The Girls on the Beach

American International Pictures wasn't the only studio that tried to cash in on the short-lived "beach movie" semi-craze. To this film's credit it does not exactly follow the formula of AIP's pictures. But the result isn't much different--or much better.

It's ironic that the plot revolves around the (completely absent) Beatles, since that group and the others in the "British invasion" of 1964 pretty much killed off the scene depicted in this movie. Practically before it got rolling the beach movie was old hat and dead as a genre.

This may be the only beach movie to actually feature the Beach Boys, whose musical influence permeates all of the films of this type. The title song is not one of their better numbers but it does reflect their sound at a time when Brian Wilson was in complete creative control. More effective are Wilson's ballad "The Lonely Sea" and "Little Honda." During the latter song's performance it's amusing to watch Dennis Wilson, the noted hedonist, who is mightily distracted by the nearby dancing girls. As far as the other musical names in the film go, I never much cared for Lesley Gore and the Crickets without Buddy Holly are just...the Crickets.

I saw this one recently on AMC and all I can say is this: If you can wade through the insipid plot, even by Beach Movie standards, and worse acting, you'll actually get some pretty good performances by the Beach Boys, Leslie Gore, and the original Crickets, Buddy Holly's backup group. Alas, you have to put up with the one to get at the other. Musically, I give "Girls on the Beach" a 10, otherwise one half of one! It's hard to believe a major studio like Paramount could have gone the AIP route with this one.

Girls on the Beach is one of the most satisfying films of its genre. A beautifully realized screenplay of straight-to-the-point dialogue and acting that borders on Kabuki theatre. And of course there's the great songs of Leslie Gore and The Beach Boys. The ending is pure magic realism.

Faced with a deadline of one week to come up $10,000 to save their sorority, the president of "Alpha-Beta" named "Selma" (Noreen Corcoran) and her companions come up with several different plans to raise the funds. Unfortunately, not all of their plans come to fruition so as a last resort they plead with some local boys to petition the English group known as the Beatles to come and put on a small concert. What they don't know is that these guys have fabricated their connection to the singing group in order to date these girls and with time running short the chances of keeping their house becomes even more seriously jeopardized. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a solid "beach movie" produced by Paramount which compared favorably (more or less) with the American International films at the time. Of particular note was the presence of the Beach Boys and Leslie Gore who lip-synced a number of songs. Likewise, having several attractive actresses like Ahna Capri (as "Arlene"), Gail Gilmore ("Georgia") and the aformentioned Noreen Corcoran certainly didn't hurt the film in any way either. That being said, while this was not a great film by any means, I still found it to be entertaining to a certain degree and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Sorority beach babes in Balboa, CA have to raise $10,000 to save their order, eventually resorting to desperate measures such as entering a cooking contest, a beauty contest and trying to get The Beatles to perform at the local hot spot. Charmingly dim-witted surf-sand-&-sexy girls opus, obviously a knock-off of the "Beach Party" cycle--and better produced--but not as charismatic. The flick spotlights a bevy of energetic ladies, guest stars The Beach Boys and also Lesley Gore (it's unclear if Gore is visiting royalty or if she's just one of the gals). Though it isn't fresh, it is noodle-headed fun given a fast pace and a good soundtrack. ** from ****