Monster of the Day #84

Updated on August 9, 2010 By Ken Begg 17 Comments


“Mother warned me about you fish men, and she was right!”

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  • Ericb

    She seems to be enjoying herself. So is this like The Party of Horror Beach?

  • BeckoningChasm

    Music by Frank Sinatra Jr!

  • Tork_110

    There’s a monster in the surf! (Yeah yeah yeah!)

  • David Fullam

    Monster like boobies!

  • John Campbell

    Just goes to show that CFBL was the Cary Grant of gillmen.

    You’d never catch him treating a woman like that.

  • Not-So-Great Cthulhu

    If that’s the beastie from Horror of Party Beach, then they used a different mask for this still than they did in the movie. It looks outright competent compared to every other shot I’ve seen of it…

  • Calypso

    As featured at the Whiskey a Go-Go!
    OK, how skewed is my perspective when the first thing I thought was “wow, that’s some hairdo for spending the day at the beach!”

  • BeckoningChasm

    This movie isn’t Horror of Party Beach; it’s Jon Hall’s last film, which he starred in and directed (and photographed). It’s called “The Beach Girls and the Monster,” a title which must have come about from several committees occupied for weeks with the “what should we name this” problem.

  • Rock Baker

    There’s an certain charm to Beach Girls and the Monster, some quirky element of fun that brings me back to it every summer. It certainly isn’t a good movie, but it has something going for it (which could be as simple as Elaine DuPont in a bikini).

    I’m thinking the girl in the photo wasn’t a professional model or anything, since she seems to be laughing (is she just excited to be involved in a movie, or is she amused by the Monster’s rubber face?).

  • Actually, Beach Girls and the Monster has been reviewed here. The link can be found in the main ‘Reviews’ menu.

  • The Rev.

    Man, how did people not recognize one of Jabootu’s own? *shakes head sadly*

    I figure she’s smiling because it’s a publicity photo, and people in those often smile when they shouldn’t (witness the actors smiling whilst doing that stupid dance in that one publicity card for Godzilla vs. Monster Zero…who could be happy doing that??) It does kind of undercut the menace…of course, so does that lame-ass monster…although I must admit, from that angle, it’d actually look pretty decent (except for the big goofy eyes).

  • Rock Baker

    The Monster probably COULD’VE worked, had they kept it to the shadows. When we first see it, its on the beach in broad daylight (more or less). It comes off a lot better when it attacks inside the darkened house, but by that time we’ve already seen it too clearly (thanks mostly to that weird scene where he’s standing behind the girl with his arms out but refuses to attack because she can’t see him). And yeah, they would’ve helped it a lot by giving it different eyes (slit pupils like a snake/cat would’ve brought it a long way, I think).

    Horror of Party Beach has also been reviewed here, by the way, at least the review is still up on the ‘old’ site -which I must note I find more visually appealing than all these black backgrounds.

  • Ericb

    I actually knew what movie this was from I was just making a bad joke regarding the laughing/terrified girl.

  • Tork_110

    The pictures in the Beach Girl review are down.

  • BeckoningChasm

    You could seriously draw a straight line where he’s staring…

    “Hey bub, my eyes are up here!”

  • Rock Baker

    Elaine Du Pont even looks adorable in slacks!

    I watched this one again last night, paired with Horror of Party Beach. I know from reading the review here that my copy of Beach Girls and the Monster is missing some footage, since all I have the 66 TV version “Monster From the Surf.” I hear the Wade Williams DVD release has restored some color footage, which I assume to be the surfing reel that gets viewed in Mark’s room, but I don’t recall any mention of this in the review.

  • Rock Baker

    I just went back and re-read the review, it looks like there are quite a few differences between 1964’s Beach Girls and The Monster and 1966’s Monster From the Surf. For one thing the titles must be different, since the review mentions the go-go girls during the credits and the monster being around for the title card, as well as a surf song with lyrics. My copy shows only a loop of surfing footage duirng the credits (which credit this cut to American International Pictures, while the original film was made by -I think- Academy Productions Inc. all that seems to imply that after the theatrical distribution by the producers, it was bought by AIP and sent to television). I think the surfing footage might be from the same shoot that provided the reel Richard and Mark are watching. The surfing footage again appears when Mark is eyeballing the go-go chicks at the beach, as the chicks are eyeballing the waves and commenting on their stock-footage boyfriends each being a master of the surf. I don’t recall Ken mentioning this little detail in the review. There is a fair amount of surfing footage, but its not like The Endless Summer or anything (for one thing, Bruce Brown’s surfing footage seems much more engaging than this ametuer stuff). The song meanwhile, is replaced with a generic instrumental piece that repeats about three times during the movie. I should note that the song has been replaced with much more skill than might be found in a later film, you can’t tell the music has been switched out unless you’re aware of there being a song in the theatrical version. They don’t intrude on the background noise or lines or anything, I was really rather impressed.
    The monster looming over the necking couple at the beach is also missing from Monster From the Surf. So the TV print has even less monster stuff! And if the print Ken reviewed had any color footage, it didn’t get a mention.