The Horror Of Party Beach!

The Horror of Party Beach from 1964 is one of those hapless cheapo flicks you cannot take your eyes off of, or at least that's what I discovered. Your mileage on this one might vary -- I cannot vouch for this movie at all. What I can say is that if  you want to listen to some not-terrible rock 'n roll tunes from the early 60's and see some surprisingly realistic beauties dancing on the beach this is a movie for you. There are also some very hilarious monsters, some fry-your-eyes-out acting and even a "motorcycle gang".

The story begins when our hero Hank and his rambunctious girl Tina show up for a beach party which is also attended by a motorcycle gang. Hank and Tina are fighting, she blows him off and takes up with the top cyclist before taking an impromptu swim in the bay which just so happens to have a monster, one created when human bones are slathered with radioactive waste. The monster kills her pretty quickly and the party is over. The town is in an uproar (but not so much that anyone actually appears to alter their behavior) and the monsters start stalking around killing drunks, sorority girls, and anyone else they stumble across. Meanwhile Hank and his new girl Elaine, conveniently the daughter of the local scientist work with aforementioned scientist to discover the origin of the monsters and stop their spree. They do as you of course already know, but it's a wild and rocky excursion to get there.

This flick was given the fumetti treatment by the folks as Warren Magazines and so I guess achieved some sort of cult identity as a consequence of this relative permanence in the imagination. The director, a mild-mannered actor named Del Tenney just wanted to make a quick buck with a couple of drive-in offerings and appears to have as flabbergasted by the staying power of this insane romp as anyone. The musical offerings of the beach band named the "Del-Aires" are almost good, but are certainly ear-worm ready. Our hero and heroine are pure stiffs and a hapless stereotypical maid named Eulabelle (yep she's the only black character in the movie) acts rings around everyone and also supplies most of the original thinking.

The Horror of Party Beach can be seen in all its black and white awesomeness on a dvd it shares with The Curse of the Living Corpse, a more straightforward period haunting by the same director produced at the same time for the big outdoor screens of the day. If you're into oddball monster movies in the vein of a hapless Ed Wood vein, this package might well fill the bill. I found it more than a tiny bit entertaining.

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