Where the Boys Are *** (1960, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux, Barbara Nichols, Connie Francis, George Hamilton, Jim Hutton) – Classic Movie Review 6235

Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux, Barbara Nichols and Connie Francis head for Florida’s Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break at Easter, where they find that the boys, including George Hamilton and Jim Hutton, are gorgeous.

Director Henry Levin’s 1960 Spring Break chick flick movie Where the Boys Are is a good-humoured, sweetly played, still fondly remembered Sixties sex comedy, all bright eyed and bushy tailed and oh so innocently amusing. Okay, it is a romantic comedy rather than a sex comedy, but boy does it have sex on its mind.

Also in the cast are Frank Gorshin as Basil (!), Chills Wills as the Police Captain, Sean Flynn, John Brennan as Dill, Vito Scotti, Rory Harrity as Franklin, and Ted Berger.

George Wells’s screenplay is based on Glendon Swarthout’s novel. It is shot by Robert Bronner in Metrocolor and CinemaScope, produced by Joe Pasternak and scored by George Stoll.

Connie Francis had a hit with the title theme song, pop pickers, and appears effectively in her movie acting début, playing Angie.

Connie Francis.

Francis was on location in Fort Lauderdale when producer Pasternak told her he had commissioned the Oscar-winning songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen to write the theme song for her to sing.

She made number four in the US and five in the UK. After she recorded the song in six other languages, Francis had a number one hit with the song in 15 countries. In Italian, it became ‘Qualcuno Mi Aspetta’.

It is Prentiss’s first film too. Hart, Prentiss and Francis (Merritt, Tuggle and Angie) were all 22 and Mimieux (Melanie) was 19.

It was remade as Where the Boys Are in 1984 with Lisa Hartman, Lorna Luft, Wendy Schaal and Lynn-Holly Johnson.

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1963 film Follow the Boys (also with Francis and Prentiss) is a kind of follow-up, but with Francis promoted to the central role.

Elvis Presley headed off to Fort Lauderdale too, in the similar minded Girl Happy (1965).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6235

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