When the Boys Meet the Girls

Harmless time-waster about the appealing Connie Francis and her father who open a new night club, which gives Sue Ane Langdon, Liberace and others an excuse to show off their musical talents.

I could not help but think this film reminded me very much of one of the many successful Elvis Presley films in which there was always a bevy of beautiful girls that Elvis would be serenading and/or a love interest who could also sing and dance, as well as some elderly parents and/or business associates who disliked this new hip culture of singing and swinging hipsters.

Connie Francis has the voice of a songbird and when you add a few 1960's top ten pop charts sung by The Herman's Hermits and lead singer Peter Noone you add a certain required quality to the film such that it is worth watching, even if it is a knock off of the many Elvis Presley films.

Yes, there is a plot in which.a then thirty two (32) year old actor Harve Presnell who plays Danny Churchill is trying hard to pass as a younger twenty (20) year old drop out college architecture student who convinces.the pretty. Ginger Gray postal worker (Connie Francis) to build a brand new hotel resort to save her fathers ranch from getting into the hands of the gangsters who.hold the gambling debts of her father. It's not clear to me how they actually build this luxurious hotel and it gets filled to capacity all within a month or so, but heh, that's show business for you.

I give the film a respectable 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

Considering that this was produced by the famously cheapjack and incompetent Sam Katzman, and is one of the 1960s MGM musicals often cited as contributing to the death of the genre, this halfhearted updating of "Girl Crazy" isn't as bad as I'd suspected. Plenty of Gershwin and a surprising amount of the never-good original book are left intact (though Herman's Hermits insist on singing "I'm biding my time/ 'Cause that's the kind of guy I AM," ruining the rhyme), and some amusingly incongruous guest stars -- Liberace, Louis Armstrong -- are thrown in. Heaven knows Connie Francis can't act, but she does fine by "But Not for Me" and "Embraceable You," and opposite her, Harve Presnell is strong-voiced, virile, and more at ease with acting than most tenors. There's a typical mid-'60s supporting cast featuring Fred Clark, Joby Baker, and Sue Ann Langdon (a good comedienne, but not here). Of course it's over-lit and underwritten and cheap-looking, but there's one honest production number for "I Got Rhythm," and the painted backdrops and fast-motion photography contribute some fun cheesiness. An amiable time-waster.

Wow...how awful is this?! A rock and roll remake of Girl Crazy with the Gershwin songs included and sung, almost trad style inbetween boppy gems from Hermans Hermits. There seemed to be a theme in the early to mid 60s of making Elvis movies without Elvis....just everyone else who might have managed a support role were all clumped together in some hideous alternate version of GIRL HAPPY or TICKLE ME or ROUSTABOUT because WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS is the mashed potato version of any two reels (strung together) of those films. MGM specialised in them and we were gleefully offered WHERE THE BOYS ARE or GET YOURSELF A COLLEGE GIRL or COME FLY WITH ME or whatever film was thought of that sounded like any of the above titles. It all becomes a ghastly bag of singing jellies after a while. For some bizarre reason (like trying to please EVERYONE, Bollywood style) this pic also has Louis Armstrong and Liberace good for some completely inappropriate appearances......and I defy anyone not to be constantly appalled every 5 minutes. Connie Francis screeches her way whether singing or, well screeching, and Harve Presnell (about 11ft tall and 35years old and apparently still at college) fresh from THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN) gets a ginger hair doo and does his best to avoid sounding like Chad Everett who should have been in this instead. You will occasionally Hurrumph and mostly exclaim horror to whoever you watch this with. I loved it.

This was made in the mid-60's when Elvis movies were still a big thing, 'teenagers movies' were an uneasy mixture of chubby beach bunnies chastely doing the frug on a Hollywood beach, but movie producers were about 5 years behind real life and felt moved to toss in some oldies but goodies for the older folks - 'insurance'. Meaning people like my aunt, a big Elvis fan (and I was no huge fan, he was passe as soon as the Beatles, etc. came along) would go see Mr. Harve Presnell, Miss Connie Francis, and...omg...Liberace! (It's almost like the Ed Sullivan Show here as far as casting!) . There is a tiresome old vaudeville act with a boxer for grandpa! oy! ... Herman's Hermits do a couple numbers. (Mr. Peter Noone, was JUST here at the NYS fair performing for the hundredth year in a row (beeyotch don't age) and he is THE big attraction in this for the youngsters out there, a bone thrown out for 'the teenagers'. (oh, and groovy Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, for all the parents to point and laugh at.) .... Movies were slow to change in the 60's. One foot in the 50's, fear of those damm hippies and those new-fangled Englishmen bands. So you got odd mixtures of 50's frump and morals, and a token of the 60's freedom - but only a token! Little white gloves. A nightclub act with a song by a woman, 'Treat Me Rough', applauded approvingly by the audience...LOTS of warbling of old standards by Connie Francis...Liberace hamming it up in a gold glittering number; , Harve Presnell (with a nylon toupee) , and busty Miss Connie Francis were the BIG stars in these things. And tired old dogface Fred Clark, who has been in one billion movies and tv shows! - he looks the same age forever, never ever changing a single bit! ....kind of fun to watch, a real curiosity, not seen often.