A Swingin' Summer

This forgotten, parenthetical beach bikini movie actually takes place on a lake... Arrowhead, to be exact... where two guys and a girl take over an abandoned low-rent dance-festival, which is pretty easy given that pretty redhead Quinn O'Hara has her rich dad secretly funding it... A secret since her good-looking boyfriend William Wellman Jr. Has too much pride to want anyone's help...

Well that's the plot, and there's hardly any urgency except for a quick breakup when a rich jerk eyes the girl while a scheming rich lady nabs the guy - plus a water-skiing bully and a few 11th hour thugs...

But with cute and skinny girl-next-door Mary Mitchell as O'Hara's flirtatious, perpetually hungry friend and future iconic bombshell Raquel Welch initially wearing glasses, strategically hiding her perfect body while (for reasons unexplained) jotting notes about the main character's sidekick James Stacy (who's still first billed), A SWINGIN' SUMMER is more about the good times than those attempting to ruin them...

A fairly decent time-filler residing between the glossy Frankie/Annette flicks, and, despite the misleading title, it came out right before hippies were too darn hip for this kind of lightweight, old fashioned (even then) entertainment.

...with the proviso that it's not very good either. A SWINGIN' SUMMER is a low budget, feel good effort that features a number of notable musicians of the day doing their thing, while a slimline storyline sees a bookish girl transformed into a fun-loving beauty. It's a little like the later teen sex comedies along the lines of MALIBU BEACH, although much tamer and not as much fun.

Raquel Welch (ONE MILLION YEARS BC) is the star attraction here in her debut feature (she'd acted before, but not been credited for it). Her acting remains iffy, but her looks are certainly memorable. A SWINGING' SUMMER does away with niceties of 'normal' cinema by not bothering with characterisation or a proper script, instead summoning up a party atmosphere throughout.

Some of the music acts are fun, particularly a nice turn from the Righteous Brothers who do their thing right at the climax. The setting is one Lake Arrowhead, and the stand-out set-piece involves two guys slugging it out in one of the most poorly-shot fight scenes ever. Elsewhere there's a whole lot of bad dancing and cheesy acts, and not much in the way of real reasons for viewers to tune in.

Cheapjack fun-in-the-sun teen opus from United Screen Arts probably had worse acting, directing and cinematography than most television shows from the same era. Two guys and a gal from Los Angeles take a car trip up to Lake Arrowhead for summer jobs, but the plug has been pulled on the village's big music concert; the trio comes up with the cash to put on a show themselves (unwittingly taking money from the girl's wealthy father), featuring happening acts like Gary Lewis, the Rip Chords and the Righteous Brothers. James Stacy brings some low-keyed cool to the witless proceedings, but co-stars William Wellman Jr. and Quinn O'Hara act about as well as they dance (not a compliment). The main reason to see the film isn't the top-billed stars, anyway--that honor would go to Raquel Welch, who gets an "introducing" credit as a kissless sexpot in black-rimmed glasses who quotes Freud. Welch (whose future husband, Patrick Curtis, is listed as the associate producer) didn't possess the show-biz savvy at this point to transcend the third-rate material, but she makes the most of it, and even gets her own song. The music acts add some bounce, but the location is poorly photographed and the 'dramatic' macho one-upmanship seems to come out of nowhere. *1/2 from ****

This is a fun-enough teenage romp. I'd love to see this in widescreen, along with another release from United Screen Arts, ONE WAY WAHINE.

When the picture opened at two Seattle drive-in theaters, Raquel Welch appeared in person at both theaters one Saturday night. Of course, she was pretty unknown at that time. About a year later, ONE MILLION YEARS BC would thrust her onto the map forever. I wish I had attended one of those drive-in shows.

This would be a really fun movie for anyone who grew up in the 60s. Many of the 60s dances are seen, such as The Swim, The Watusi, The Pony and, of course, The Twist. A valuable record of a fun slice of American pop culture. Watching the Righteous Brothers sing "Justine" was just fantastic (despite sound issues). In her first featured film role, 24-year-old Raquel Welch also makes her singing debut with a sizzling song and dance solo. Sure, the movie is a bit campy, but sometimes girls (and guys) just want to have fun. Right, Cyndi?

The only problem is that I could not find an original 2.35:1 aspect ratio to watch. All the streaming services had letterbox for the opening credits, but then unfortunately switched to one of the most awful 4:3 TV crops I've ever seen. It ruined most of the dances. Instead of picking somebody, anybody, upon whom to focus, you get half a body on the left and half of another body on the right. They might as well have coined a new dance, "The One-Cheek Sneak."