I must admit that the subject matter more than left me a little uneasy, two teenage girls in a bet to determine who would be "deflowered" first while attending summer camp, but Kristy McNichol is so damn good in her role as Angel that the movie, LITTLE DARLINGS earned brownie points with me for just that. Tatum O'Neal has the flashy name on the poster, and seems to be the ideal person to take a crap on, but I think she fulfilled the requirements of the role of pampered princess, with eyes for handsome Armande Asante, one the camp counselors. Matt Dillon is a prick as always, annoyed at Angel's reservations towards putting out, considering himself quite the lothario. I think the intention with him was to show that it's all external toughness, for show, while he's actually a vulnerable kid on the inside. Whatever your sentiments, I found him to be a rude jerk, with a rather crude personality. Anyway, McNichol has these two excellent scenes, so authentic and real, her feelings after having sex, losing her virginity, and finding that this supposedly grand event wasn't so precious or special, and the superb "admission" where she informs Ferris(O'Neal)that she actually did "forfeit her innocence" to Randy(Dillon). There's so much presented to us, the conflicts and inner turmoil, in how McNichol handles Randy's frustrations in her "teasing him" before eventually succumbing to the pressure, that I had to applaud such work from a young actress who seemed to channel the exact feelings many teenage girls face when going through the hormonal stage of adolescence into adulthood. There are summer camp clichés apparent, such as a food fight, infighting between girls, and sex talk. If it's true that O'Neal had her pick of role to play, I'm tickled pink she chose Ferris and McNichol got the part of Angel..Ferris is more surface stereotype while Angel has various levels to her that evolve over course of the film.

Rich girl Ferris Whitney (Tatum O'Neal) and poor tough girl Angel Bright (Kristy McNichol) are 15 year olds going to summer camp. They get into a fight right away. They don't get along but they are both teased as being virgins by mean girl Cinder Carlson. Cinder sets up bets to see whether Ferris or Angel loses her virginity first. Ferris falls for coach Gary Callahan (Armand Assante) and Angel takes hunky streetwise Randy (Matt Dillon) from the boys' camp.

It starts out with a good mean girl and two great child actors of their era. I like what it's setting up to do. The problem starts with the males. Assante is way too old and a bit awkward. Dillon is hunky hot with super fine hair. However he's a bit too empty. I like the girls' drama together but their time with the guys aren't that compelling. McNichol acts her little heart out bringing on the waterworks. It's not a broad teen comedy but it doesn't rise to be an intense coming-of-age story either. The girls are good but this could be better.

Odd mixture of elements in a coming-of-age flick made for teenagers but rated R in 1980. It's a sensitive 'first time' story for two 15-year-old girls at summer camp (naturally, one girl is poor and street-smart--and smokes--and the other is rich and sheltered). The writers want laughs so bad, they're shameless enough to throw in a food fight, stealing a bus, and an unlikely condom-machine hijack. There are continuity errors all through the film--not to mention bad blunders by the editor (Tatum O'Neal gets crush Armand Assante in trouble, but there are no scenes confirming this, and no scenes confirming his acquittal). One of the TV-versions (still shown today) features cut-footage to replace the risqué stuff (the scenes with Assante were filmed but got dropped). Kristy McNichol is wonderful trying to talk her way through a lovers' night with Matt Dillon, or when they finally warm to each other and she says, "Don't laugh...but do you care about me a little?" Those moments are much preferable to the slapstick interludes, and indeed Kristy looks more comfortable with her role than Tatum does as Ferris (whom we never get to know). Still, it's an enjoyable piece of fluff, better in its time I think than today. **1/2 from ****