Surf Party

This film should be really a 10 on the entertainment scale because it is so hilariously awful. Made in black and white for the drive in circuit in 1964 maybe to cash in on RIDE THE WILD SURF and the AIP Frankie and Annette beach pix etc SURF PARTY is underwater it is so bargain basement. Four girls who all look the same drive daddy's massive convertible to 'the beach' towing the world's biggest cardboard caravan. Here they meet the beach set surfin' by day and groovin' by nite to the tunes hopefully soon the climb the pop charts sung by either THE ROUTERS (!) or THE ASTRONAUTS keenly seeking their big break. Bobby Vinton ad Jackie De Shannon are the stars and they are friends with someone called Milo who, in Big Wednesday style is gonna dare the waves to propel him through the barnacle encrusted legs of the local pier. All very nice, except the film has back projection surfing scenes, and most howlingly of all, 'creates' surf using the backwash from a speedboat - and doesn't disguise it. "Milo's going to shoot the pier" they scream in-between songs. The clothes are 60s fab and the cabana cottages are wonderfully cheaply decorated tiki style with sea-grass matting and shells and nets. I loved it. The audience screamed incessantly, and the songs and the gyrations that the cast are asked to perform are endlessly hilarious. Great fun. But not a 'solid' entry in the surf film / movie genre.

sitting in your folks' Town and Country wagon at the drive-in with a girlfriend and a couple other friends, watching this idiotic little piece of duck fluff called Surf Party? It's 1964, the Beatles have just landed, the Maddox and Turner Joy are--or are not--getting shot at in the Gulf of Tonkin, JFK is dead (that fracture will hurt forever), LBJ is going to win this fall.

America's sauce is strong, and surfer movies are all the rage.

What was that like, living in a bygone era, where no one could imagine the bodies stacking up like cord wood, Watts, MLK and RFK bled out, Tet, Panthers, Nixon, Kent State; what horrors the following years would bring.

Armstrong and Aldrin were still rookies. Nobody in your circle knew what pot smelled like. Heroin was only a problem for "Negroes." A sugar cube was for coffee.

What would it be like to step into that way-back machine . . .

And forget?

People who are nostalgic for Jackie DeShannon and a couple of Beach Boy wannabe rock and roll groups will have reason enough to watch Surf Party. For anyone else I can't say.

Bobby Vinton and Patricia Summer star in this shoestring budget beach film. Vinton owns a surf board shop and for reasons I cannot fathom the local law in the person of Richard Crane thinks he ought to assume responsibility for the local surfers. Ken Miller is the head of a clique of surfers who act more like hotrodders and folks who want to join the clique have to the equivalent of a surf chicken run.

The film is cheap and shoddy, the musical artists have their moments. I think Bobby Vinton was better served in those two John Wayne films he did.

This film begins with a young lady by the name of "Terry Wells" (Patricia Morrow) driving with two of her friends "Junior Griffith" (Jackie DeShannon) and "Sylvia Dempster" (Lory Patrick) from Arizona to the California coast to visit Terry's brother "Skeet Wells" (Jerry Summers). Upon their arrival, they meet a young man named "Len Marshal" (Bobby Vinton) who owns a surfboard shop near the beach and tells them where they can find a trailer park for their camper. Not long afterward, they also meet another young man named "Milo Talbot" (Ken Miller) who takes them to the local clubhouse where Skeet hangs out. It's then that the three young ladies learn that Skeet is the leader of a group of surfers who have built up a bad reputation with many of the local residents--with the local policeman named "Sergeant Wayne Neal" (Richard Crane) being the most outspoken critic. What the three young ladies don't realize, however, is that their presence will soon become a catalyst for all kinds of trouble involving everyone just mentioned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, even though this film is listed as a comedy, there really wasn't much humor to be found here at all. Lots of dancing and singing--but no real comedy that I could see. Likewise, although I don't normally have any problem with movies filmed in black & white, I have to say that movies of this specific type are much better in color as it enhances the overall effect. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a terribly bad "beach movie" necessarily, I don't believe it compares favorably to some of the others produced during this time, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

"Surf Party" (1964) is essentially a musical version of "Gidget" (1959), with stuntman Jerry Summers in the Big Kahuna role and singer Bobby ("Blue Velvet") Vinton playing Moondoggie. Terry Wells (Patricia Morrow) and her two girlfriends (think three Gidgets) tow a travel trailer to the beach where her black sheep older brother Skeet (Summers) holds court as the hottest surfer.

Len (Vinton) runs the local surfboard shop (like Bear in "Big Wednesday" but not as spiritual) and interfaces with the resident fuzz (Richard Crane). Milo (Ken Miller-a sort of poor man's Nick Adams) is a gremmie (overeager novice) who aspires to membership in the surfer lodge; the rite of passage being a dangerous ritual called running the pier. Junior (singer Jackie DeShannon) serves as a love interest for the hapless Milo.

But the main story centers on adoring little sister Terry. This is her coming of age story and she is romanced by Len while learning (with the rest of the beach crowd) some unpleasant things about Skeet. Morrow was quite a beauty with a lot of natural charm. She would become relatively famous a couple years after this film, playing one of the main characters on television's "Peyton Place".

The production design is pure 1964 southern California but Skeet's beach house is a far cry from The Big Kahuna's hut. One glance at his bedroom furnishings will have you thinking Ed Wood, but all of this is eventually explained.

Like a standard musical these characters will burst into song at the drop of a hat and there are several numbers by actual singing groups. The Routers play "Crack Up". The Astronaunts play "Fire Water" and the title song. Almost everyone gets a song. Obviously this stuff is dated but some is rather good and even the worst is not unpleasant.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.