Follow the Boys

From the title, I guess I was expecting bouncy nonsense like Where The Boys Are (1960) or one of the Gidget puff pieces of the early '60's. Instead the 90-minutes flattens out into a talkfest that undermines both hints of comedy and what little music there is. In fact, the poignant Francis is largely wasted amid an expanded cast and forgettable songs. Instead we get an almost endless series of one-on-one personal palavers as the four couples try to straighten out their relationships with nothing more lively than table talk. It's almost like someone's getting paid by the word. What the movie does have are scenic settings of the French and Italian Rivera where the Navy puts into port and their girls follow them. These are certainly visual treats. Also, the little pink jalopy is a good touch that represents the sort of imagination that should have crafted the film as a whole. Anyway, fans looking for beach bunny escapism should unfortunately look elsewhere.

Connie Francis' big MGM recording career was over by the time this film came out in summer 1963. The actual title tune had hit the top ten over a year earlier, and Francis' recordings following this time were to receive only minor success. She could have gone on to movie stardom -- but not in a vehicle like this. This really seems like MGM didn't care about this movie. The script was poor, which was the biggest sin. Francis' acting carried the film well and cannot be faulted, but the songs she was given to sing were execrable. None of them were her hits, nor were they in the pop genre, for which she was noted and appreciated. This movie gets seven stars only out of respect for Francis -- the film by itself deserves a four. Connie Francis should have read MGM the riot act. This film was to lead to the box office disaster, Looking for Love, also recipient of a "bad script" award. Poor Connie just could not win.

In her period of movie stardom singer Connie Francis got a bunch of lightweight vehicles from MGM which were more designed to give her opportunities to sing and sell a few records. A movie career was strictly an afterthought for Connie Francis, the best of her films was the remake of Girl Crazy and that had Gershwin score going for it as well.

The featherweight plot of Follow The Boys has Connie with two other of her peers Paula Prentiss and Dany Robin being chaperoned around by the older Janis Paige on the way to their navy husbands and sweethearts who are enjoying duty on the Italian Riviera. Not much to say but all the couples go through the usual mating games. The men are Ron Randell, Richard Long, Roger Perry, and Russ Tamblyn.

There really isn't much more to say that you'll love the film if you like Connie Francis and her singing. She gets seven songs in the score.

Four women, in various stages of romantic pursuit, "Follow the Boys" (men, actually) around European ports, mostly from a dilapidated old jalopy. The four females are: Connie Francis (as Bonnie Pulaski), Paula Prentiss (as Toni Denham), Janis Paige (as Liz Bradville) and Dany Robin (as Michele Perrier). Their "Boys" are: Russ Tamblyn (as Wadsworth Smith), Richard Long (as Peter Langley), Roger Perry (as Billy Pulaski), and Ron Randell (as Ben Bradville). The cast is likable, but the film is dull. Ms. Francis, not coincidently MGM's top selling recording artist, is especially noteworthy; with relatively little experience in films, she performs as well as anyone. However, Francis isn't given enough to do. After an Italian wine-stomping event, all's well that ends well.

**** Follow the Boys (2/27/63) Richard Thorpe ~ Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Russ Tamblyn

Comedy trying to cash on the fresh approach to sexual mores of «Where the Boys Are» (1960), but Connie Francis, who provided songs and a few comic lines in that one and received first credit in this one, was not as lucky as Dolores Hart, whose character establishes the tone of the 1960 cult film with her defense of free sex in one of the first scenes. Francis' singing is not enough to carry this comedy afloat; and Janis Paige is wasted in a melodramatic role. Locations are attractive, and Paula Prentiss, Russ Tamblyn and Dany Robin are okay, but the three of them had better moments in their film careers than the silly situations provided by the scriptwriters. «Follow the Boys» has some value, though, as a comic dramatization of the story of the women called "seagulls", who followed their mates, love interests, or easy ways to get a green card, from port to port in Europe. Although today it is not a very flattering portrait of modern woman, the fact that this motion picture was made at all makes one think that it seemed more than adequate for the post-war population. But even by 1963 standards Richard Thorpe's direction was tired, the songs were forgettable, and the script was poor.