The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)

One of the worst movies ever made. A sea monster attacks teenagers on the beach, but that doesn't stop the kids from hanging around, building bonfires, singing songs and dancing (A LOT). With some of the lousiest production values imaginable and awkward direction from one time actor Jon (THE HURRICANE) Hall. Renaissance man Hall also did the cinematography...which is either too dark or too light depending upon the time of day. He also plays Dr. Otto Lindsay, father of surfer Richard Lindsay, whose friends are among the victims. Sue Casey, who later appeared in everything from CAMELOT to PAINT YOUR WAGON plays Hall's bitchy wife. She's wasted in this ludicrous production. The teenagers, who make the BEACH PARTY gang look like geniuses, is a woeful pack of bad actors & actresses. The intrusive, always out of place faux-jazz score is credited to 21-year old Frank Sinatra Jr.(!)

Having almost been killed in a car crash, Richard (Arnold Lessing) now likes to spend his free time (ie., all the time) enjoying life with his pals riding the waves and partying on the beach with curvaceous cuties. Personally, I don't blame him, but his father Otto (Jon Hall), a respected oceanologist, reckons his son should be concentrating on his career instead of fraternising with loafers and tramps. Richard's endless days and nights of fun look set to come to an end, however, when a sea monster (approximately the same height as Richard's father) turns up on the beach and attacks the kids.Meanwhile, Otto's drunken wife Vicky (such a floozy that she even has her own sleazy jazz theme music) is carrying on behind his back with Richard's pal Mark, causing the scientist to get so angry that he crushes his whiskey tumbler with his bare hands (why, that man is as strong as strong as an ox!).In the '60s, beach party films and monster movies were packing 'em in at the drive-ins, and so it wasn't long before enterprising film makers with limited budgets had the idea to mix the two genres together; after all, could anything be more entertaining (and cheaper to film) than a group of hot girls in teeny bikinis dancing the Watusi to surf music before being attacked by a googly-eyed, sea monster? Well, when your dreadful script also deals clumsily with the generation gap issue, veers into third rate 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' territory midway, and turns into a silly Scooby Doo style mystery for the finale, the answer to that question is a resounding 'YES!'.Most sane viewers will avoid this film like a mutant South American fantigua fish with the plague, but those intentionally seeking absolute drivel will find that they have hit the mother-lode with this crap-fest: the monster is one of the most shoddy creatures to ever stalk a nubile go-go dancing teen; the film features some of the worst back projection I have ever witnessed (no wonder Richard had an accident: he's all over the road!); and the fun-loving 'kids' (many of whom look like they're in their thirties) are so irritating that you'll be willing the monster on in it's mission to kill.Most embarrassing moment: the night-time shindig on the beach that features loads of frantic dancing to wild bongo beats, crazy pranksters playing naff practical jokes on their highly amused pals, and a god-awful song that sees Richard's girlfriend Jane (Elaine DuPont) sharing vocal duties with a hand puppet!

What "The Night of the Hunter" was for Charles Laughton--the sole directorial effort from a great film star--"The Beach Girls and the Monster" was for '40s matinée idol Jon Hall. But whereas Laughton's film is one of the eternal glories of the cinema, Hall's picture is...well, let's just say not nearly as glorious. In his film, Hall stars (at this point in his career, looking like Ernest Borgnine's older brother) as Dr. Otto Lindsay, an oceanographer whose troublesome son, rather than follow in his Pops' footsteps, prefers to go surfing with his pals and play his guitar at beach parties. This domestic friction is made even more problematic when a seaweed-draped, lumbering, rather ridiculous-looking monster starts to attack kids on the beach.... Anyway, Hall's film is silly in parts but not nearly as goofy as you might be expecting; certainly more serious than a Frankie & Annette movie! It has been well shot in B&W (although utilizes egregious rear projection for all driving sequences), showcases an annoyingly catchy theme song by Frank Sinatra, Jr., is decently acted, and features a twist ending of sorts that goes far in mitigating much of the silliness that has come before. Almost stealing the show is Sue Casey, playing Hall's trampy wife; my buddy Rob is quite right in pointing out that her sharp-tongued, shrewish vixen of a character would have been right at home in a '60s Russ Meyer flick. "Beach Girls," with a running time of only 66 minutes, still feels padded, with surfing stock footage, rock 'n' roll numbers accompanied by boogying bikini babes (played by the Watusi Dancing Girls from the Whiskey-A-Go-Go!), and assorted hijinks. Still, I can think of much less entertaining ways to spend an hour. As Michael Weldon succinctly puts it, in his spoiler review in "The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film": "A cheap laugh riot with lots of bongos, murders, and girls in bikinis."

I still think this a guilty pleasure and have to agree it is so bad it is good. Would love to see it again after all these years. It was called "Monster from the Surf" when they used to run it late night on a local program in Houston, Texas called "Weird". Which showed lots of horror movies including "Black Sunday" with Barbara Steele. This film, "Monster From the Surf" had a pretty good soundtrack, as I recall. I remember the girl and the puppet and that song. I vote it a 10 just because of the nostalgia and the fact that it is so cheesy that it is good! They just don't make movies like this anymore and never will again! Kudos to Jon Hall for making this hoot of a film!