Life is a Beach #3: The Beach Girls (dir by Pat Townsend)


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“You louse!  You hussy!”

“What’s a hussy?”

“Who’s loud?”

— Typical dialogue from The Beach Girls (1982)

 As you may have guessed from the combination of the film’s title, the film’s poster, and the film’s dialogue, the 1982 comedy The Beach Girls is yet another production from Crown International Pictures.

And if you had any doubts, The Beach Girls quickly erases them by not only featuring the exact same songs that were heard in both The Pom Pom Girls and Malibu Beach but by also reusing a good deal of beach footage that originally appeared in Malibu Beach.  Remember that dog in Malibu Beach that kept stealing everyone’s bikini top?  Apparently, the folks at Crown International really liked that dog because all of his scenes are awkwardly inserted into The Beach Girls.

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In between all of the Malibu Beach footage, The Beach Girls tells the story of three girls who have a nice beach house for the summer and who proceed to throw a party.  That is literally the plot of the entire film.  Two of the girls — Ginger (Val Kline) and Ducky (Jeana Tomasina) — are up for anything while their best friend, the shy and intellectual Sarah (Debra Blee), desperately needs to relax and have a good time.  Fortunately, there’s a sensitive musician at the party.  His name is Scott and he’s played by James Daughton, who was also in Malibu Beach.  With Scott’s help, Sarah starts to come out of her shell, which largely means that she starts to progressively wear less and less clothes.

Just when it looks like the party might be on the verge of concluding, six garbage bags of weed wash up on the beach.  That comes in handy once all of the uptight authority figures start to show up and demand that the party end.  Fortunately, the super weed inspires everyone to just relax and have fun.  Not even the eventual arrival of the Coast Guard can stop this party…

The Beach Girls

The Beach Girls is pretty much your typical Crown International teen sex comedy.  The main thing that distinguishes it from The Pom Pom Girls and Malibu Beach is that the main characters in The Beach Girls are all female.  And while the three main characters all still required to spend a good deal of the film undressed, this is a rare teen comedy where the guys are just as likely to get naked as the girls and where the girls have as much fun as the guys.  As a result, there’s little of the misogyny that lay underneath the surface of The Pom Pom Girls and, to a lesser extent, Malibu Beach.

Don’t get me wrong.  The Beach Girls, which is currently available Hulu and has also been included in a few Mill Creek box sets, is hardly a great or even a good film.  It’s pretty much a standard sex comedy where both the characters and the jokes are predictably dumb.  But, when taken on its own modest terms, it’s an inoffensive little time capsule.

Plus, the film’s beach house is really nice!  Seriously, that’s one thing that I love about films from the 80s.  Even the low-budget comedies always take place in the nicest houses!

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Song of the Day: Comfortably Numb (by Pink Floyd)


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David Gilmour.

That name seems to come up quite often when the subject of best guitar solos come up. His guitar work on Pink Floyd’s single “Comfortably Numb” might not be the technical wonder of a John Petrucci guitar solo or the blues throwback to the blues greats like Duane Allman, but his two guitar solos in this song has been hailed by many as the greatest guitar solos.

Such a thing has always been subjective. What one might call the best ever might be seen as just good, but not great. The same cannot be said about Gilmour’s guitar solos (the midpoint and the outro solos in the song) on “Comfortably Numb”. There’s soul in this man’s playing. I say playing since shredding would seem such an uncouth term to describe his two solos.

Pink Floyd rightfully earns their place amongst the elite of the elite on the rock gods pantheon, but I wouldn’t be out of line by saying that David Gilmour had such a huge hand in making sure they got and stayed there.

Comfortably Numb

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, Come on, Come on, now,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well, I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I’ll need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child I had a FEVER My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am.

I have become comfortably numb.
(guitar solo)
I have become comfortably numb.

O.K.
Just a little pin prick.
There’ll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it’s working, good.
That’ll keep you going through the show
Come on it’s time to go.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
but I have become comfortably numb.

(guitar solo)

Great Guitar Solos Series