| The Beach Girls and the Monster | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jon Hall |
| Produced by | Edward Janis |
| Written by | Joan Gardner |
| Starring | Jon Hall Sue Casey Arenold Lessing Elaine DuPont Walker Edmiston |
| Music by | Frank Sinatra Jr. Chuck Sagle |
| Cinematography | Jon Hall |
| Editing by | Radley Metzger Jon Hall |
| Distributed by | U.S. Films |
| Release date(s) | September 1965 |
| Running time | 70 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
The Beach Girls and the Monster (aka Monster from the Surf) is a horror film in the beach party style. Unlike most beach party films, it was shot in black & white. For some release prints, the surfing footage was printed in color. The onscreen copyright is 1964, although the film was not released until September 1965.
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Young Richard Lindsay (Arnold Lessing) has given up his career in science in favor of his newfound passion, surfing – and hanging out and having fun with his surfer friends and girlfriend Jane (Elaine DuPont) on the Santa Monica beachfront near his father and stepmother's house where he lives. This is to the great displeasure of his father, the noted oceanographer Dr. Otto Lindsay (Jon Hall), who is married to the somewhat younger Vicky (Sue Casey), who is fast becoming dissatisfied with Otto's relative lack of devotion to her. Also living with the Lindsays is Richard's sculptor buddy Mark (Walker Edmiston), who walks with a limp as a result of an auto accident Richard had earlier.
While Vicky hits on her stepson and teases his friend Mark, a loathsome seaweed shrouded monster starts slaughtering the kids on the beach. Dr. Lindsay seems convinced that it is a mutated carnivorous South American "fantigua fish" that has grown large enough to exist out of the ocean.
The surfing footage used for the scene where Richard runs a film for Mark was shot by one of the most prolific surf filmmakers of the 1960s, Dale Davis, who produced Walk on the Wet Side, Strictly Hot, and the landmark The Golden Breed.
According to the trailer for the film, the dancing girls seen in the movie are "The Watusi Dancing Girls" from Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go club on Sunset Boulevard.[1]
Most of the interior shots - specifically all those of the Lindsay home - were shot at the actual home of director and star Jon Hall.
All the sculptures and the 'Kingsley the Lion' puppet used in the film, were created by the actor who played Mark - Walker Edmiston, the host of "The Walker Edmiston Show", a children's television program in Los Angeles that featured featured puppets of his own creation including 'Kingsley the Lion.'[2]
Brian Chidester & Dominic Priore state in their book, Pop Surf Culture, that "the soundtrack of The Beach Girls and the Monster has got to rank up there among the best … no fewer than 13 different sections of full-bore, deep-reverb tank surf instrumentals throb the soundtrack." The score was arranged and conducted by Chuck Sagle, and a few of the musicians assembled for the soundtrack were members of the surf band The Hustlers (who are known for their songs "Kopout," "Inertia" and "Wailin’ Out") from Riverside, California.[3]
According to the film's credits, the theme song, titled "Dance Baby Dance," was written by Frank Sinatra, Jr. and Joan Janis, and produced by Edward Janis. Arnold Lessing, who plays Richard, wrote the song he sings in the film, "More Than Wanting You." Walker Edmiston and Elaine DuPont, who play Mark and Jane respectively, wrote "There's a Monster in the Surf."