Get Yourself a College Girl

Okay, it's got Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, plus the Jimmy Smith Trio, so as others have said, if you like jazz, you've got two good scenes. Personally, I love the Dave Clark Five and The Animals, but the songs they perform here are far from their best. They aren't hits, and why they'd choose to waste filler material on a movie with the potential to reach a bigger audience is beyond me.

One of my pet peeves is when a film features a song clearly written by an older songwriter with a background in show tunes and the like, and tries to pass it off as a big pop hit. I can't fathom any universe in which the song performed by Mary Ann Mobley, "Get Yourself a College Girl", would be a hit. And yet she's presented to us as this major songwriter with her finger on the pulse of today's youth.

The script feels like it was thrown together on the set. Is it about Mary Ann Mobley being booted out of college? No, wait, it's about her fighting and falling in love with her publisher. Nope, never mind, it's about re-electing a senator. Oops, looks like we're out of time. The end. But before we go, here are the Dave Clark Five and The Animals to sing some more songs you've never heard of while we film them in a straight-on close up that looks like a mugshot.

As the song lyrics gush in the opening credits "Come on along and join the Swinging Set" as you watch this quite silly, but fun film about Terry (played by Mary Ann Mobley), a student at Wyndam College for Girls who writes songs under a pseudonym and already has her first hit single, a ditty called "Help Stamp Out Men!". When the college board finds out about her songs (with lyrics like "She knows all there is to know from A to Z about S - E - X") they want to expel her for bringing "scandal" to the school - so Terry and her gal pals agree to have "nothing to do with men" on their Christmas holiday ski vacation in Sun Valley. But, oh no, they are soon being chased around the resort by Terry's music publisher (Chad Everett) and a French artist who want her to pose for a publicity painting wearing nothing but guitar and baby doll nightie!

Actresses wearing bikinis and shorty nightgowns who can *barely* act combined with fake-looking snow scene backdrops, poorly lip-synched song performances, and handsome, but oh so boring young Chad Everett makes this sound like a pretty bad movie - but that's all completely part of the campy, nostalgic, 60s fun here! Yes, this film is a bit of fluff, but quite enjoyable. It is full of swinging party scenes at places like the Go Go Club, with kids dancing the Swim and Watusi, and lots of great, live performances by such groups as The Animals and The Dave Clark Five, and one of my favorite parts of the movie, Stan Getz along with the jazzy, cool girl performance done by Astrud Gilberto singing "The Girl from Ipanema" . Worth seeing for the music alone.

Yes, the jazz fans will certainly like parts of this movie. That's a very young Gary Burton playing vibes behind Stan Getz blowing sax and Astrud Gilberto singing the English version of "The Girl From Ipanema". At the time this movie was made, Burton had only been recording for a couple of years or so. (I don't recognize the bassist or drummer.) Another treat in this movie is the Jimmy Smith trio. There are copies of the Getz/Gilberto number on Youtube, but the quality is horrible. Now if they would just release this thing on DVD! They may have already, but it isn't readily available. If anyone knows anything about that, please post it!

Instantly forgettable and pretty bad color "rock n roll" film that's deadly dull. It's got all the clichés, like the older generation who doesn't "get it", and young people dancing and strutting their stuff in revealing outfits.

The female eye candy, in the form of pretty Mary Ann Mobley and her other girlfriends, are about all there is to watch in this deadly dull timepiece. Some of my favorite '60s groups, like The Animals and The Dave Clark Five, get to perform a few numbers on stage, but their material is just as underwhelming.

* out of ****

The acting and production values of this movie are about on a par with something like Don Knotts' The Reluctant Astronaut or one of those sixties Disney movies starring Haley Mills. Or one of the Ronald Reagan Bonzo movies. Not awful, but definitely in the "B" movie category.

The music is what makes this movie worth watching. Stan Getz's performance of the Girl from Ipanema, with a very deadpan vocal by Astrud Gilberto, is one high point.

The Dave Clark Five is also deadpan, wooden even, and it is easy to see why they didn't surpass the Beatles as some in the sixties thought they might. Classic performances by the Standells and the Animals are here too.

Along with Stan Getz, the Jimmy Smith Trio provides some great jazz.

A fun look into what middle-aged Hollywood screenwriters thought the younger generation was up to. Well worth watching. The studio is missing an opportunity by not releasing this film on DVD. I had to buy mine bootleg on an on-line auction.