First Love: The Case of the Disappearing Derriere

I have a clear memory of the first time that I saw 1977's First Love.  The recollection is so clear as it was during the very brief period of time that I was with my very first real girlfriend.  It was 1988, and I was 13.  My girlfriend Valerie was babysitting, and I snuck in to visit her after the parents had left and the baby was asleep.  We ordered a small pizza, drank Pepsi, and watched television.  Except for a kiss good night, that was as  physical as we both got.

The parents were not due back until after midnight, so it was safe to watch a bit of the movie that started at 10pm, it of course, was First Love.  I recognized Katt from The Greatest American Hero, and I knew Susan Dey from repeats of The Partridge Family.  Now this is where is my memory played a few tricks on me.  Maybe it was due to the sexual tension, or lack of sexual tension, between Valerie and I, but I remember the movie being incredibly sexual with a lot of nudity.

Years later, I watched the film again on-line, and this time saw next to nothing of Katt's beautiful body.  Lots of shirtless and sexy scenes, but the only nudity was from Susan Dey.  I'm guessing, given her turn as a sweet sit-com start, seeing Laurie Partridge's breasts, must have caused quite a stir at the time.   

Recently, thanks to a poster on DreamCaps, I saw some promotional images of Katt, showing more skin than he actually showed in the film. That had me going back to check out the movie again, mostly for the sex scenes, to see if there was something I missed.  Again, no nudity from Katt, just Dey's boobs.  I could sense though, there was some creative editing, possibly to remove Katt's nude scenes.

That had me wondering why.....  Katt was a pretty big name at the time, First Love, being his follow-up from his role in Carrie.   Around this time, Katt also came close to winning the role of Luke in Star Wars, and according to some sources, it came down to him and Mark Hamill.  If your interested, there's a long audition scene on Youtube with Katt playing Luke and Kurt Russell playing Han Solo.

I attempted to research the nude scene to get some answer, but kept hitting brick walls.  I wondered if Katt's rising star had someone request his nude scenes be edited out.  Although the actor had done a couple of nude scenes in couple of softcore movies, they were both in the 90's, after his movie career was on the decline.  I featured Katt's nude scenes in Last Call in a post back in 2015. (HERE:)

I reached out to a few people a few months ago, who were connected to the film, including director Joan Darling, but to date, I didn't receive any replies.  My gut tells me their were nude scenes filmed that were later removed before the films release.  It's possible, Katt's hint of rear nudity was just for promotional purposes, or possibly for a European release.  

I remember seeing promotional shots of Martin Hewitt (HERE:) that showed a bit more of his butt, than he showed during that scene in the movie. At least the version that I saw.  The promotional material was for the film's release in France, and it's possible they were used only for promotion, and never meant to be in the film.  Seems strange though.  I'll keep on the trail though, and let you know if I hear back from anyone and learn anything new.  I do love a mystery, especially when it involves a hot actors ass....

Promotional Tease images