Beach Ball

All teen beach or period flicks deserve their own catagory stars and all should be a 3 or better....if one gets the point.Sadly too many 60's fans either missed the entire scene, were born after it was even current or too young to actually be "in the teen scene" and are just bitter. These are not Academy Award projects nor did they ever attempt to be. All 60's teen films had a positive message entwined within the absolute silliness of the wrap around scenes that glue it together. Look where the Monkees TV show was developed from; the original Batman TV show; most slapstick comedies of the future are all pulled and revamped from these (and others) 60's teen flick's cherrys.....or cherry bombs. It is a good chance to see great bands do songs that they might not have performed (some thankfully) at all. But remember the point of all of these teen berach flicks, this gem included: To have fun, escape into someplace totally or close to unreal and with a happy or comical ending. Beach Ball is a great,a typical 60's teen flick and is as good as any other "beach" flicks of the era. To analyze this or these types of films with the slashing of a "Freddy" movie is missing the point. Beach Ball is total nostalgia from sets, dialogue, scenery, cars, bands, girls and guys. Grab some popcorn, put your feet up, whack it on the TV and just enjoy a period that many wish was still around. Beach Ball still has plenty of smile bits to remind us of our potential to just enjoy these teen era flicks without dissecting it like a stiff lab frog.

This film essentially begins with a college dropout by the name of "Dick Martin" (Edd Byrnes) receiving a telegram telling him that, unless he pays for some musical instruments he rented for his struggling rock-and-roll band, they will be confiscated within a day or two. Needless to say, this news completely devastates him as neither he nor the other members of the band can scrounge up $1000 in so short a period of time. That being said, when their pleas for more time fall on deaf ears, Dick decides to go to the local college finance committee treasurer named "Susan" (Chris Noel) and plead for a grant under the false pretense of needing it for tuition. Quite surprisingly, after listening to his story, she agrees to his request. However, when she discovers the truth of the matter a few hours later, she immediately changes her mind. Not long afterward, however, she reconsiders and--with the help of the other three female members of the committee--decides to infiltrate his circle of friends to see if they can somehow convince them to return to college. In the meantime, Dick and his band have come up with several different plans to get the money--but what they don't count on is the of the music store owner who demands his merchandise immediately. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay "Beach Party" movie which basically followed the standard formula for films of this type during this particular period of time. Naturally, it also featured several attractive actresses with Mikki Jamison (as "Augusta"), Anna Lavelle ("Polly") and the aforementioned Chris Noel standing out the most, in my opinion. Be that as it may, while this may not be the best movie of its type, I enjoyed it for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Best part of movie outside the rock cameos is the cars. Two featured: Bill Cushenberry's Silhouette which later became an AMT model and one of the original HotWheels miniatures. Typical early Sixties custom with open hood, bubble top and tuck and roll interior.

The movie also featured a car show that included Bob Urquhart's 1927 Model T Roadster which appeared on the cover of the October 1962 Hot Rod magazine and numerous other magazines through 1964. Car was powered by a 1954 DeSoto hemi and also featured a Cadillac transmission and Corvette rearend. Car is iconic of the "custom rod" era and is currently owned by Jim Gilliam of Des Moines and is being restored to original condition.

Because of Edd Byrnes, anyone in this movie rates a "3" on the Kevin Bacon scale.

Let's see. . .twentysomethings who's only goal in life seems to be partying, comic book villain types who want to spoil their fun, popular R&B and rock groups of the day. Must be a 1960's beach movie! If you see this on video, fast forward to the musical acts, in particular, The Supremes singing "Surfer Boy". Otherwise, this movie is forgettable.

... with mixed results. Edd Byrnes stars as Dick, who's trying to manage his buddies' rock trio (Robert Logan, Aron Kincaid, and Don Edmonds) into a successful act. When they come up short for paying their instrument rental fees, Dick comes up with a plan to hoodwink a university for the money to buy their own equipment. The school sends four young ladies (Chris Noel, Mikki Jamison, Brenda Benet, and Gail Gilmore) to oversee the expenditure, with the expected romantic results. Also featuring Anna Lavelle, James Wellman, Jack Bernardi, and Dick Miller as "Cop #1".

With musical performances by The Supremes, The Four Seasons, The Righteous Brothers, The Walker Brothers, and the Hondells. The fictitious band in the film, "The Wrigglers", perform the most songs, generic surf-rock/teen idol stuff. The comedy is bad, Edd Byrnes is terrible and brings nothing but his meager name recognition to the table, and the movie looks cheap. However, the women are gorgeous and often in bikinis, the music is pretty good if silly and imminently forgettable, and there's a big custom hot rod show at the end.

Tell yourself you are studying lesser cinematic history to get through it all.