The early sixties were ripe with sun & music filled comedies featuring groovy guys and gals chasing each other around on the beach for the weekend.
One very successful entry was 1963's PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND, loaded with stars of the era and enough harmless comedy to fill any resort.
Troy Donahue is college quarterback Jim, who falls for Stephanie Powers as Bunny, the daughter of the local sheriff (Andrew Duggan from "Our Man Flint").
An impossibly young, pre "Wild Wild West" Robert Conrad is a rich kid with a lot of bad attitude (dig those driving gloves baby) and Jerry Van Dyke provides plenty of physical comedy as the only other Biff I've ever seen in the movies.
Jack Weston (Dirty Dancing, Gator) is hilarious as a frustrated football coach and Ty Hardin (PT 109) is a giant Texas lineman.
Written by Earl Hamner Jr. (The Waltons)! there are a couple lessons to be told about personal responsibility that land with a John Boy Walton thud, but overall there are a lot more jokes than moralizing.
Connie Stevens was everywhere in the 60s and 70's and plays Conrad's quest Gayle, who woefully pretends to be someone she's not, giving Hamner another life lesson to wrap the movie.
Director Norman Taurog made plenty of Elvis movies and Jerry Lewis classics and brings the same light touch & manic energy this time.
If you need any evidence that college life has changed pretty dramatically in the past 60 years, go ahead and give this time capsule a view. We laughed as much at the depictions of teens as we did the jokes. I'm not sure why every college kid in the early sixties dressed in a suit & tie, but it certainly adds novelty.
"Lost In Space" fans, watch for Billy Mumy as Boom-Boom, a devilish brat causing resort wide havoc, just before he was cast as Will Robinson in the original series. He's hilarious.
Lightweight, nostalgic fun, I hadn't seen this movie in nearly 50 years. Anyone under 30 will think it takes place on another planet.
Goofy throwback fun, it gets a B-.
Sharp-eyed classic TV fans: watch for the debuts of Dawn Wells (Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island") and Linda Gray (Sue Ellen on "Dallas").
The poster had me at "....and look at all the swingers who are in it!!"
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