'BEACH GIRLS' NO FUN TO BE AROUND

'BEACH GIRLS' NO FUN TO BE AROUND

Miami Herald, The (FL) - June 2, 1982

Author: BILL COSFORD Herald Movie Critic

Girls. Girls. Girls. Acres of 'em. Tummies, thighs and heaving breasts, squirmy toes and giggles. It's Beach Girls, a drive-in product that has somehow oozed into the neighborhood theaters in the week before the big summer movies arrive.

It's about these three high-school girls -- Sarah, Ginger and Ducky -- who stay in Uncle Carl's guest house and invite lots of boys, and meanwhile, out on the ocean there's this pot- smuggling boat and a Coast Guard cutter with a gay crew and the dope gets dumped overboard, and just about the time that the girls think their party's over, here comes the dope washing ashore and well, there you have it. Beach Girls.

Somebody asked me if this was a "takeoff" on the old beach- party movies , a kind of updating of Annette and Frankie and the surfers against the bikers. Naw. It's not a takeoff on anything. It's the softest of softcore, a breast-a-thon for the lonely. All that really happens is that folks disrobe, as quickly -- perfunctorily, actually -- as possible, the better to effect a new costume change and a new jettisoning of halter top.

The girls hit the beach, and it's swish, off with the tops. The girls see a swimming pool and zip, free again. A frisky pup scampers up to the sunbathers, and whoops. The girls find a
break in the action at the house party, trade blank glances and whoo-boy.

Of course, if these are high-school girls then the system has indeed collapsed; Sarah and Ginger are at least 25 apiece, and that wistful look in Ducky's eyes is the gaze of a gal
recalling 30 from the mature side. But Beach Girls is not about girls or women or even breasts, though that would seem the dominant subtheme. The movie is about women as meat, and oddly enough was produced by a woman, Marilyn J. Tenser. No stranger to this material, either -- Tenser made The Pom Pom Girls, The Van, Van Nuys Boulevard and Malibu Beach, all films featuring interchangeable flesh-lets in search of rationales by which to doff their tops. Clearly, Ms. Tenser has her own interpretation of the "women's movement," by which we may infer that not all of Hollywood has gone political on us. This is either refreshing or not, depending on how you feel about the concept of women as mobile glandular exhibits. As always with such material, one's conscience is one's guide.

Personal note to Alan Alda: It's your industry, pal -- you clean it up.

Movie Review Beach Girls (R) no stars (LEADER:)1..... CAST Debra Lee, Val Kline, Jeana Tomasina, James Daughton, Adam Roarke. CREDITS Director: Pat Townsend Producer: Marilyn J. Tenser Screenwriter: Patrick Duncan Based on an original story idea by Mark Tenser Cinematographer: Michael Murphy Music: Michael Lloyd ..... A Crown International Pictures release ..... Vulgar language, nudity, implicit sex ..... At the Trianon, Shores, Westchester, Movie City, 16th Street, Movies at Plantation. ..... **** Excellent*** 1/2 Very Good*** Good ** 1/2 Average** Fair* PoorZero: Worthless .