It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“Girls on the Beach” (1965)– Musical #519

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
William Witney

Starring:
Noreen Corcoran, Aron Kincaid, Lana Wood, Gail Gilmore, Martin West, Linda Marshall, Steven Rogers, Sheila Bromley, Lori Saunders
Themselves: The Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, The Crickets

Plot:
Sorority sisters try to save their sorority house when they realize their nest egg has been spent by their house mother. In order to raise the money, they try a number of money making schemes from cake baking, newspaper puzzle contests, beauty contests and baby sitting. Three surfer boys trying to get in with the girls tell them that they are personal friends of the Beatles to perform at their benefit concert. The girls advertise The Beatles are coming, but when they learn they aren’t coming, they have to dress up like the Fab Four.

Trivia:
-The only beach film that the Beach Boys appearing, according to Risky Business: Rock in Film by R. Serge Denisoff, William D. Romanowski.
-Originally was going to be titled “Beach Girls,” according to Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave by Thomas Lisanti.
-The film was shot in three weeks, according to Lisanti.
-The Beach Boys wrote “Girls on the Beach” and “Little Honda” specifically for this film.
-Actors didn’t receive residuals for this film for several years, because the film was still listed under its working title of Beach Girls rather than Girls on the Beach, according to Lisanti.

Sorority sisters plot money making schemes in “Girls on the Beach.”

Highlights:
-The female stars dressing up as the Beatles, though it’s goofy.

Notable Songs:
-“The Girls on the Beach” performed by the Beach Boys
-“Leave Me Alone” performed by Lesley Gore
-“Little Honda” performed by the Beach Boys
-“Lonely Sea” performed by the Beach Boys
-“We Want To Marry a Beatle” performed by the female leads

My review:
By the same writers of “Beach Ball,” comes “Girls on the Beach”– one of many beach films made in the 1960s trying to copy the success of the Frankie and Annette American International Picture films.

Compared to some of the other copycat beach films, this one is fun. It has everything that makes up the beach film formula: pretty girls in bikinis, popular musical performances in the day, and scenes on the beach.

Noreen Corcoran as a blonde.

It’s fun to see teenage Noreen Corcoran, former child star and sister of Kevin Corcoran, as the lead in a grown up role after watching her as a little girl in so many other films. However, Noreen’s hair was bleached for the role and she didn’t feel comfortable or like herself. Though Noreen proved to be a capable teenage actress, this was one of her last roles.

The sorority girls’ money making schemes are fairly entertaining and funny such as Lori Saunders doing a snake dance at a beauty contest or one girl making a cake using chemistry and it continuously explodes.

However there are some  silly moments. The worst part was when the girls realized The Beatles aren’t coming and dress up as the Beatles. However, every time the Beatles are mentioned, people say “yeh yeh yeh,” referencing the song “She Loves You.”
Apparently they couldn’t get any rights to Beatles music and all they did was say “yeh yeh yeh” and “woooo.”

Once the girls are found out, they start seeing a terrible song called “We Want to Marry a Beatle.”

Though this film has a simple premise, it is pretty entertaining and cute.

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