Amanda Wyss in Deadly Innocents (1989)

All captures and comments by Whitecaps

Living in the past as I tend to do, I was looking over Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when I noticed that one significant actress did not have a nude scene in the film – Amanda Wyss. You may remember she played Brad’s (Judge Reinhold) girlfriend who broke up with him as he was thanking her for staying with him.

She did her only nude scene in 1989 in Deadly Innocents. It’s from a DVD release, but it’s certainly not great quality. I brightened some of the caps. It’s interesting how the quality of the video had gotten a lot better with the same basic technology.

For those interested or who want a reminder, this is Amanda Wyss in Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Also of interest …

When I had hair, I looked exactly like the guy on the left. However, of more interest is the actor on the right, Vincent Schiavelli. What likely got him the role in Fast Times is that about a decade earlier he had a role in Milos Forman’s first American film Taking Off (1971.) Forman is maybe most famous for directing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but Taking Off is largely forgotten.

However, it’s an interesting film with a sardonic take on what was either a serious issue or a moral panic of that time – runaway teens. (It seems many of the teens were at least 18, so they couldn’t actually be classified as runaways.) In this film Buck Henry plays a father who had previously tried to help another woman when her daughter ran away. In the process he discovers an underground social safety net for the runaways. In sympathy of this mother, he also joins a support group for parents of run away children she is also a member of.

So, when his own daughter runs away, at first his wife insists they go drive around looking for her. However, he literally turns around saying “I’m sure our daughter is safe and having fun and that’s what we should be doing to.”

So, they attend one of these support group meetings where they are educated on why their children might run away. In the process, a convicted drug delinquent doing community service played by Schiavelli gets to teach these parents on the proper use and etiquette of marijuana (a roach.) This scene probably goes on too long, it’s a full 10 minutes, but it’s often hilarious and you can see Schiavelli is having a genuinely good time. “You do not take a second puff of the roach, you must immediately pass it to the next person in the circle. Taking a second puff a serious breach of etiquette.’

One reviewer called Taking Off ‘anti human.’