Search - The Beach Girls and the Monster on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1965 DVD Release: 05/07/2002 Format: DVD - Black and White,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 6 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Horror, Creature Film, Sex Horror, Beach Film

This hysterically awful rubber-suit monster romp stars Jon Hall (who also directed) as an embittered marine researcher who is so incredibly annoyed by the rock and roll antics of the fun-loving teens who hang out near his Waikiki beach house that he decides to create a slimy fish-monster to silence them once and for all. The beast manages to wipe out a fair portion of beach bums and bummettes, but somehow the pesky kids just keep multiplying and coming back more annoying than before -- surfing, gyrating (to tunes by Frank Sinatra, Jr.) and throwing the odd clambake. Not a very distinguished comeback for former Ramar of the Jungle Hall, this nevertheless has a certain ugly charm, according it "so-bad-it's-good" status. Released to television as Monster from the Surf. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Jon Hall - Otto Lindsey
Sue Casey - Vicki
Walter Edmiston - Mark
Arnold Lessing - Richard
Elaine DuPont - Jane Howard

The Wade Williams Collection -- home to Plan 9 from Outer Space and a multitude of other low-budget movies -- is the source for The Beach Girls and the Monster (aka Monster In The Surf), the 1964-vintage horror/surfer movie that's got a lot to recommend it: Jon Hall in his last acting role as well as directing, a score by Frank Sinatra Jr., dancers from the Whiskey A Go-Go -- plus the presence of Walker Edmiston (of Time For Beany fame). The movie is sort of an ultra low-budget cross of monster movie and the AIP Beach Party movies, with the expected shortcomings that would expect, but retaining most of the fun of the latter. The transfer is far better than many onlookers might assume a movie of this kind deserves -- mastered off of what looks like a fine-grain 35mm print or an original negative (letterboxed at 1.85-to-1), it looks far better than even a recent cablecast (on AMC's American Pop, if memory serves), with every detail in sharp relief, which only makes the monster look even sillier than it did anyway. The makers knew where the real money was going to be made from this movie, and went out of their way to photograph the "Watusi dancers from the Whiskey A-Go-Go" as well as possible, all of which can be appreciated now, though one can't get too far past the low budget that resulted in The Beach Girls and the Monster being shot in black-and-white, probably the only "beach party"-type movie ever photographed that way; the peculiar effect of this, however, is to impart a veneer of artiness that couldn't possibly even be imagined in a color beach movie. The other virtue is the sound, which is clearer and sharper than any television showing that this reviewer can recall of the movie during the later 1960's or 1970's. The disc opens automatically to the menu, which includes a second layer offering several bonus selections: A 6-minute montage of behind-the-scenes photos of the production and original art work; the original trailer, which is just long enoughto attract the viewer without promising anything more than the movie actually delivers in the way of laughs, chills, or dancing; and a script selection that is easier to access if you watch the disc on a computer. Tom Weaver's annotation is a dazzling example of wit, substance, and detail woven together. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide