WHERE THE BOYS ARE is very much worth seeing, although extremely dated and a movie that would probably make today's 18 year-old laugh out loud at the innocent boy-meets-girl shenanigans of kids in an era before string bikinis and drunken riots in Fort Lauderdale.
Delores Hart is the crown jewel in this, the very first, "beach movie" that launched a whole summertime surf-romance culture of sand and two- piece swimsuits that, just a few years later, spawned Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in their BEACH BLANKET money-makers.
Hart is the embodiment of the girl next door with a face that could melt granite as she, Connie Francis, Yvette Mimeaux, and Paula Prentiss drive down to Fort Lauderdale during spring break in search of boys. They hook up with Frank Gorshin, Jim Hutton, and rich boy George Hamilton. The antics that ensue are so saccharine you could pour them over ice cream as a substitute for chocolate syrup.
It is the Hart-Hamilton romance that is the focal point as Hamilton tries unsuccessfully to seduce Hart on his father's yacht. Near the end, Hart thinks he has dumped her when he fails to show. A disconsolate Hart is left alone on the beach and wonders if she'll ever meet Mr. Right. The final scene between Hart and Hamilton offers a touching romantic twist and caps the whole thing nicely. Of course, the movie's theme song, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, would become Connie Francis'signature piece in years to come.
WHERE THE BOYS ARE is certainly dated, but its depiction of a benign teen culture shows us the world of summertime youth before mores,language, and music took a radical turn toward sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
TRIVIA: Anyone who doubts the existence of real, religious vocation should study the life of Delores Hart. She had made about 8-10 movies including two with Elvis--KING CREOLE and LOVING YOU. Then making the whopping sum of about $50,000 a picture, she was being groomed as the next Grace Kelley when she announced, in 1964, she was entering a convent to become a Catholic nun! Studio producers were beside themselves and most of Hollywood reacted with skepticism thinking it was a publicity stunt. She was, in fact, engaged at that time and her fiancée was heartbroken. But she entered a convent in Bethlehem, Conn. and remains there to this day as Mother Delores!...About 2-3 yrs. ago Hart was interviewed on 20--20 and disclosed she had a rare and painful nervous disorder that limits her movements. But her spirits were high and she spoke easily of the old Hollywood days, hiding nothing, even describing Presley as sensitive and a great guy...Yvette Mimeaux would marry MGM dance choreography Stanley Donan in the 1970's...Paula Prentiss would marry actor Richard Benjamin (GOODBYE COLUMBUS)...And Connie Francis? This is a life story waiting to be produced on the screen. For anyone interested in the real life tragedy of Connie Francis, read WHO'S SORRY NOW.....
Dennis Caracciolo
