‘PORKY’S REVENGE’: BACK TO THE LOWBROW BASICS OF RAUNCHY SEX

Porky has become a gentleman. Gone are his greasy overalls, four-day stubble and his tin outhouse that for so long housed purveyors of the world’s oldest profession.

He did himself up in polyester and a tidal wave of Brut cologne. Then he strutted out and took possession of the world’s largest seagoing paddle wheeler.

The sputtering pig sign was transformed into a wonder of neon. From just the right angle, cameramen compared him to Telly Savalas trying to be Rhett Butler.

The unique creation of character actor Chuck Mitchell, Porky submitted meekly to these sissy trappings for a formidable reason--millions of dollars are riding on his ability to put more bang into the latest entry in the leering “Porky’s” trilogy that began in 1981. Twentieth Century Fox has dubbed it “Porky’s Revenge” and it’s set for a national release in 1,000 theaters in March.

And Mitchell, whose characteristic villainy was missed mightily from “Porky’s II--The Next Day,” isn’t all that’s being put back. The producers are putting back the sex--great, gulping doses of it.

The question is: Can Fox and co-producers Mel Simon/Astral Bellevue Inc. make a slightly genteel film out of “Porky’s Revenge” and thereby make monetary lightning strike again? If not, the effort won’t be for lack of trying. In an intricate battle plan to repeat the $160-million worldwide gross receipts of “Porky’s,” the producers decided to also gild the raunchy lily.

For starters, the studio spent almost eight months developing a bankable script and a like amount of time trying to fathom the lukewarm reception given “Porky’s II” (which grossed about $55 million).

Their conclusions? The sequel, which introduced elements of bigotry at Angel Beach High School--the setting for all three films, was not raunchy enough to attract the key audience of teen-agers who saw the original over and over.

“The original was perceived to be--and was--thoroughly raunchy and prurient,” said James Komack, the veteran TV director (“Chico and the Man,” “Welcome Back, Kotter”) who makes his film directorial debut on “Porky’s Revenge.”

Director/screenwriter Bob Clark, who achieved international fame with “Porky’s,” a semi-autobiographical work, declined to direct the latest venture and moved on to direct MGM’s sleeper hit “Christmas Story” in 1983 and “Turk 182,” starring Tim Hutton, coming out shortly from Fox.

In addition to hiring Komack, the studio dressed up the film with a $7.8-million budget--almost a quarter of a million of that paying for the most elaborate set ever built for a teen-age gang comedy. On an ocean lagoon near Miami, studio artisans built a massive, two-story gambling boat atop a canal barge--including a water churner almost twice as large as the one built for the 1950 MGM film, “Showboat.”

Then the producers arranged to use the $20-million Miami island mansion, Vizcaya, as a key setting for the antics of the “dirty half dozen.”

Those who have reviewed the daily footage compare the film’s look to that of European films. “From the first day, the dailies were terrific,” said Mark Herrier, who returned for the third time to play the prankster Billy. Nancy Parsons, the inimitable villainess Beulah Balbricker, agreed: “You can feel the excitement building.”

The plot is as simple and innocent as the original. The Angel Beach gang, in its last year of high school, is up for the Florida basketball championship. But the coach ends up in debt to Porky and his River Queen gambling casino--and owing him heavily. To protect him, Pee Wee and the gang set out once again to destroy Porky’s. This revenge involved a special-effects extravaganza that included cutting the multi-level casino in half. The studio staged, it promised, an explosion that made the “Animal House” carnage look like a slumber party.

For a while there was a rumor that “Porky’s Revenge” was written to be palatable for network TV. Nonsense, said Komack. “I wouldn’t have been truthful to the material if it were sanitized for TV.”

In addition to Parsons and Mitchell, these members of the Dirty Half Dozen are coming back: Dan Monahan as Pee Wee, Herrier as Billy, Wyatt Knighty as Tommy, Tony Ganios as Meat, Scott Colomby as Brian and Kaki Hunter as Wendy Williams.

After seeing a preview of “Porky’s II,” Komack believed that director Clark and screenwriters Roger E. Swaybill and Alan Ormsby “failed to understand their own formula. ‘Porky’s’ touched on reality,” Komack said, “It presented a cross-section of adolescent sex life during a certain time frame. Bob apparently tried to elevate his big success and use it to portray a message. But the original was not a film about humanity; it was a film, pure and simple, about teen-age sex. The sequel, a whitewash of the original, didn’t play.”

Co-author Swaybill believed that “Porky’s II” fell flat partly because the deadline pressure to grind out a successor was too great. “It took us about six weeks to write the sequel,” said Swaybill. “And it was before the cameras by June (while the “Porky’s” rage was still sweeping the world). The result was far less spontaneous. The kids just wanted us to be down and dirty.”

For “Porky’s Revenge” (scripted by TV comedy writer Ziggy Steinberg), the action will pick up where “Porky’s left off,” Komack said. “I’m not going to whitewash the bawdiness or clean up the tone of their antics.” (The original was budgeted at $4.8 million, the second at about $7 million and the third at $7.8 million.)

“Porky’s” fans will undoubtedly be the most shocked by the transformation in arch-villainess Beulah Balbricker--the strident, sexually repressed gym teacher who made cinema history with the locker room scene. In her gut-popping shorts and sausage-curled hair, Balbricker provided the sexual and dramatic conflict in the first two films. When actress Nancy Parsons reported to the set this time, the film-makers were shocked. Parsons had lost 30 pounds, had seen her career blossom and her income multiply. (She also has an undisclosed percentage of “Porky’s Revenge.”)

When she underwent costume tests, consternation erupted among the costumers and makeup artists. “A makeup man took one look at me and yelled, ‘No, no, she looks way too attractive. Take some of that makeup off!,’ ” Parsons said. “Then they found out that I was wearing barely any makeup.”

“As a funny twist they decided to make me a chic, reverse sex symbol. In this script, I get my man by reuniting with an old high school sweetheart--now a millionaire and living in the Vizcaya mansion. It’s there that the camera caught me in a lovely costume and sporting an engagement ring. It was a very nostalgic, romantic scene, and I was told I looked quite pretty.”

The same could never have been said about the old Beulah Balbricker.

Next: The writer behind “Ghostbusters.”