| “ | It's a human evil thing, lurking and creeping and crawling around out there in the night! | ” |
| - Eulabelle |
- For the MST3K episode, see MST3K 817 - The Horror of Party Beach.
The Horror of Party Beach is a 1964 beach party/monster movie produced and directed by Del Tenney. It features several performances by the rock & roll group the Del-Aires.
Plot[]
The Horror of Party Beach
An up-and-coming young scientist named Hank Green drives his girlfriend Tina to a public beach to have a good time and listen to the band The Del-Aires. They argue, and Tina separates from Hank and indulges in group beach dancing, which leads to her flirting with the leader of a motorcycle gang.
Hank commiserates with Elaine Gavin, his boss's daughter, over his difficulties with Tina. Hank and the gang leader fight, then Tina swims out to a rock off the beach to reflect. She is killed by a sea monster, which was spawned by the dumping of radioactive waste into a nearby harbor.
The police seek the aid of Dr. Gavin, Hank's boss and mentor. Dr. Gavin shares his home with his adult daughter Elaine and his housekeeper Eulabelle. Elaine expresses guilt over having intense feelings for Hank so soon after Tina has died.
The monsters need human blood to survive, and they attack and kill more than twenty girls at a slumber party. They then kill three other women who are passing through town. They are foiled in an attempt to kill two women leaving a drugstore and shatter the storefront window of a clothing establishment (having mistaken the mannequins for human women). One of the monsters severs an arm on the broken glass and it is discovered by the authorities.
Much media attention is paid to the mayhem.
Meanwhile, Hank and Elaine go out on a date. Dr. Gavin meets with police in his home laboratory to analyze the severed arm. Eulabelle comes into the lab and carelessly overturns a container of sodium onto the arm, ending its twitching. This reveals the means by which the monsters will be defeated. Hank acquires enough sodium to kill the monsters before they can harm Elaine, whom they had kidnapped.
Cast[]
- John Lyon as Hank Green
- Alice Lyon as Elaine Gavin
- Allan Laurel as Dr. Gavin
- Eulabelle Moore as Eulabelle
- Marilyn Clarke as Tina
Notes[]
The Horror of Party Beach
- Made in Connecticut over the course of three weeks during the spring of 1964 for only $60,000, The Horror of Party Beach is Del Tenney's best-known film. He released this along with The Curse of the Living Corpse on a double bill in May 1964.
- Del Tenney himself makes a brief appearance as a gas station attendant who flirts with a car full of girls.
- This film is a personal favorite of Stephen King.
- The Del-Aires were a real band, and a fairly popular one on the east coast. Bad Movie Planet has a full history and profile of them.
- Director Del Tenney was apprehensive about the film's combination of the teen beach movie genre and the monster horror genre, not knowing how audiences would respond to it. Tenney said he was admittedly surprised by the film's success.
- The voice of actress Alice Lyon (Elaine) is dubbed throughout the entire film.
- A promotional sign was posted at every theater showing this film which stated: "FOR YOUR PROTECTION! We will not permit you to see these shockers unless you agree to release the theater of all responsibility for death by fright!" Moviegoers had to sign a "Fright Release" before they entered the theater.
- The 'underwater' transformation scene of the monsters was shot on a stage with images of fish in an aquarium superimposed over the dissolving stage shots.
- Most of the secondary characters in the film were locals of Stamford, Connecticut that were cast on location. Many of them have no other film or television credits.
- Director Del Tenney said he kept the monster suits from this film for years afterward and wore them at parties for laughs.
- Chocolate syrup was used for blood during the monster attack scenes.
- According to director Del Tenney, there were only two complete monster heads created for the film, which is why in most shots of multiple monsters you don't see their heads clearly. For the climatic scene at Fingle's Quarry, the shot of the horde of monsters running through the woods was created by superimposing different takes of the complete monsters together.
- Cinematographer/co-writer Richard Hilliard cameos as the father watching the news report of the monster attacks on TV. Del Tenney's young son and daughter play the children in the same scene.
- Because of the film's low-budget, the 'car crash' between the two drunks was faked by sound effects and placing the cars at an angle to make them appear to be touching.
The Del-Aires
- For a meeting in which Del Tenney was going to show the film to executives from Twentieth Century Fox to see if they would pick it up, Tenney brought in some folks to wear the monster suits for promotion. One of the monsters just happened to be in the restroom when an executive from Twentieth Century came in. The gentleman was frightened by the sight of the monster Tenney recalled. Everyone had a good laugh about it and Twentieth Century Fox released the film.
- The film was originally refused a UK cinema certificate and was only passed after heavy cuts which removed most of the attack scenes. The DVD is uncut and 12 rated.
- Most of the soundtrack and musical sound effects were music library cues by Desmond Leslie and Eric Siday, found on "Vintage Sci-Fi"(JW 2073).
- Inspired the song "The Horror of Party Beach" by Sloppy Seconds.
- Assistant director Wayne Tippit plays one of the two drunks killed by the monster.
- "Won" for "Worst Beach Party Movie Ever Made" in The Golden Turkey Awards.
MST3K Connections[]
- Sound re-recordist Al Gramaglia was also recording mixer for Squirm.