This was certainly an iconic film for me. When I saw it at age 12, I doubt my mother knew it was not just another beach movie. And I am not sure with my sketchy ideas of sex, if I picked up on all of it too.Four college co-eds (Hart, Prentiss, Mimieux and Francis) hit Fort Lauderdale with very different ideas about what they hope to find. One girl thinks she wants to find a sexual partner, one knows she does not, one is hoping to have a passel of babies, the other sings.
This movie manages to be frank in its depiction of 20 years olds in 1960, but idealistic too. It's not a great movie in terms of acting, directing, etc. But it captured the time pretty well--when we were very ambivalent about both feminism and sex. When youth gave little thought to whether they'd have jobs after graduation and instead concentrated on finding partners. Fun music too. You can find more movies at Todd Mason's blog.
12 comments:
A personal favorite of mine. I like the book, too.
This is one of Jackie's favorites. She will watch it any time it's on. (It was on a couple of weeks ago.) She always identified with Paula Prentiss, being tall herself.
Jeff M.
Never read the book, but I would love to see a reprint, with the strapline "From the author of THEY CAME TO CORDURA and THE SHOOTIST"!
I wanted to be Paula Prentiss for her height.
Never read the book either--not even sure I knew there was one. And what a strange group of screenplays.
The notion of Prentiss as unattractive because of her height was always puzzling to me as a yout'...TCM ran a little vignette in support of their play of this this week, wherein Prentiss (glad to see she looked hale and vital) notes that she and Jim Hutton were paired, as among the last contract players at their studio, in several films as the Giant Couple...
I saw that Todd, which is what made me think of doing the movie. That voice is still a knockout and she looked great. I remember Jim with Jane Fonda in THE TALL STORY. Maybe next week. Hutton died too young.
Wow! This really takes me back to my youth. I loved Paula Prentiss in WHERE THE BOYS ARE.
TCM has a series of the Gidget movies on today/tonight. This one was never a favorite. (Nor were the Gidget ones, just thought I'd mention it.)
I love the first Gidget movie with Sandra Dee. Not that is a good movie, indeed it is not. But it takes me back to the time when all things seemed possible.
I remember this one from my first year in college. I'd forgotten Paula Prentiss and her height, but remember liking her. My aural memory of Connie Francis singing this and several other songs from back then is pitch perfect. What a voice. I believe it was Tony Perkins in TALL STORY.
I remember this too from happy days gone by. Paula Prentiss was so overlooked and underused in her career. I loved her as the dizzy wannabe adulteress in THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT.
Love this movie. The 1980s remake is utter drek however.
/Where the boys are
Someone waits for me...
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