Scott_MSM First the good: the soundtrack is very good; with instrumental surf and "film noir jazz". Shame that the movie doesn't reach any real heights at all. I only give this one five stars because of the good soundtrack. The movie itself rates a four at absolute best. Thin plot with a bizarre motivation for the monster. Very mild horror with some fairy tale elements such as an evil, nympho, stepmother and the crippled genius. Watch for the music and, of course, the Sixties gogo dancing teens. Ignore the movie going on around the good music.

a_chinn Super low budget Beach Party/monster movie hybrid makes AIP films look like something by Cecil B. DeMille. A group of teens are having fun at their local beach only to find a monster living in a nearby cave, who then proceeds to kill off the teens one by one. Nothing much to see here unless you are a connoisseur of bad cinema. Either that or if you're intrigued that the film's music was composed by Frank Sinatra's son, Frank Jr.

JasparLamarCrabb One of the worst movies ever made. A sea monster attacks teenagers on the beach, but that doesn't stop the kids from hanging around, building bonfires, singing songs and dancing (A LOT). With some of the lousiest production values imaginable and awkward direction from one time actor Jon (THE HURRICANE) Hall. Renaissance man Hall also did the cinematography...which is either too dark or too light depending upon the time of day. He also plays Dr. Otto Lindsay, father of surfer Richard Lindsay, whose friends are among the victims. Sue Casey, who later appeared in everything from CAMELOT to PAINT YOUR WAGON plays Hall's bitchy wife. She's wasted in this ludicrous production. The teenagers, who make the BEACH PARTY gang look like geniuses, is a woeful pack of bad actors & actresses. The intrusive, always out of place faux-jazz score is credited to 21-year old Frank Sinatra Jr.(!)

ferbs54 What "The Night of the Hunter" was for Charles Laughton--the sole directorial effort from a great film star--"The Beach Girls and the Monster" was for '40s matinée idol Jon Hall. But whereas Laughton's film is one of the eternal glories of the cinema, Hall's picture is...well, let's just say not nearly as glorious. In his film, Hall stars (at this point in his career, looking like Ernest Borgnine's older brother) as Dr. Otto Lindsay, an oceanographer whose troublesome son, rather than follow in his Pops' footsteps, prefers to go surfing with his pals and play his guitar at beach parties. This domestic friction is made even more problematic when a seaweed-draped, lumbering, rather ridiculous-looking monster starts to attack kids on the beach.... Anyway, Hall's film is silly in parts but not nearly as goofy as you might be expecting; certainly more serious than a Frankie & Annette movie! It has been well shot in B&W (although utilizes egregious rear projection for all driving sequences), showcases an annoyingly catchy theme song by Frank Sinatra, Jr., is decently acted, and features a twist ending of sorts that goes far in mitigating much of the silliness that has come before. Almost stealing the show is Sue Casey, playing Hall's trampy wife; my buddy Rob is quite right in pointing out that her sharp-tongued, shrewish vixen of a character would have been right at home in a '60s Russ Meyer flick. "Beach Girls," with a running time of only 66 minutes, still feels padded, with surfing stock footage, rock 'n' roll numbers accompanied by boogying bikini babes (played by the Watusi Dancing Girls from the Whiskey-A-Go-Go!), and assorted hijinks. Still, I can think of much less entertaining ways to spend an hour. As Michael Weldon succinctly puts it, in his spoiler review in "The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film": "A cheap laugh riot with lots of bongos, murders, and girls in bikinis."