Possessed, quite possibly, of the most underappreciated score of the 1980s, Secret Admirer arrives on DVD this month to remind such pictures as Just Married and Kangaroo Jack just how a formulaic laff riot with a risqué slant is done. I confess I still adore this seminal film of my youth while conceding that its machinations seemed far more clever at the age of ten; on the other hand, when was the last time you saw a teen-targeted comedy that aspired to cleverness? Or opened with music as alternately mysterious and wistful as Jan Hammer's poetic main theme?

Said composition sets a tone that Secret Admirer rarely sticks to, and yet because of it, we remember the picture as having sophistication. Which is not to say it has none--dark-eyed beauty Lori Loughlin, before "Full House" ironed out the wrinkles in her wholesomeness, brought a touch of smouldering class to this tale of a high-school student named Michael (C. Thomas Howell, a likable hybrid of Michael Schoeffling and Jim Carrey), who, on the day before the start of summer vacation, receives an unsigned love letter in his locker. Unsure of the source, he hopes it was written by prom queen Deborah (Kelly Preston, presaging her Jerry Maguire turn) and enlists his gal pal Toni (Loughlin) to deliver secret-admirer notes back to Deborah.

The letter of origin, in the meantime, gets misplaced, causing a chain reaction of infidelity among the parents of Michael (Cliff DeYoung and Dee Wallace Stone) and Deborah (Fred Ward and Leigh Taylor-Young). Of course, it's one thing to leave a sweetheart's missive unsigned, but to forgo the salutation line? That's the "Three's Company"-style ode to coincidence that keeps Secret Admirer south of genius, and the film begs not the question of the secret admirer's identity, but rather if the obvious identity of the disembodied votary was intended to be more difficult to deduce than it is, given that there are only two possibilities (barring a deus ex machina). Co-writers Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, for starters, make the mistake of top loading the picture with male characters (two of whom are played by Back to the Future veterans (Casey Siemaszko and Jeffrey Jay Cohen) in strikingly similar roles). Perhaps I'm underestimating the self-awareness of the filmmakers, though: Secret Admirer's one-sheet from 1985 shows a brick about to fall on Michael's head.

Greenwalt--one of the major forces behind the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"--also directed Secret Admirer, and it will come as little surprise to "Buffy" fans that, in addition to being keenly shot and edited (a homage to The Graduate is paid with genuine slyness), the film betrays a modicum of emotional intelligence within a far-fetched framework. Secret Admirer breaks no Reagan-era molds (the libido is used as a narrative shortcut--in fact the picture's sole nod to originality might be that it avoids racist stereotypes entirely), but Michael's dimming affection for the materialistic Deborah, Deborah's trophy relationship with a college student, and the intimation that Deborah's materialism masks deeper insecurities have a truth to them that could have been approached in a cheaper, crasser fashion, all. I guarantee you that Secret Admirer is better than whatever ten-year-olds are watching these days.

MGM releases the Orion production on a flipper DVD featuring 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and unmatted fullscreen transfers. This is a clean, bright presentation given over to the brown look of '80s cinema but unspoiled by print aberrations, except during the opening titles, which display a fair amount of dirt as a result of optical inserts. Grain is apparent though never abundant. Hammer's pretty music sounds nice in the included Dolby Surround track--fidelity could be stronger, bass tighter. The mix is fairly quiet throughout, necessitating a raise in volume above reference-level. Trailers for MGM's Special Edition DVDs of When Harry Met Sally... and The Princess Bride round out the disc.-Bill Chambers

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DVD VITALS:
Running Time
98 minutes
MPAA
R
Aspect Ratio(s)
1.85:1, 16x9-enhanced/
Standard 1.33:1
Languages
English Dolby Surround,
Spanish Mono
CC
Yes
Subtitles
French, Spanish
DVD-10
Region One
MGM

the critic

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Published: January 15, 2003