By Lee Pfeiffer
The Warner Archive has released a number of 1960s teen comedies starring Connie Francis, including the 1965 MGM musical When the Boys Meet the Girls. It boggles one's mind to realize that teenagers were still patronizing films like this as late as the mid-1960s. Within a year or two, the entire genre of squeaky clean teen comedies would seem like ancient history in the wake of the new found freedoms in music and cinema. Suddenly some former Connie Francis fans would find themselves bopping around topless at Woodstock. When the Boys Meet the Girls must have seemed hopelessly outdated even in its day. The film was produced by notable schlock master Sam Katzman, and the movie bares his hallmark traits: poor production design and lighting and a razor-thin budget.
The plot finds grad student Harve Presnell hiding out at a remote Western college in order to escape gold-digging fiancee Sue Ane Langdon. He meets cute with country girl Francis, who is trying to help her father save his failing horse farm. Seems dad has a weakness for gambling and the new casino that has opened is draining his life's savings. Remember those corny old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musicals where they would say, "Hey, kids-we can always put on a show in the barn"? Well, this one does them one better. Presnell suggests that they convert dad's farm into a world class dude ranch resort, a feat they seem to accomplish in a few days in between attending classes.
The film is really just a feature length version of an Ed Sullivan Show telecast,
with the plot a device to string together a disparate number of
talents. Katzman did manage to round up the most mis-matched cast since
Irwin Allen made The Story of Mankind. Presnell's best friend is
played by Sam the Sham (the Pharaos show up to perform with him).
Herman's Hermits are cast as exchange students from England attending
the college and they perform their hit song, Listen, People. The
great Louis Armstrong and his band perform a complete number and you
haven't lived until you see Liberace perform his latest "hit" which he
modestly titles Aruba Liberace. The film does boast some
impressive dance numbers in the style of the old MGM musicals, but most
of the redeeming values come from the sugary romantic sequences which
make any Archie comic book read like Tropic of Cancer. The
passion never gets any more erotic than a peck on cheek, which is about
as sensuous as kissing your sister. However, in one bizarre musical
number, a scantily-clad Langdon sings a tune called Treat Me Rough, in
which she extolls the pleasures of having her hair pulled and her arm
twisted. This homage to rape fantasies is so inconsistent with the rest
of the film that we suspect producer Katzman didn't get its true
meaning.
The movie is a weird, but somehow fascinating time capsule of an era in which Liberace could be passed off as a teen idol. I enjoyed When the Boys Meet the Girls and so will you- but probably for all the wrong reasons.
The DVD includes the original trailer which bizarrely features The Dave Clark Five singing Glad All Over despite the fact that neither the group nor the song appear in the film.
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