Palm Springs Weekend is one of those college kids go away on spring break for a weekend of fun and frivolity things. It was made mostly because MGM had made a film called Where The Boys Are, which was a similar themed movie about college kids on break in Ft. Lauderdale. The movies have a lot in common, they both feature actors that look way too old to play college students, and they both hint at the idea of pre-martial sex (without actually mentioning it by name) as something that goes on in college, but is probably a very bad and messy thing.
Warner Brother's wasn't fooling around when they made this film, they used actors from their TV series and shot most of it on studio sets, with a little location filming in the desert. There was a particularly lame backdrop on a set that was supposed to be a parking lot for a Casino which looked pretty cheesy. However the awesome Palm Springs Motel set is pretty retro cool.
Troy Donohue (and his awesome hair), played the captain of the college basketball team who is studying to be a doctor. He hooks up with Stephanie Powers in her career defining role as "Bunny" the daughter of the Chief of Police of Palm Springs. When Stephanie throws herself at Troy toward the end of the film for some pre martial dirty stuff, Troy the future Doctor turns her down. What a gentleman.
A couple of other cast members to take note of are Jerry Van Dyke as the zany friend of Troy Donohue. His shtick gets old pretty fast since his performance consists of mugging for the camera every chance he can get. Jack Weston plays the coach of the basketball team and he was no small scene stealer himself, the difference between a Jack Weston and a Jerry Van Dyke is that Weston actually had some acting talent. But probably the best performance in the movie is by Robert Conrad from the The Wild Wild West. He gives a pretty decent performance as a spoiled rich kid with some significant father issues. Who would have thought that he had it in him.
This is the kind of a movie where someone's idea of being real cool is to whip out their banjo and play it for all the hot 60's babes around the pool. There is also a pretty decent fight between the college guys and a gang of street toughs at a party. The party is a little to square to be believed even for 1963, the hostess announces "there is beer in the kitchen and the bed rooms are off limits."
I still found the film very enjoyable after all these years and don't kid yourself, they still pop out junk like this in Hollywood even today.
100 minutes.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment