Surfers loathed them, teenagers flocked to them, critics dismissed them, producers banked on them—surf and beach movies. For a short time in the 1960s they were extremely popular with younger audiences—mainly because of the shirtless surfer boys and bikini-clad beach girls, the musical performers, and the wild surfing footage.
This lavishly illustrated filmography details 32 sizzling fun-in-the-sun teenage epics from
Gidget
to the
Beach Party
movies with Frankie and Annette to
The Sweet Ride
plus a few offshoots in the snow!) Entries include credits, plot synopses, memorable lines, reviews and awards, and commentary from such as Aron Kincaid of
The Girls on the Beach,
Susan Hart of
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini,
Peter Brown of
Ride the Wild Surf,
Chris Noel of
Beach Ball,
and Ed Garner of
Beach Blanket Bingo
. Biographies of actors and leading actresses who made their marks in the genre are included.