This is one of
the first beach films about teenagers dealing with love, sex, music and partying.
This was fairly successful at the box office which likely had something to
do with AIP and their series of beach movies. This one though is very different
from those silly bits of nonsense. This deals with all these issues maturely.
More so than I was expecting and really wanted. Shitty guys, rape and the
loss of virginity. None of that in the AIP films. This was kind of a downer.
Four college girls from the snowy mid-west
pile into a car and head for Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break. That legendary
few weeks when hormones collide like pin ball machines and brains go AWOL.
The problem is they are different types of hormones. The women are looking
for relationships, romance and even the dreaded marriage. The boys are looking
for. . . well we all know that it isn't any of the above. And who can blame
them. It's Fort Lauderdale in Spring break.
The actresses are a fine group of fresh
faces. The main character is played by Dolores Hart who had co-starred with
Elvis in Loving You and then there are Paula Prentiss in her first big film,
Yvette Mimieux in her first film after The Time Machine and finally the wonderful
Connie Francis in her debut film. She sings the title song. Their characters
are all different, but boys are on the brain. None of the boys match up.
Jim Hutton plays an annoying goofball that
Prentiss falls for mainly because he is tall, Frank Gorshin is a jazz musician
that Francis desperately chases after, Hart is pursued by rich boy George
Hamilton and poor Yvette falls for a slimeball in minute one. There are no
happy vibes here. Just desperation and disappointment. Hart was to go on
to become a nun and still is. I imagine George Hamilton could do that to
any woman. I actually missed Frankie and Annette.
