Before Rocky was a knock-out, before the Fonz was TVs Leader of the Pack, two unknown actors named Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) and Henry Winkler (TVs Happy Days) starred in their first major screen roles. Soon theyd rule the box office and the airwaves, but before they were kings, they were THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH! Clad in blue jeans, black leather jackets and bad attitudes, Stanley (Stallone), Butchey (Winkler), Chico (Perry King, TVs Riptide) and Wimpy (Paul Mace, Paradise Alley) are a 1950s Brooklyn gang of four cool, sexy rebels. Despite their tough appearance, these boys just want to have fun, but reality - a.k.a. adulthood - rears its ugly head when Stanleys steady informs him they have to get married, and blue-collar Chico falls for a beautiful blonde (Susan Blakely, Over the Top) from the right side of the tracks. A high-octane cruise down memory lane, THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH is immensely appealing, often hilarious, surprisingly touching and superbly acted (The Hollyw

This low-budget independent film by novice directors Stephen F. Verona and Martin Davidson is a slice-of-life elegy from the leather-jacket, bobby-soxer era of 1957, set in a Brooklyn high school. The film stands out for the appearance of up-and-coming actors (circa 1974) Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler, and Perry King (even Armand Assante has a bit role). Stallone, Winkler, King, and Paul Mace are members of a local neighbor social club called "The Lords of Flatbush," and they spend their time exercising their hormones, hot-wiring a car, playing pool, and quaffing egg creams at the local candy store. The film finally focuses its interest on two of the "lords." Chico (Perry King), owns a motorcycle and wheels over to see Jane Bradshaw (Susan Blakely), the daughter of an army colonel who, despite Chico's motorcycle, gives him the brush-off. Then there is the muscle-headed Stanley Rosiello (Sylvester Stallone), who, like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, loves pigeons. He also loves Frannie (Maria Smith), with whom he has bedded down under the boardwalk one too many times, and now finds that she is pregnant and wants to get married. Skirting along the edges of the frame are Butchey Weinstein (Henry Winkler) and Wimpy Murgalo (Paul Mace), who, as second bananas, go along with Chico and Stanley as they adjust their testosterone to adult living. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi