Surf Party (1964) User Reviews

Another day at the beach

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 8 June 2018]

People who are nostalgic for Jackie DeShannon and a couple of Beach Boy wannabe rock and roll groups will have reason enough to watch Surf Party. For anyone else I can't say.

Bobby Vinton and Patricia Summer star in this shoestring budget beach film. Vinton owns a surf board shop and for reasons I cannot fathom the local law in the person of Richard Crane thinks he ought to assume responsibility for the local surfers. Ken Miller is the head of a clique of surfers who act more like hotrodders and folks who want to join the clique have to the equivalent of a surf chicken run.

The film is cheap and shoddy, the musical artists have their moments. I think Bobby Vinton was better served in those two John Wayne films he did.

"It may sound corny to you, but I believe in surfing!"

[moonspinner55 · 3/10 · 26 June 2016]

Southern California surf shop proprietor teaches three giggly girls from Phoenix to surf, but the flirty little blonde he's attracted to is the sister of Skeet Wells, the beach big shot and hot-dogger (he doesn't even answer his doorbell when his baby sister arrives...he's busy entertaining!). Black-and-white surf-genre entry from Twentieth Century-Fox has awkward segues from comedy to drama (usually involving Richard Crane as the local law), and from narrative into the music numbers (which include a faux calypso ditty and a hand-waving spiritual!). Singing stars Bobby Vinton and Jackie DeShannon are among the kids surfing, fighting, necking...and being warned to stay on the north side of the pier! Some of the cinematography is good (particularly at the beginning), but the repeated shots padding the movie give it a cheap, crummy feel. *1/2 from ****

B&W Beach Party knock-off lacks color of it's progenitor

[a_chinn · 5/10 · 7 October 2017]

I was hoping this Beach Party knock-off would have a similar campy charm as the Frankie & Annette AIP pictures or that it would be a cool surf picture like "Ride the Wild Surf," but it was sadly neither. Shot in black & white, this film lacked those films' vibrant colorful charms, both visually and textually. Three gals from Arizona hit the beach at Malibu and pair off with different local surfers, including Bobby Vinton. There's teen strife and the group also runs afoul a decidedly anti-surfing police sergeant. I did like some of the music, most all of the period surfing footage, and the teenybopper drama is kind of charming in a Archie/Riverdale sort of way, but overall it wasn't nearly as fun as the corny but highly entertaining Frankie & Annette pictures (which are movies that I'd secretly like to pull a "Purple Rose of Cairo" and step into).

Here's sand in your eye...

[SanFernandoCurt · 26 January 2009]

Hey. Let's be honest: How can you NOT like a beach party movie from the mid-'60s? Nobody expects "Last Summer at Marienbad"... It's going to be free and breezy, some forgettable songs, more-forgettable comedy, and comely girls DARING to wear bikinis in a long-ago age when young American females were expected to be more abdominally modest in their attire. "Surf Party" is interesting on a couple of levels. It's one of the first rip-offs of the Frankie/Annette AIP beach-blanket bonanzas; those films, directed by William Asher, had just kicked off the previous year (1963) after Hollywood long toyed with the beach-party genre in romps like "Gidget", "Where the Boys Are" and the wonderfully obscure "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" from 1961. Somehow, though, none of the studios pulled the trigger before American International Pictures released "Beach Party" and thereby established what instantly became a turgidly static formula: Girl and boy meet on the sand, frolic without sex, break up and get back together, through it all sporadically grooving to some c-grade musical acts. (Many of these films relied, unfortunately, on hastily assembled side-men "groups" playing awful, tin-pan-alley stuff.) This one avoids that grating pitfall with legitimate musical talent on hand, although Jackie DeShannon's intractable acting style all-but negates her singing performances.

"Surf Party" is standard fare in that it's a movie aimed at young people but evidently made by middle-aged guys who know little about '60s youth. There's a smirky, bemused treatment of teen-age interests, serving only to freeze the movie in awkward, uninformed detachment - like a birthday-party performer trying to entertain kids by showing them the elements of algebra.

But this is different: "Surf Party" is in black and white - in fact, it may just be the only beach party movie not in Sea-and-Ski color. Worth a look, if only because its probable pre-Kennedy assassination (even pre-Beatles) filming gives it a lost-innocence appeal missing even from later Pepsi-Generation navel bombardments. Bobby Vinton is... well... Bobby Vinton. However, Patricia Morrow is quite watchable, and brings more acting "heft" than these movies generally demand.

Here's a double bill, in case you're sitting around without a life: Pair up "Surf Party" with "Catalina Caper", the late-1967 swan song of the surfin' safari flicks.

A very poor attempt at copying the more successful beach party films starring Funicello and Avalon

[Ed-Shullivan · 5/10 · 19 June 2020]

I understand that film producers are greedy, lazy SOB's, and when they see a way to make an easy buck they jump at it. Such was the case with this film Surf Party which failed miserably from the get go with the horrible songs included in this film and the lousy doo wap singers who couldn't act if they had trained with Lee Strasberg or Stella Adler.

I did not laugh once, and the film quality must have been put together with minimal editing and no concern for the final product being released to theaters. It was definitely rushed to get released as a black and white film while the surf party movies starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon were so highly appreciated and accolades for their fun beach party mood and great songs sung by real singers with great voices.

I hate to rain on this Surf Party and singer Bobby Vinton's first film but it is a bummer and only deserving of an IMDB rating of 5 out of 10. I gave it one IMDB rating notch up from two (4) as the film did have the lovely Patricia Morrow included in some swim suit scene(s).

The Endless Bummer

[ptb-8 · 3/10 · 3 January 2006]

This film should be really a 10 on the entertainment scale because it is so hilariously awful. Made in black and white for the drive in circuit in 1964 maybe to cash in on RIDE THE WILD SURF and the AIP Frankie and Annette beach pix etc SURF PARTY is underwater it is so bargain basement. Four girls who all look the same drive daddy's massive convertible to 'the beach' towing the world's biggest cardboard caravan. Here they meet the beach set surfin' by day and groovin' by nite to the tunes hopefully soon the climb the pop charts sung by either THE ROUTERS (!) or THE ASTRONAUTS keenly seeking their big break. Bobby Vinton ad Jackie De Shannon are the stars and they are friends with someone called Milo who, in Big Wednesday style is gonna dare the waves to propel him through the barnacle encrusted legs of the local pier. All very nice, except the film has back projection surfing scenes, and most howlingly of all, 'creates' surf using the backwash from a speedboat - and doesn't disguise it. "Milo's going to shoot the pier" they scream in-between songs. The clothes are 60s fab and the cabana cottages are wonderfully cheaply decorated tiki style with sea-grass matting and shells and nets. I loved it. The audience screamed incessantly, and the songs and the gyrations that the cast are asked to perform are endlessly hilarious. Great fun. But not a 'solid' entry in the surf film / movie genre.

A Beach Movie with Lots of Singing & Dancing--but Not Much Comedy

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 1 March 2024]

This film begins with a young lady by the name of "Terry Wells" (Patricia Morrow) driving with two of her friends "Junior Griffith" (Jackie DeShannon) and "Sylvia Dempster" (Lory Patrick) from Arizona to the California coast to visit Terry's brother "Skeet Wells" (Jerry Summers). Upon their arrival, they meet a young man named "Len Marshal" (Bobby Vinton) who owns a surfboard shop near the beach and tells them where they can find a trailer park for their camper. Not long afterward, they also meet another young man named "Milo Talbot" (Ken Miller) who takes them to the local clubhouse where Skeet hangs out. It's then that the three young ladies learn that Skeet is the leader of a group of surfers who have built up a bad reputation with many of the local residents--with the local policeman named "Sergeant Wayne Neal" (Richard Crane) being the most outspoken critic. What the three young ladies don't realize, however, is that their presence will soon become a catalyst for all kinds of trouble involving everyone just mentioned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, even though this film is listed as a comedy, there really wasn't much humor to be found here at all. Lots of dancing and singing--but no real comedy that I could see. Likewise, although I don't normally have any problem with movies filmed in black & white, I have to say that movies of this specific type are much better in color as it enhances the overall effect. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a terribly bad "beach movie" necessarily, I don't believe it compares favorably to some of the others produced during this time, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Hollywood deals a crushing blow to integrity and common sense with this turkey

[richard-764 · 1/10 · 19 February 2013]

Abysmal film. So bad that watching it is like a traffic accident--it's horrible but you can't turn away. The cop in it is positively silly--the storyline (???) storyline, what storyline?? is beyond inane. The rear-projection surfing (if you can call it surfing) is beyond stupid. The whole movie stinks--Jimmy Haskell did the music score--he should have turned in his union card with this turkey's so-called music. The "surf" bands that play don't play. They act (horribly) as if they are playing. There are many bad surf films from Hollywood--but this one takes the cake. How bad can it get? Take one look at this embarrassment and you'll wipeout for good. Holy Moondoggie, didn't they have any "real" surfers who could tell them what was surfing and what were Hollywood idiots at the helm? The legendary Mickie Dora is in the film for a brief time, and Johnny Fain rides a few ankle-sized waves. Otherwise, it's nowhere, man.

Definitely one of the most fun surf movies of the 60's

[annepietro · 10/10 · 20 August 2006]

I just watched this film after I found it in a video store. This is the one of the first and I would say one of the best (other than Beach Blanket Bingo) of the surf movies of the 60's. Bobby Vinton, Patricia Morrow and Jackie DeShannon are on their way to a fun weekend beach vacation, where they meet the whole gang. The other teens can't act (or sing, or dance) but they all look great in bathing suits and there's buff guys and gorgeous girls for everybody to enjoy, especially Patricia Morrow.

As we all know, these kinds of movies are not dealing with reality...but it's fast and campy (if you see a good print like I did),very campy, but some of the acting just isn't there. The songs are actually one of the highlights of this film and the dialog is (I assume) purposely laughable.

The music is what really attracted me to this picture. My favorite groups were The Routers and The Astronauts. The Routers played, "Crack Up" featuring the prolific composer and film producer, Michael Z. Gordon. Gordon also produced, "Let's Go" by the Routers and wrote and produced, "Sufer's Stomp" and "Out Of Limits by the Marketts. The Marketts soundtrack album was one of the best surfing albums which I still play to this day.

Most of this film was relegated to chasing beautiful girls around in their bathing suits. Still it was a lot of fun!

Great Viewing

[aimless-46 · 7/10 · 21 September 2008]

"Surf Party" (1964) is essentially a musical version of "Gidget" (1959), with stuntman Jerry Summers in the Big Kahuna role and singer Bobby ("Blue Velvet") Vinton playing Moondoggie. Terry Wells (Patricia Morrow) and her two girlfriends (think three Gidgets) tow a travel trailer to the beach where her black sheep older brother Skeet (Summers) holds court as the hottest surfer.

Len (Vinton) runs the local surfboard shop (like Bear in "Big Wednesday" but not as spiritual) and interfaces with the resident fuzz (Richard Crane). Milo (Ken Miller-a sort of poor man's Nick Adams) is a gremmie (overeager novice) who aspires to membership in the surfer lodge; the rite of passage being a dangerous ritual called running the pier. Junior (singer Jackie DeShannon) serves as a love interest for the hapless Milo.

But the main story centers on adoring little sister Terry. This is her coming of age story and she is romanced by Len while learning (with the rest of the beach crowd) some unpleasant things about Skeet. Morrow was quite a beauty with a lot of natural charm. She would become relatively famous a couple years after this film, playing one of the main characters on television's "Peyton Place".

The production design is pure 1964 southern California but Skeet's beach house is a far cry from The Big Kahuna's hut. One glance at his bedroom furnishings will have you thinking Ed Wood, but all of this is eventually explained.

Like a standard musical these characters will burst into song at the drop of a hat and there are several numbers by actual singing groups. The Routers play "Crack Up". The Astronaunts play "Fire Water" and the title song. Almost everyone gets a song. Obviously this stuff is dated but some is rather good and even the worst is not unpleasant.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Somewhat more serious than usual for the genre

[Wizard-8 · 4 September 2017]

With the success of American-International's "Beach Party" movie series, it was inevitable that other studios would try to cash in on that success. Some efforts were made by major studios, while other efforts were made by independents, "Surf Party" being one of these independent efforts (though it was picked up by a major studio for distribution.) It's interesting to compare this movie to the "Beach Party" movies. It's done on a much lower budget, for one thing, filmed in black and white instead of color. The song number are less polished for the most part as well. But the biggest difference is that this movie's tone is much more serious than what was found in the "Beach Party" movies; even the ending isn't all that upbeat. I can only imagine what youths in 1964 thought of the somewhat downer tone. Probably they would also object to a storyline that quite often feels like it was being made up as filming went along. The atypical scripting does give the movie some interest, but I would only recommend the movie to those researching beach movies of the 1960s as an odd example of the genre.

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun...

[cara7890 · 9/10 · 20 August 2006]

A bunch of us just watched this film together and it was just a lot of fun, fun, fun! I mean, c'mon, you can't take these surf movies seriously. It's not going to win any awards or anything like that, but sometimes it's just enjoyable to watch old surf films because of the rock stars and the surf music from the 60's.

Two of my favorite songs in this film were performed by The Routers and The Marketts, two of the groups which were formed by Michael Z. Gordon. The Routers played, "Crack Up" and "Let's Go!". Their LP is still in my music collection today. I also like the Astronauts who I think are still performing.

You can't watch this film for it's acting, photography or production value. But if you want to watch it as a flashback to the early surfing days, then this is a perfect film for you to watch cuz it's a fun, fun, fun film to watch!

There's "Glory," "The Killing Fields" and then "Surf Party."

[Poseidon-3 · 15 January 2009]

The gut-wrenching trauma of oppressive life among the sand and surf set is examined in this hard-hitting, powerhouse portrayal. Or not. Morrow, DeShannon and Patrick play three young girls who set off in their convertible (with a trailer in tow) for the shores of California in order to find Morrow's brother and kick up their heels. Before long, Morrow has found not only her brother, but also earnest surfboard proprietor Vinton, Patrick has fallen for the brother (Summers) and DeShannon has been snagged by paunchy, Lloyd Bridges-esquire Miller. Unfortunately, Summers has developed a bad reputation with the local authorities due to his clan of surfers who can only gain entry to his realm by guiding their boards, unlawfully, between the pylons of a nearby pier. Police detective Crane (who appearance is frequently heralded by a "Peter Gunn"-like anthem) keeps showing up, insinuating himself into everyone's business as he tries to keep order on the beach. When Miller bangs himself up trying to surf the pier, things come to a head and there's a scuffle, putting the relationships in turmoil and causing some people to alter their life course somewhat. (Oddly, despite the fact that some couplings are made to appear solid and lasting, the final frames of the movie ::::SPOILER:::: show the three girls back in their car heading home, happy and without a backward glance!) Vinton, primarily known for his singing, is far from the worst actor to populate a film in this genre, but he's also not anything remarkable. His primary song, which is sung twice, is a matter of taste. Morrow, later to be known for her work on the "Peyton Place" TV series, is okay. In some shots, she resembles Teri Garr. DeShannon's speaking voice is nothing short of excruciating to listen to and her laugh is even more upsetting. She's another performer better known for her singing talents. Again, her songs here are a matter of taste and certainly don't rank among her better efforts such as "What the World Needs Now" or "Put a Little Love in Your Heart!" Miller is fairly preposterous, never more so than when he breaks out into a butt-swinging gyration at a party while outfitted in an arm and shoulder brace following his accident. The award for most egregious (and hysterical) overacting goes to Patrick who has several scream-inducing thespian moments. Stewart makes a brief (and welcome) appearance as a glamorous and brittle other woman. Low budget in the extreme, there are many head-scratching and eye-rolling moments throughout. One of the chief giggles is the interior set of the trailer the girls pull. It's about 2 to 3 times bigger than the exterior and no attempt is made to hide the fact that there's no ceiling! There's some pretty pitiful surfing footage, some really awkward and unenthusiastic dancing (check out the guy clapping in line during DeShannon's number!) and a lot of static, non-engrossing scenes. The best thing about it is that it only clocks in at 68 minutes in length!

What respectable surfer doesn't like a Surfing Movie????

[michaelzstuff · 10/10 · 28 July 2014]

C'mon admit it, how could you not like a surfing movie where the sharks don't eat anyone or the waves don't sink your boat or drown the captain. I mean, give 'em a break. A surfing movie has surfing hotties and kissing and humping so what more do you want??? And especially since it has so many cool bands such as the Routers playing "Crack Up" and some great actors of the 60's.

Okay, all right, it didn't cost twenty million to produce (only about $30,000) and look at the quality photography. But you try to make a movie for $30 thousand and see what you come up with. And that Michael Gordon was one handsome musician and the song wasn't that bad. So please, before you hang them by the testies simply because it wasn't perfect, who is? If you can admit you're not perfect, then give them a break and "like' this movie so more of these luscious surf movies can be made on micro-budget.

Don't Rate A Movie By Its Title: As People Already Have...

[TheFearmakers · 9/10 · 20 April 2019]

First off, before the review, there's gotta be a reason for certain movies that no one has seen to be rating almost below a four, and it must have something to do with the title, or type of movie, in this case, a 1960's low-budget surfing teen (or teens surfing) flick... But here goes...

In SURF PARTY, Bobby Vinton plays a nice guy who runs a surf shop, and gets the last song in this, the second Maury Dexter teen movie and first bonafide beach movie, and by far, in-between THE YOUNG SWINGERS and WILD ON THE BEACH, is the best. Well written and character-driven, this SURF PARTY has three babes driving to the beach in a trailer to meet one of the girl's brothers, Skeet, a champion surfer and leader of a grungy pack of beach bums...

Though this blond-haired girl-next-door sister is intentionally played down next to the two cliche "bombshell" types (songwriter Jackie DeShannon and Lory Patrick), Patricia Morrow stands out as the legend's passive yet still energetic, and completely adorable sister: Eventually she has to talk sense into both a smitten Vinton and her troubled, mysterious older brother (Jerry Summers, who'd become a stunt man from MAGNUM FORCE to MIDNIGHT RUN)...

All the girls wind up with a dude: one the token dip i.e. a "gremmie" trying hard to be part of the surf club even by risking his life, which initially cold-hearted Skeet can care less about. In most movies about youth at this time, there's always a snoopy yet ultimately friendly cop. Since no real laws are broken except loitering the beach, this particular detective gets in the way but it doesn't matter. The kids, each with their own distinctive personalities, make up for the built-in flaws of a b-surf drive-in flick with more to offer than even the famous ones.

What was that like,

[inspectors71 · 21 April 2016]

sitting in your folks' Town and Country wagon at the drive-in with a girlfriend and a couple other friends, watching this idiotic little piece of duck fluff called Surf Party? It's 1964, the Beatles have just landed, the Maddox and Turner Joy are--or are not--getting shot at in the Gulf of Tonkin, JFK is dead (that fracture will hurt forever), LBJ is going to win this fall.

America's sauce is strong, and surfer movies are all the rage.

What was that like, living in a bygone era, where no one could imagine the bodies stacking up like cord wood, Watts, MLK and RFK bled out, Tet, Panthers, Nixon, Kent State; what horrors the following years would bring.

Armstrong and Aldrin were still rookies. Nobody in your circle knew what pot smelled like. Heroin was only a problem for "Negroes." A sugar cube was for coffee.

What would it be like to step into that way-back machine . . .

And forget?