California Dreaming

According to George Carlin, the term "Extremely not bad" should be used more often ... as in, "Gosh, this turnip casserole is extremely not bad."

California Dreaming follows the trials and tribulations of TT (Dennis Christopher) as he arrives in California with some recordings of his recently-deceased brother's jazz music. The idea is to play the music near the ocean, because his brother loved the ocean. While in California, TT stays with an old surfer (Wynn, in probably the best role he's ever had ... should be, though, because he wrote the script), who offers TT a place to live. TT becomes a surfer, woos his landlord's daughter, gropes gratuitously-displayed breasts; so far, it's pretty standard surf-movie fare.

Near the end, though, there was an actual plot twist; the plot had been so thin up until that point that I didn't even notice it coming. I'm not as easily manipulated now as I did when I first saw this movie (when I was about 15), but I was so blindsided by this development that it actually gave the ending a strong emotional impact, for me.

Great cinema, it ain't, but Glynnis O'Connor and Tonya Roberts were both hotties, the surfing scenes are pretty cool, and the acting is convincing, if not outstanding.

I thought I was dreaming, "California Dreaming" that is, when I stumbled across this movie on cable early this morning. But the dream soon turned into a recurring nightmare. The movie itself was as good as I remembered it, but what happened to the outstanding version of The Mamas & The Papas song California Dreamin' performed by the 1970s band America.

I have considerable history with this movie. I saw it for the first time on cable in the early '80s. I thought it was a very enjoyable movie but it was the version of the song California Dreamin' that hooked me. I recollect putting a lot of time into trying to find the soundtrack. Alas, my efforts were futile.

A decade or so later I saw part of the movie again on cable. I was stoked about getting to hear this song again. I cranked up the volume and prepared to groove, but the song never appeared. I could not remember at what point in the movie this song played. I missed the first few minutes of the movie so I figured it must have been in the opening credits. This rekindled my desire to find the soundtrack. I searched for weeks, again to no avail.

Fast forward to this morning. I watched the movie end to end. But where was this damn song that has eluded me for decades? I began to wonder if I had imagined this song or maybe it was in a different movie.

The IMDb came to my rescue. After reading the user comments about this movie I thankfully realized I was not crazy. The soundtrack was apparently altered. I searched the Internet for the soundtrack but after all these years I still can't find it. I did, however, find the song. It is on the CD, America - The Complete Greatest Hits available on Amazon.com.

Closure at long last. Thank you IMDb and Amazon.com!!!

I have just recently seen this movie for the first time in almost 20 years. Originally, the final credits rolled while we heard the Eagles signing their great version of California Dreaming. But the current version has some mindless, goofy music at that point. I find it unbelievable that the movie California Dreaming no longer is shown containing the song of the same name.

A nerdy guy from Chicago (Dennis Christopher) moves to the coast of SoCal where he makes friends with the owner of a local hangout (Seymour Cassel) and gets to stay at his house, but this annoys his college-age daughter (Glynnis O'Connor). In the meantime, the youth tries to fit in with the 'hip' surfers (John Calvin, John Fain and Jimmy Van Patten).

Shot in October, 1977, but not released until early 1979, "California Dreaming" is a coming-of-age dramedy that takes Sam Elliott's "Lifeguard" from a few years earlier and adds comedic touches. I wouldn't relate this to those goofy 60's beach flicks because it's more realistic. People forget that the originator of the "beach party film" genre was 1959's "Gidget" (the movie with Sandra Dee, not the TV series with Sally Field), which was a beach drama with moving depth and not zany at all. Sure, this one features a little amusing goofiness, but it's mostly a believable story.

Dorothy Tristan has a significant role as Duke's ex-wife, Fay. She was director John Hancock's wife from 1975 until her death in 2023. Speaking of John, he helmed the artistic "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" from the early 70s, so he wasn't exactly a slouch.

This obviously influenced one of the greatest coming-of-age flicks, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," released a few years later. It's not as good, but not far off either. It's superior to the overrated "Back to the Beach" (1987).

While the movie has a warm, amusing heart underneath it all, there's some top nudity and sexual talk/situations corresponding to the milieu. So stay away if that offends you.

It runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot at Avila Beach, California, which is 195 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Other nearby locations include: Morro Bay to the north and the theater in San Luis Obispo, which is just southeast of Morro Bay; meanwhile studio work was done in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-/B.

This movie was released in 1979 and is different from both the purely exploitative (or "sexploitative") 70's films that came before it or the more adolescent-themed 80's films that came after it (the male protagonist here is definitely pretty horny and probably a virgin, but the movie is more than just the usual allegedly hilarious quest to "lose it"). The acting is really good, especially that of Dennis Christopher who plays the "fish-out-of-water" main protagonist (and who really should have gone farther than the other Dennis, Quaid, with whom he starred in "Breaking Away" that same year), and perennial character actor Seymour Cassel, who plays an older surfer who takes the protagonist under his wing.

The female cast is headed by Glynnis O'Connor, who plays Casell's daughter and the protagonist's improbable love interest. She is not a great actress, but is certainly easy to look at (and she provides all the movie's nudity). Supporting parts go to Tanya Roberts and Stacy Nelkin, but unfortunately the less talented one (Roberts) gets the much bigger (and regrettably non-naked) role as the neglected girlfriend of an egotistical surfer. There's a lot of gratuitous surfing (this being a California movie and all), but not as much of the dumb hijinks you usually find in these movies (OK, there is a stupid side-story involving one dumb guy who has to spend a month in his car as part of some bet he made with a rich kid, all so the rich kid can secretly get it on with the guy's gold-digging girlfriend. . .).

This movie kind of resembles "Malibu Beach", but with better acting and more of a plot. It probably wouldn't have gotten made a couple years later after "Porky's" had set the horny-teenagers-trying-to-"lose-it" template firmly in stone. But it is quite a bit more realistic than deluge of "teen comedies" that followed that later film, and (for me anyway) that makes it much more interesting.