THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER (1965), aka MONSTER FROM THE SURF

Director: Jon Hall

Writers: Joan Gardner, (uncredited additional dialogue) Robert Silliphant & Don Marquis

Producer: Edward Janis

Cast: Jon Hall, Sue Casey, Arnold Lessing, Elaine DuPont, Walker Edmiston, Read Morgan, Carolyn Williamson, Gloria Neil, Kal Roberts (as Tony Roberts), Clyde Adler, Dale Davis, Kingsley the Lion, Margo Lynn Sweet

At the California seaside, young Richard Lindsay (Arnold Lessing) is enjoying his hiatus from college and work to surf and party at the beach with his friends. After being involved in a serious auto accident that left his friend Mark (Walker Edmiston) with a permanently injured leg, Richard realizes how short life is and he needs to live for the moment before his youth slips away. His ichthyologist father Dr. Otto Lindsay (Jon Hall) wants Richard to “grow up” and get back to work with him in the lab. The father’s marriage is very strained by his unfaithful and scornful wife Vicky (Sue Casey) who manages to offend just about everyone, especially Richard. Worst of all, Richard’s friends are being killed off at the beach by some sort of sea monster.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

A summertime shocker and just-can’t-miss schlocker that this beach bum wannabe can really groove to. The Beach Girls and the Monster is another one of those titles that lays it all out there so that you know just what you are getting. It also has one surprise up its finny sleeve that you might see coming. In some ways, it hearkens back to the weird menace pulp magazines of the '30s, as well as anticipating the slasher films of the '80s, while being oh so '60s. Toss in babes in bikinis, surfers, and beach parties, and you’ve got all the bases covered to keep this retro reprobate watching.

Despite some obvious padding, this film is quite short and simple so that it does not have time to wear out its welcome. It is a slice of '60s surf and sand nirvana that is barely disturbed by a murdering monster and builds to a truly nutzoid conclusion that I really like. It almost makes sense of the menace and upends your expectations while still being really crazy.

1940s leading man Jon Hall starred as the father and also directed this film. He made a fun little bit of drive-in fodder, which is probably exactly all that was intended.

Arnold Lessing plays the lead Richard and is earnest enough. He’s best when he vents his understandable disdain for his absolutely infuriating stepmother Vicky. Actually, she manages to infuriate everyone, except the horndogs she sneaks out to date.

Sue Casey as Vicky demonstrates the worst-case trophy wife scenario. She’s very sexy and knows it. She’s very bitchy and loves it. The satisfaction she takes in her petty and vindictive behavior makes her an absolute joy to watch. She even rates a show-stopping boozy floozy jazz theme as she revels in a drunken afterglow when she returns home from one of her dates. Deep down, she probably resents being dependent on a man in a relationship that does not make her happy. She is a likely graduate of the old school that taught, “Just get a good provider.” That must make her feel both frustrated and entitled. This makes her a more complex character than she appears at first glance. There may be a reason for her offensiveness, yet that does not justify it. Although no one realizes it, Vicky’s behavior does more than just piss off everyone in her household; it is probably the main catalyst for the horror in this story.

The other absolute joy to watch, or should I say ogle, are the endlessly go-go-ing bikinied beauties at the beach that were recruited from the famed Hollywood Whisky-a-Go-Go nightclub. They are a very welcome waste of time, but not a waste of my attention, in this slim story.

 

Another rather shameless time-waster is when Richard brings the movie crashing to a halt to run some film of surfer footage for his buddy Mark while we hear some more of that bouncy surf rock that we watched the beach babes shake and shimmy to earlier. There is absolutely no story purpose served by this. It is just some more 1965 popular stuff that the young audience is supposed to get off on, as surfing was all the rage.

There is still more time wasted at the beach party. Richard serenades his girlfriend Jane (Elaine DuPont) with his guitar. Then Jane sings, in a Betty Boop kind of voice, a goofy little ditty called “There’s a Monster in the Surf.” This seems a little insensitive after the beach murder of one of this gang’s friends (Gloria Neil) by some unknown creature. However, that is not nearly as insensitive as the cornball beach party humor is to the film audience. Again, this is another attempt to throw in everything that would engage the young drive-in crowd and add a bit to the running time. All these years later, I see this film as a cinema time capsule with a monster in it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There is the monster killing members of the surf and sand crowd, remember? That makes this movie one of that very specialized film subgenre: the beach party horror hybrid. Beach movies were popular with the kids and horror was always hip. So jam them together and this is what you get.

The Beach Girls and the Monster is another one of those little, old schlockers that I find so much easier to settle into and feel involved with than the mega-budgeted, hyperactive, and often phony and contrived junk called movies these days. In its own simple and naïve way, this film still manages to tell its tale with a truly insane finale that may disappoint or satisfy. I would say that it certainly defies the expectations of where this thing was headed and that it still makes a twisted kind of sense. I am just twisted enough to appreciate it. If anyone threw sand on my hotdog they would deserve whatever they get, no matter how sexy they are!