Palm Springs Weekend

This was the first movie I saw when I was a kid. I was almost seven at the time and it was on a double bill with "The Sword and The Stone." My mum dropped my two sisters and myself off at the Altantic Theater in Long Beach, California and this movie played first. I can't tell you a thing about the Disney movie, but I remember just about every scene from Palm Springs Weekend. The '63 Thunderbird, Bugs Bunny, Stephanie Powers, Connie Stevens, the pool with the bubbles and the car chase at the end. Hard to believe, but this film made me want to work in the movies.

And so I did. I have worked in film and video most of my career and I always tell people this was the film that first gave me the notion.

During my career I have been fortunate to meet two of the people involved with this film, Connie Stevens and Earl Hamner Jr (the man who wrote this film) When I met with Hamner over lunch, it was to talk about his classic television show The Waltons, but his eyes lit up when I asked him about PSW. He told me several stories and we had a good laugh. A very special memory.

I too would like to see this film released on DVD. It really captures a time and a generation and that '63 T Bird!

If you like swinging hips and swinging fists and you are of a certain birth vintage, namely a baby boomer from the 50's or 60's then the 1963 Palm Springs Weekend will be right up your alley. With up and coming stars such as Connie Francis, Stefanie Powers, Ty Hardin, Troy Donahue, and Robert Conrad, you have all the making of another beach blanket bonanza with swinging hips and fists as the beach parties get pretty hot and heavy.

The film packs a mighty punch with lots of lips a smacking and fists a flying as the boys and girls at the Palm Springs Hotel are there for a good time and not a long time while on a weeks vacation school break. There are new romances for some of the older generation as well as some of the first teenage loves. Heck there is even an attractive tom boy named Amanda North (played by Zeme North) who while babysitting the hotel owners son Boom Boom Yates (Bill Mumy) she has achieved a black belt in the art of Jiu Jitsu and uses her martial arts skills to put some unorthodox moves on her love interest Biff Roberts (Jerry Van Dyke).

This beach blanket hipster is the original fun loving film which preceded the latter and more successful 1965 Beach Blanket Bingo and other beach related films. It may be old and the (then) young film stars such as Ty Hardin, Troy Donahue, and Robert Conrad have now passed away but their youthful images live on in campy classics such as Palm Springs Weekend.

I give the film a respectable 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

This sort of has special meaning to me, I graduated from high school and started college in 1963, the year this movie came out. Yet I had never heard of it until yesterday when I noticed it scheduled for broadcast on the "Movies!" channel which specializes in older movies.

It was also the year that President JFK was assassinated. And the year before my dad passed away.

This movie has a thin, straightforward story line. It is spring break and groups of college students drive to Palm Springs, California, to have some fun.

The main focus of the boys are a basketball team, they just want to have fun and hopefully pick up some pretty girls.

The pretty girls are less aggressive about it but hope to be noticed by cute guys. Connie Stevens plays a high school girl (she was 24) and represents herself as a 21-yr-old college girl from Hawaii.

So all that plays out against a backdrop of swimming, partying, and one big fight with uninvited guys at a house party.

All in all pretty forgettable silliness but entertaining for a decent representation of this type of movie from the 1960s. The cast includes several actors who became well-know in the years following, many of them just in a whole series of TV roles.

At home, received via antenna in my attic.

I recall the New York Times gave a favorable review to this sprightly fun film that became a smash hit for Warner Bros.

Troy Donahue who was the biggest star on the WB lot is first billed over other WB stars Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin and Robert Conrad. The WB stars all look great. Stefanie Powers is Donahue's romantic interest. The set up is thin but fun: a group of college students converge on Palm Springs for a weekend of romance and fun. Jerry Van Dyke, and Carole Cook give fun support. WB gave Ty Hardin a shot at stardom with other WB films such as Wall of Noise ( with another WB star Dorothy Provine), PT 109, and George Cukor's The Chapman Report.

Troy Donahue's real life best friend Greg Benedict, and best man at his wedding to Suzanne Pleshette has a small pivotal role in Palm Springs Weekend. This was WB's reply to smash hit MGM film Where The Boys Are that starred Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, and Dolores Hart ( who would leave Hollywood and become a Nun). During this time Columbia also had a stock company of Stefanie Powers, Michael Callan, James Darren, Deborah Walley. I wish those days would return!

Troy'Donahue made 4 smash hits at WB with Delmer Daves: A Summer Place with Sandra Dee, Parrish with Diane McBain and Connie Stevens, and Susan Slade with Connie Stevens and Rome Adventure with Angie Dickinson and Suzanne Pleshette. Palm Springs Weekend was Donahue's first film at WB without the mark of Delmer Daves. Troy Donahue's hit streak at WB continued with this film directed by veteran Norman Taurog.

Trivia note that Troy Donahue at first refused the film but was enticed to star into it and sings the title song over the credits. Suzanne Pleshette was offered role that eventually was played by Stefanie Powers.

If you're after fun, escapist, Kennedy-era entertainment with a WB vs. AIP budget, sit back and enjoy "Palm Springs Weekend" for what it is: A bunch of kids (most of whom will never see twenty again) invading the popular resort community for the weekend, getting into all sorts of romantic trials and tribulations, with the inevitable happy ending.

Troy Donahue, then at the height of his fame, is the nominal hero of the story, a nice young medical student affectionately called "Dr. Jekyll." He has remarkably little to do, however, and it's the more colorful supporting characters who keep your interest through the film: Jerry Van Dyke as Donahue's wackyzanynutty best friend, Robert Conrad (just pre-"Wild, Wild West") as the particularly slimy heavy of the piece, Ty Hardin as the rodeo cowboy turned football hero (He's got steer horns affixed to the front of his car. You know the type), Connie Stevens as the "good girl" who gets in way over her head when she falls for Conrad, and Jack Weston and Carole Cook providing love among the oldsters as the boys' football coach and a local hotel owner, respectively. For the obligatory musical interlude, we have the Modern Folk Quartet performing in a nightclub sequence. See if you can spot a young Cyrus Faryar among the latter.

Norman Tourog's direction is appropriately easy and breezy, and the screenplay is by the young Earl Hamner, Jr. ("The Waltons"). Check your brain at the door and get in the mood for some early-60's-style fun. You'll be glad you did.