Movies - Troop Beverly Hills

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Troop Beverly Hills

	Movies - Troop Beverly Hills

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 and Kellie Martin, and numerous celebrities in cameo appearances as themselves.

It was released on March 24, 1989, and grossed around US$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-cum-enterpreneur 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), which her daughter, Hannah (Jenny Lewis), is a member of. 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. Velda sends her assistant troop leader, Annie Herman (Gross), 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.

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!"

John Kricfalusi, still two years away from breaking out with the series The Ren and Stimpy Show, animated the opening credit sequence for the film. The title song, "Make It Big", is sung by the Beach Boys and appears on their album Still Cruisin'.

Jenny Lewis, who played Hannah in the film, went on to form the alt-country/indie band Rilo Kiley with fellow child actor Blake Sennett (not featured in film). She is also a member of the indietronic band The Postal Service.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Troop Beverly Hills ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Troop Beverly Hills; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay