Vênus da Praia

No one will ever say that The Girl from Jones Beach is any kind of masterpiece film, but it did provide Ronald Reagan one of the few opportunities to demonstrate a flair for comedy.

Reagan is an artist whose subject matter is beautiful women. He's in fact put together quite a collection of photographs of women who have the most beautiful body part, subject A: best hips, subject B: best ankles, etc. Put them all together with their best features showing and you have the perfect woman.

One day Reagan and pal Eddie Bracken spot Virginia Mayo in a bathing suit on Jones Beach. Here's where some comparisons to the Warner Brothers Marion Davies film Page Miss Glory can be made. She also is a walking composite photograph.

Of course Mayo is a school teacher who's not particularly interested in having a career exposing her body to the leering male population. I think you can figure out the rest of this.

Another reviewer said that this would be interesting as a horror film remake. Actually there was such a film made that starred Lilli Palmer, The House That Dripped Blood. Same premise about body parts.

Reagan does show good comedic abilities. He tries to woo Mayo by pretending to be an immigrant taking a night school class she runs for prospective citizenship applicants. His mittel-europa accent that he puts on is no worse than Rock Hudson's Texan speech in Pillow Talk.

It looked like the cast was having a good time filming this thing and the results are positive.