Surf Party

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?

With the success of American-International's "Beach Party" movie series, it was inevitable that other studios would try to cash in on that success. Some efforts were made by major studios, while other efforts were made by independents, "Surf Party" being one of these independent efforts (though it was picked up by a major studio for distribution.) It's interesting to compare this movie to the "Beach Party" movies. It's done on a much lower budget, for one thing, filmed in black and white instead of color. The song number are less polished for the most part as well. But the biggest difference is that this movie's tone is much more serious than what was found in the "Beach Party" movies; even the ending isn't all that upbeat. I can only imagine what youths in 1964 thought of the somewhat downer tone. Probably they would also object to a storyline that quite often feels like it was being made up as filming went along. The atypical scripting does give the movie some interest, but I would only recommend the movie to those researching beach movies of the 1960s as an odd example of the genre.

I understand that film producers are greedy, lazy SOB's, and when they see a way to make an easy buck they jump at it. Such was the case with this film Surf Party which failed miserably from the get go with the horrible songs included in this film and the lousy doo wap singers who couldn't act if they had trained with Lee Strasberg or Stella Adler.

I did not laugh once, and the film quality must have been put together with minimal editing and no concern for the final product being released to theaters. It was definitely rushed to get released as a black and white film while the surf party movies starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon were so highly appreciated and accolades for their fun beach party mood and great songs sung by real singers with great voices.

I hate to rain on this Surf Party and singer Bobby Vinton's first film but it is a bummer and only deserving of an IMDB rating of 5 out of 10. I gave it one IMDB rating notch up from two (4) as the film did have the lovely Patricia Morrow included in some swim suit scene(s).

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.