Warner Bros, 1963
Starring Connie Stevens, Troy Donahue, Robert Conrad, and Stephanie Powers
Starring Connie Stevens, Troy Donahue, Robert Conrad, and Stephanie Powers
Directed by Norman Taurog
Music and Lyrics by various
Spring break is a rite of passage for many college students. It's often the first time they're able to go on a vacation with little or no adult supervision. It was especially important in the 60's and 70's, as Baby Boomers became teens and young adults and created a culture all their own.
This week, we're going to check out two more movies on the spring break experience in the sexually liberated 60's, starting with Warners' lone contribution to the teen beach genre. This was really more their response to the overwhelming success of Where the Boys Are in 1960. Beach Party debuted during production and at least somewhat altered this look at Easter weekend for a group of teens and college students in the title desert resort. Let's join a college football team, along with tourist Gail Lewis (Stevens), on a Greyhound bound for the title city and find out...
The Story: Gail takes a room at a local hotel with Amanda (Zeme North). Slightly plain Amanda is able to throw men over her shoulder, but would rather be making out with them. Gail is attracted to two handsome young men, stuntman Doug "Stretch" Fortune (Ty Hardin) and playboy Eric Dean (Robert Conrad). Amanda ends up with weird and equally desperate college student Biff Roberts (Jerry Van Dyke). Local teen Bunny Dixon (Stephanie Powers) falls for sweet football star Jim Munroe (Donahue). Football coach Fred Campbell (Jack Weston) tries to keep his boys on the straight and narrow, but that's hard when he's being pursued by the hotel's owner Naomi Yates (Carole Cook).
The weekend goes south almost the moment everyone arrives. Amanda spends most of the time dealing with Naomi's bratty son "Boom Boom" (Bill Mumy), who is determined to cause mischief. Drunks from the area stumble into a party and get into a fist fight with the football team that ends with all of the guests - including Bunny - in jail. Her father is furious and refuses to let her see Jim again. By the end of the weekend, Gail realizes that she's in over her head as well when Stretch and Eric's interest in her ends with a near-tragic car chase in the desert.
The Song and Dance: They were going for Where the Boys Are, and they mostly succeeded. This is a decent look at how an influx of hormonal older teens and college kids affects one desert town. Stevens and Conrad get top honors as the girl who looks - and is trying to act - older than her age, and the spoiled young man who learns a rough lesson about responsibility and not always getting what you want. The location shooting around Palm Springs is gorgeous, especially some long shots of desert vistas that amply shows off the glowing color and bright bathing suits.
Favorite Number: We open with Donahue performing "Live Young" over the credits as the college football guys plan their weekend and Conrad flirts with Stevens. Biff comes out to the pool with a guitar and insists that Stretch is playing the standard "Bye Bye Blackbird" too slow. They pick up the pace with a lively banjo-guitar duet. The Modern Folk Quartet performs two numbers, the second being "Song of the Ox-Drivers," at the Las Vegas nightclub before Connie's suitors fight over her.
Trivia: Stevens, Donahue, and Conrad were just ending their run on the action show Hawaiian Eye when this debuted.
That's Mike Henry, who later played Tarzan and Junior Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit films, as the doorman who watches a parked car fall apart.
Screenwriter Earl Hammer Jr. would later go on to create the TV shows The Waltons and Falcon Crest.
What I Don't Like: First of all, I'm disappointed this isn't more of a musical. Stevens is known as a singer, but doesn't get to sing, and Donahue is only heard over the credits. They couldn't have snuck a number in for one or the other somewhere? There's also the fact that, of the main cast, the only one who is even remotely the right age is Powers (who was 20 at the time). The others are all in their late 20's and 30's, way too old for teens and college students.
The change in direction during production shows all over the place. The first half wants to be Beach Party in the desert, with Amanda tossing guys all over the place and Boom Boom dumping suds in the pool. It abruptly changes gears to Where the Boys Are during and after the disastrous party that ends with everyone in jail. In fact, what kicked off the fracas was one of the gang members attempting to force a girl to drink liquor when she didn't want to. After they get out, the gang is never seen or mentioned again. That near-tragic car race in the end seems more than a little out-of-place too, and a bit dark for everything that came before it.
The Big Finale: Too unfocused to be my favorite vacation story, but not horrible if you love the cast or teen comedy-dramas from the 60's.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, the former from the Warner Archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment