hall, who hear her moans from beyond the door).
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