Troop Beverly Hills

Infobox Film
name = Troop Beverly Hills


image_size =
caption = The DVD cover
director = Jeff Kanew
producer = Ava Ostern Fries
writer = Ava Ostern Fries (story)
Pamela Norris
Margaret Oberman
narrator =
starring = Shelley Long
Craig T. Nelson
Betty Thomas
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = March 24, 1989
runtime = 100 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0098519

Troop Beverly Hills is a 1989 motion picture filmed in the United States by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Jeff Kanew and starred Shelley Long, Craig T. Nelson, Betty Thomas, Mary Gross, Shelley Morrison, a host of young stars including Tori Spelling, Carla Gugino, Jenny Lewis, Ami Foster, and Kellie Martin, and numerous celebrities in cameo appearances as themselves.

It was released on March 24 1989, and grossed around USD $8.5 million over a six-week release. It received poor reviews, and was a financial disappointment. Nevertheless, the movie has gained a cult following through occasional airings on cable television.

Synopsis

Phyllis Nefler (Long), a Beverly Hills wife going through a divorce with her lawyer-entrepreneur husband Fred (Nelson), decides to deal with it by becoming the leader of the unruly local troop of the Wilderness Girls (an allusion to the real Girl Scouts of the USA), of which her daughter, Hannah (Jenny Lewis), is a member. Her Beverly Hills sensibilities result in a change in the program for the girls in her troop, who are all the children of socialites, to get them more interested in the program.

This runs afoul of another leader, Velda Plendor (Thomas), a traditionalist who runs her troop, the "Red Feathers", like a military unit, and has considerable pull at the regional council level. Velda sends her assistant troop leader, Annie Herman, to Troop Beverly Hills to infiltrate it and try to get them disbanded, but she eventually defects when she realizes that despite the fact that the "Red Feathers" are traditional "Wilderness Girls," they are also mean-spirited cheaters who will do whatever it takes to get an edge on their competition. From customized achievement patch classes, to a star-studded cookie sales drive, to dealing with the turmoil of the rich life and trying to maintain it, it all leads to a campout-competition where the girls and their leader have to prove themselves as Wilderness Girls in order to survive as a troop.

Characters

* Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) - Beverly Hills socialite and new leader of Wilderness Girls Troop Beverly Hills
* Freddy Nefler (Craig T. Nelson) - Husband of Phyllis, Hannah's father, and entrepreneur
* Hannah Nefler (Jenny Lewis) - Phyllis and Freddy's daughter who just wants her mother to lead like a normal troop leader
* Tiffany Honigman (Emily Schulman) - Daughter of a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon
* Chica Barnfell (Carla Gugino)- Stern girl who is generally left alone by her jet-setting parents
* Lily Marcigan (Aquilina Soriano) - Daughter of Dictator Bong Bong and Karina who rule an unspecified Southeast Asian country
* Emily Coleman (Kellie Martin) - Daughter of an unemployed actor
* Jasmine Shakar (Tasha Scott) - Outspoken daughter of a well-known boxer
* Tessa DiBlasio (Heather Hopper) - Daughter of two well-known movie directors
* Claire Sprantz (Ami Foster) - Child actress/daughter of a romance novelist and a successful lawyer
* Annie Herman (Mary Gross) - Velda's assistant and spy
* Velda Plendor (Betty Thomas) - Ruthless leader who despises Phyllis and her troop's Beverly Hills attitude
* Cleo Plendor (Dinah Lacey) - Daughter of Velda, who does not have a mother/daughter relationship but only a troop relationship
* Jamie (Tori Spelling) - Cleo's friend who is often helping sabotage Troop Beverly Hills
* Frances Temple (Audra Lindley) - Head leader of Los Angeles County Wilderness Girls who is often undermined by Velda
* Rosa (Shelley Morrison) - Phyllis' maid who helps out with the troop

Cameos

Several prominent people make cameos in the films including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pia Zadora, Robin Leach, Cheech Marin, salonist Christophe Schatteman, reporter George Christy, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Locations

Many of the most famous places of Beverly Hills are seen throughout the film, including: Beverly Hills Hotel, Cristophe Salon, Wolfgang Puck's Spago, and Rodeo Drive.

Trivia

* Rosa (Morrison), Phyllis Nefler's maid, makes a play on the Stinking badges pop-culture reference when the troop is stripped of their achievement patches before the cookie sales drive begins. She says, "Patches? We don't need no stinkin' patches!"
* Rosa the maid, played by Shelley Morrison, played a similar character a decade later in the television sitcom "Will & Grace", on which she plays Rosario Salazar, the maid for yet another wealthy socialite, Karen Walker (Megan Mullally).
* John Kricfalusi, still two years away from breaking out with the series "The Ren and Stimpy Show", helped create the animated opening credit sequence for the film. [http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/06/troop-beverly-hills-from-precambrium.html] The title song, "Make It Big", is sung by the Beach Boys and appears on their album "Still Cruisin'".

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098519/ Troop Beverly Hills] on the Internet Movie Database.