Surftide 77

Lee Frost has quite a legion of fans (myself among them), who appreciate his extending the boundaries of porn into the melodramatic violent genre. This earliest effort does not really fit into his oeuvre, as it is mild in the extreme.

Producer/co-star Bob Cresse enthuses in one of his pompous trailers that SURFTIDE 77 was the first direct sound nudie -the form having been exclusively MOS with narration before. That's about its only dubious claim to fame.

The movie makes fun of "Surfside 6", a TV series to which I was addicted some 50 years ago (ouch, I feel old just typing that!). Yes, Margarita Sierra was a household name in my house, and the stable of Warner Brothers contract stars were among my favorites.

But Frost, Cresse & cohorts fail to capitalize on the ample sources for satire (Fontainebleau & specifically the "Boom Boom Room" setting of 6), instead using the private eye format as an excuse for dumb gags and bare breasts, thankfully very photogenic breasts.

Mary Tyler Moore's memorable character on the "Richard Diamond" show is spoofed (the receptionist on the phone whose face is never seen), but instead of the leggy shots of the original we're treated to huge breasts. An imitation of Marilyn Monroe in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH is also thrown in as part of the comedy filler.

Of course the pretty girls' body parts are why one watches this drivel, but it is fun to see character actor Vic Tayback, with a full head of hair, cast as a Mafia gangster, the only real actor in the picture. It's like seeing an early screen appearance of Yul Brynner, Telly Savalas or Theo Marcuse, pre-baldie.

Something Weird used a particularly crummy print here, with the original color photography reduced to a near monochrome combination of faded brownish & greenish colors.