Follow-up to 1956's "Rock, Pretty Baby" has teenage guitarist John Saxon and his rock 'n roll combo getting a month-long summer gig at a co-ed camp in Lake Tahoe; he has reluctant eyes for the wealthy lass whose family owns a house nearby ("a female octopus!"), but a visit from his steady girlfriend--not to mention the burden of babysitting his younger brother and sister--may scuttle any hopes for a summer romance. Muscular Saxon and shapely, cunning Jill St. John (in her film debut) both look good in their swimsuits, but this flimsy second-biller from Universal is strictly for sub-teens. Henry Mancini composed the score and co-wrote several of the songs (one assumes he quickly erased this title from his résumé). *1/2 from ****
3 Reviews
Beach Blanket Calypso
mark.waltz5 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I'm sure very few people, if any, wrote to Universal studios to ask for a sequel to the 1956 teen musical "Rock Pretty Baby", a decent but quickly forgettable film where at least you had Sal Mineo on the drums to make it a curiosity 65 years later. He's not in this one, but a few cast members return, including the lead here, handsome John Saxon, Fay Wray (minus her scream), Edward Platt and George "Foghorn" Williams, getting the bulk of the laughs as the smart aleck young brother.
Judi Meredith has taken over the role of Saxon's girlfriend, and Jill St. John is the sultry femme fatale. Molly Bee, Rod McKuen and Shelley Fabares are other familiar faces. Beverly Washburn is the precocious young teen who ends up being Winslow's foil, with Winslow probably the youngest misogynist I've ever seen on film.
The film is set at a local lake camp where is Saxon and his pals try to make some money by singing for the young crowd and ending up in all sorts of romantic predicaments. It's a standard plot, and the songs aren't really all that memorable, sounding much like the secondary songs from "Rock Pretty Baby". It's just an adequate teen film, once again making the teen problems seem more dramatic than they probably really were. Universal easily could have come up with a script featuring the same actors with different character names, and nobody would have noticed either way.
Judi Meredith has taken over the role of Saxon's girlfriend, and Jill St. John is the sultry femme fatale. Molly Bee, Rod McKuen and Shelley Fabares are other familiar faces. Beverly Washburn is the precocious young teen who ends up being Winslow's foil, with Winslow probably the youngest misogynist I've ever seen on film.
The film is set at a local lake camp where is Saxon and his pals try to make some money by singing for the young crowd and ending up in all sorts of romantic predicaments. It's a standard plot, and the songs aren't really all that memorable, sounding much like the secondary songs from "Rock Pretty Baby". It's just an adequate teen film, once again making the teen problems seem more dramatic than they probably really were. Universal easily could have come up with a script featuring the same actors with different character names, and nobody would have noticed either way.
The casting carries this movie
tforbes-230 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
"Summer Love" was a sequel to a 1956 movie, "Rock, Pretty Baby," carrying over many of the same cast members. Here, we have the same rock combo in a summer camp setting.
Filmed in summer 1957, and released the following spring, what sticks out for me is the interesting music--and the casting. We have older actors, such as Edward Platt and King Kong's Fay Wray. Rod McKuen makes an appearance here, and Shelly Fabares has an early role here.
The two people who really come to mind here are lead actor John Saxon, and Jill St. John, making her second big-screen appearance. This movie really began her movie career, one that lasted until 2002. One unusual aspect of her role here is that her voice seems lower in pitch than in most of her other movies. But it may be because she plays a teen femme fatale.
Too bad Turner Classic Movies has not aired this. It's not a world classic movie, but definitely worth a watch to see so many performers at an early stage in their career.
Filmed in summer 1957, and released the following spring, what sticks out for me is the interesting music--and the casting. We have older actors, such as Edward Platt and King Kong's Fay Wray. Rod McKuen makes an appearance here, and Shelly Fabares has an early role here.
The two people who really come to mind here are lead actor John Saxon, and Jill St. John, making her second big-screen appearance. This movie really began her movie career, one that lasted until 2002. One unusual aspect of her role here is that her voice seems lower in pitch than in most of her other movies. But it may be because she plays a teen femme fatale.
Too bad Turner Classic Movies has not aired this. It's not a world classic movie, but definitely worth a watch to see so many performers at an early stage in their career.
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