The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)

Surfers are being brutally murdered. Is the culprit a sea monster or just one of the teens' jealous parents?

Director:

Jon Hall

Writers:

Joan Gardner (screenplay), Joan Gardner (story),

Stars:

Jon Hall, Sue Casey, Walker Edmiston

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jon Hall	...	Dr. Otto Lindsay
Sue Casey	...	Vicky Lindsay
Walker Edmiston	...	Mark
Elaine DuPont	...	Jane
Arnold Lessing	...	Richard Lindsay
Read Morgan	...	Sheriff Michaels
Carolyn Williamson	...	Sue
Gloria Neil	...	Bunny
Kal Roberts	...	Brad (as Tony Roberts)
Clyde Adler	...	Deputy Scott
Dale Davis	...	Tom
Kingsley the Lion	...	Himself

Storyline

A young girl is killed at the beach in Malibu. Professor Otto Lindsay suspects that it is some form of mutated fish. However, his son Richard, who was a good friend of the girl, thinks that it is a madman who has a grudge against Richard and his friends. Soon the list of victims grows to include one of Rich's surfing buddies, Rich's bitchy stepmother Vicky and his friend Mark who was crippled in an auto accident.

---

Plot Keywords:

monster | beach | surfing | stepmother | murder | 

---

Taglines:

Surfer Chicks and Slimey Chills!

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

September 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Monster from the Surf

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Academy Productions, Edward Janis

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most of the interior shots were filmed at Jon Hall's house.

---

Goofs

From the outside, the drainage pipe is small, with rounded metallic walls, but when Richard is inside it, it is much larger and the walls are concrete and squared.

---

Quotes

Vicky Lindsay: Is that any way to talk to your stepmother?
Richard Lindsay: Stepmother. You're not fit to be anyone's mother.

---

Connections

Edited into Out of this World Super Shock Show (2007)

---

Soundtracks

"There's a Monster in the Surf"
Written by Walker Edmiston and Elaine DuPont
Performed by Elaine DuPont and Kingsley the Lion

User Reviews

You know that a movie has got a problem...

... when you see a boom mike in the trailer!

"The Beach Girls and the Monster" features a clear shot of Sue Casey speaking on the phone during the trailer. With a boom mike above her. And the perch.

The movie itself has a delightful scraping the barrel approach when it comes to exploitation. You can find the two main sub-genres from the 60's b-movies melting: the monster movie and the beach movie. Both aspects are indeed badly done. The monster is everything but frightening and one has to wonder why any of his victims hadn't the idea to kick him between the legs. And the beach part is so cliché ridden it looks like a "Lord Loves A Duck" sequence, except for the fact that "Lord Loves A Duck" was a parody (also featuring boom mikes on screen). There's for instance, for comic relief, a ventriloquist and his lion Kingsley who duets with the girls on a corny song. Actually, he could be the worst ventriloquist on Earth: he carries a false beard to hide his moving lips.

Then, you find all the features of cheap exploitation movies. Washed-out actors playing the parts of supposedly attractive characters. "Teenagers" that were last seen in high school 15 before the shooting. Big names on the credits, like Frank Sinatra. Even if you must add "Jr" as that's his son, Frank Jr, and he merely wrote the score (mostly lounge jazz and a few Beach Boys attempts). Actually, Mark (Walter Edmiston) looks a little like Sinatra as the sculptor that Sue Casey teases. (By the way, his sculptures are not exactly flattering even for a fading beauty like Ms Casey.)

Jon Hall, for his only directing credit, shot the thing cheaply and quickly. His house was a convenient place for inner shots and he tends to use zooming extensively to end a scene without making another shot. It's irritating even when it's Luchino Visconti who's directing and Jon Hall is apparently no Visconti.

And there's the story, or indeed the lack of story. You also know that a movie has got a problem when Robert Silliphant is credited for "additional dialogue". Silliphant took a writing hand in both "The Creeping Terror" and "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?". In other words, he's responsible for two of the lamest screenplays of all times! "The Beach Girls and the Monster" is his third and final screen credit. So I have to wonder how much Silliphant improved the original screenplay.

On the plus side, the girls on the beach (actually the dancing troupe from the Whisky-A-Go- Go club) have tight bikinis and giggles as if they were Shakira's mother. Or grandmother. So, every movie has a redeeming quality.