The Beach Girls and the Monster

I remember watching this movie as a kid and I thought it was pretty scary, so when I saw it on DVD I decided to get it and now I see why a lot of people think this movie is a stinker. The film is part beach party flick, part whodunnit, part melodrama and part horror. John Hall, who showed a lot of promise with his role in The Hurricane, really showed how far his career had fallen when he became involved in this throwaway and Sue Casey showed why she was nothing more than a minor league actress. The other actors, if you can call them that, are so bad that you wonder why this film was ever made. However, I do like looking at bad movies and this is definitely one of them.

Pretty cheesy. John Hall directs and stars in this movie also known as MONSTER FROM THE SURF. Pretty girls are slashed to death by a sea monster. Right! I have always liked Jon Hall, but this movie is as interesting as sea weed. Stock footage of surfing and no "real" monster at all. Acting is about as lame as the script. Also in the cast are Sue Casey, Elaine DuPont and Walker Edmiston.

This movie is clearly not for everyone, as it was made during a more innocent time when surfing and beach movies were all the rage. While it obviously didn't win any Academy Awards, it was still a cute movie nonetheless. Essentially, the film begins with a pretty beach girl who playfully runs away from the campfire her friends are having on the beach. A monster then appears and kills her. After that, the scene shifts to one of the beach houses where a young surfer named "Richard Lindsey" (Arnold Lessing) lives with his overly demanding father, "Dr. Otto Lindsey" (John Hall), and his sexy but two-timing stepmother, "Vicky Lindsey" (Sue Casey). Meanwhile, amidst the drama within the beach house, the monster continues to kill Richard's friends. While I found this movie a bit amusing, it's really hard to overlook the faults. The acting wasn't very good, some of the scenes were laughable, and the "monster" looked completely ridiculous. Even so, it featured attractive ladies like Elaine DuPont (as "Janie") and the aforementioned Sue Casey to brighten up the scenery, along with a little mystery thrown in as well. So, all things considered, I suppose it wasn't a total waste of time. However, this film isn't for everyone, and even then, those who remember this particular era will still have to make allowances.

I've only ever seen this film with the title Monster From the Surf, but whichever way you package it, it's a stone cold psychotronic classic. Heck, the dual presence of Radley Metzger behind the camera (he acquits himself nicely, especially with his shots of a drunken Vicky) and Frank Sinatra Jr.'s score should be enough enticement for anyone. Add in faded matinee idol Jon Hall in the starring role, season with liberal amounts of surf footage, and you have a winner! Especially memorable is the 'theme song', as interpreted by a hand puppet. A pleasure to watch on many levels.

... when you see a boom mike in the trailer!

"The Beach Girls and the Monster" features a clear shot of Sue Casey speaking on the phone during the trailer. With a boom mike above her. And the perch.

The movie itself has a delightful scraping the barrel approach when it comes to exploitation. You can find the two main sub-genres from the 60's b-movies melting: the monster movie and the beach movie. Both aspects are indeed badly done. The monster is everything but frightening and one has to wonder why any of his victims hadn't the idea to kick him between the legs. And the beach part is so cliché ridden it looks like a "Lord Loves A Duck" sequence, except for the fact that "Lord Loves A Duck" was a parody (also featuring boom mikes on screen). There's for instance, for comic relief, a ventriloquist and his lion Kingsley who duets with the girls on a corny song. Actually, he could be the worst ventriloquist on Earth: he carries a false beard to hide his moving lips.

Then, you find all the features of cheap exploitation movies. Washed-out actors playing the parts of supposedly attractive characters. "Teenagers" that were last seen in high school 15 before the shooting. Big names on the credits, like Frank Sinatra. Even if you must add "Jr" as that's his son, Frank Jr, and he merely wrote the score (mostly lounge jazz and a few Beach Boys attempts). Actually, Mark (Walter Edmiston) looks a little like Sinatra as the sculptor that Sue Casey teases. (By the way, his sculptures are not exactly flattering even for a fading beauty like Ms Casey.)

Jon Hall, for his only directing credit, shot the thing cheaply and quickly. His house was a convenient place for inner shots and he tends to use zooming extensively to end a scene without making another shot. It's irritating even when it's Luchino Visconti who's directing and Jon Hall is apparently no Visconti.

And there's the story, or indeed the lack of story. You also know that a movie has got a problem when Robert Silliphant is credited for "additional dialogue". Silliphant took a writing hand in both "The Creeping Terror" and "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?". In other words, he's responsible for two of the lamest screenplays of all times! "The Beach Girls and the Monster" is his third and final screen credit. So I have to wonder how much Silliphant improved the original screenplay.

On the plus side, the girls on the beach (actually the dancing troupe from the Whisky-A-Go- Go club) have tight bikinis and giggles as if they were Shakira's mother. Or grandmother. So, every movie has a redeeming quality.