Year:  1965
Rating: 4.5

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With all that great surf music came those beach movies in the early to mid 1960's that on most levels are quite awful but have a certain mindless charm. They also had loads of girls in bathing suits with this one perhaps leading the pack in bikinis. Well filled bikinis. I have seen a bunch of the Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon beach movies but I had never heard of this one till I just came across it the other day. It was produced by none other than Roger Corman who never missed an opportunity to rip off a fad. This one goes all in and touches all the bases with surfing, sky diving, race car driving, underwater diving and of course music. And bikinis if I haven't mentioned that yet, Well endowed ones.


Like all of these films the plot might fill out a post card but that is the whole point - keep it simple, keep it silly and keep it skimpy. This one fits that criteria well. A band that has dropped out from college need to come up with a $1,000 before their instruments are repossessed by a real square daddio. The film is basically them trying to come up with the money so that they can perform at a contest and do their best to avoid the collector. Four draggy serious girls full of academic ambitions decide to induce the boys to go back to college and go undercover in bikinis to do so. And that is about it except for the music.


Corman got lucky with the music. The film was actually made in 1964 and released in 1965 - and one group he brought on for one song was The Righteous Brothers right before their huge hit You've Lost that Loving Feeling that came out in February 1965 and this female group just sort of a blip at the time of the filming who were huge by the time the film came out - The Supremes. They sing two songs written by the great team of Holland Dozier and Holland - but admittedly not their best as they tried to write and the Supremes tried to sing surf music with Surfer Boy and Come to the Beach Ball with Me. Still kind of cool seeing The Supremes so early on in their career though the cinematographer perhaps made a bad choice shooting Diana Ross up very close from down below her jaw line and possibly terrifying little children with her enormous shining teeth. One other group is on hand but they are actually past their glory days - The Four Seasons who sing one song.


The cast is mainly people you have never heard of but the lead is none other than Kookie of 77 snap snap Sunset Strip or lesser known as Ed Byrnes. His hip, hair combing character on the show made him a huge star and an idol of teenage girls. Mystifying to me though I was a big fan of the show (though it hasn't held up that well for me the few times I watched it recently). He plays the song writer for the band. Also in the band are Robert Logan who actually took over the car attendant role on 77 snap snap Sunset Strip but I admit I don't remember him at all. And then there is Don Edmonds who didn't have much of an acting career but directed two classic cult films later on - Ilsa: The She Wolf of the SS and Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. And two other semi-cult figures are in the cast - Dick Miller who was a regular on Corman films as one of the comedic cops and though you barely get a glimpse of him the drummer for The Righteous Brothers is credited to Sid Haig who everyone should know if you don't. The film which came in at about $125,000 cost - $25,000 going to Kookie - made over a million bucks. The poster may have had a lot to do with that.