Heißer Strand Acapulco

Released the same year as "The Sound of Music", you won't see any nuns or singing children trotting through this film! The action is on a far seedier level. Ms. Turner (enjoying a career renaissance after the stabbing death of her gangster lover and the wild success of "Imitation of Life") plays a bored, despondent socialite who passes her long afternoons in the Acapulco sun with local gigilos while her husband (a former gigilo) turns the other cheek. Things get ugly when one of Turner's playthings washes up onshore---dead. His former girlfriend (Powers) comes to claim his body and attracts the attention of Turner's husband. Meanwhile, O'Brian (yet another aging gigilo!) is bedding rich vacationer Roman and trying to get Turner's attention as well. It all culminates in an overheated, eventually hilarious climax involving a bull! The chief assets of the film are Lana's clothes (the Edith Head concoctions cost a then-staggering---even now-staggering $1,000,000!) and the ultra-macho, hairy-chested, leathery-tanned, sexually insatiable, skimpy swimsuit-wearing O'Brian! Lana's outfits will please any fan of glitzy, over-the-top, drag-queeny get-ups (The swimsuits with matching cover ups alone could make Ru-Paul drool). Hugh is a revelation. He trots around in teensy, clingy trunks, sporting a lean, hirsute figure and displays virility in the form of surfing and beach fitness. Once seen, ol' Wyatt Earp can never be thought of the same way again. HOT!

My favorite quote: Hugh O'Brian, who plays an aging beach-boy gigolo, stands in front of a mirror in shorts patting his flat abs and saying "How long, oh Lord, how long..." Recommended for fans of lurid, tasteless, over-the-top Hollywood camp drama. The basic story involves wealthy middle-aged American women hanging out in their lavish Mexican beach houses, wearing flashy expensive clothes, and passing the time toying with the local gigolos - so why should they be miserable? All the stars are attractive, though no longer young. The story is played devastatingly straight, with many heavy emotional moments and Dramatic Revelations which will have you chuckling.

Nancy Wilson's opening-credits title song tells us that "love has many faces...and I mean to kiss every one!" Unfortunately, there are more hisses than kisses happening here, as an attractive cast lounges sleepily in the cartoonish paradise of Acapulco yet nobody seems to be having a good time. Lana Turner (tanned and coiffed to a fare-thee-well) plays a wealthy woman who used to run around with beach boys and gigolos until she married one (Cliff Robertson, looking dour); when an ex-paramour washes up dead on the beach, Lana isn't a suspect in his death but certainly acts like she is. Hugh O'Brian plays a virile, narcissistic stud wooing vacationer Ruth Roman, while Stefanie Powers turns up as another former lover of the deceased rivaling Turner for Robertson's affections. It might be too silly--and slurpy-slow--for words were it not for some amusingly catty digs and an unintentionally hilarious bit where Lana meets an angry bull head-on. The fashions and settings are ravishing, so there's really no need for all these people to be so bitter and petty. Money seems to flow between them like water, and everyone looks great in (and out) of their clothes. Alexander Singer directs the whole thing with one eye shut; alas, his film is half-asleep. ** from ****

At least you have to give this one a chance for sheer watchability since LANA TURNER keeps turning up in one great costume after another, proving that even in her forties she was still a glamor girl. The story is trash--as are the main characters--so if you get any thrill out of watching the bronzed bodies enjoying themselves in a potboiler you can call it a guilty pleasure.

Turner is as fickle as they come. Although married to handsome CLIFF ROBERTSON, she's always on the lookout for another gigolo to keep her love life perking. She pays the most attention to HUGH O'BRIAN, who sports a series of brief beach outfits to demonstrate his hunk appeal while he flirts with all the wealthy females on the beach.

If you're still watching, the story leads to a climactic bull fight at a Mexican arena and by that time all the clichés have been thoroughly trampled upon by a ludicrous script and some bad direction.

For Turner's fans, however, it's worth watching for Lana alone. She's lovingly (and carefully) photographed and shows why she was the "it" girl of her generation.

Lana Turner, you have to admit it can make even the campiest, trashiest, movie look good. I can watch almost anything with her in it. Her costumes are over the top but she looks great in them. Ruth Roman plays a boozy broad with great one liners. One line I remember is where gigolo Hugh O'Brien says "Haven't I seen you around?" , Ruth responds with "Could be, I've been there". Not much plot but who cares, the sets are gorgeous, the campy dialogue and the entrance of a very young Stephanie Powers make it all a good old roll in the mud. I enjoy trash like this, it is far superior to the vulgar trash they make now. If a bad movie like this is memorable so many years later then it succeeded on some level. Of course there are no stars like Lana Turner anymore. Watch it for her alone.