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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Horror Of Party Beach (1964)

Starring John Scott, Alice Lyon, Allan Laurel, Eulabelle Moore, Marilyn Clarke
Directed by Del Tenney
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Toxic waste dumped in the sea creates blood-drinking sea creatures that emerge on land and stalk teenage victims.

This is by no means a great movie, but it is fun in its own way, and I enjoyed it on that level.  Independent filmmaker Del Tenney, who earlier made the horror films Violent Midnight and The Curse Of The Living Corpse, brought this movie to life, merging horror and the rock'n'roll musical, to a certain extent.  Tenney's earlier films were a bit gorier than standard studio shockers, and this one continues that trend, but is lightened up a bit more by several songs by the Del-Aires, who perform amidst partying bathing-suit clad teens.  They're good enough tunes, I wouldn't say really all that catchy, but certainly not a chore to sit through.  The monster makeups are certainly distinctive, with ridged foreheads, bulging eyes, and vegetable stalks protruding from the creatures' mouths.  Maybe a little bit over-the-top, but their swaying movement as they stalk on land sold me and the cinematographer's cloaking them in shadow for their attack scenes was the right choice.

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