Where the Boys Are

Plot synopsis:
The main focus of Where the Boys Are is the "coming of age" of four girl students at a midwestern university during spring vacation. As the film opens, Merritt Andrews (Dolores Hart), the smart and assertive leader of the quartet, expresses the opinion in class that premarital sex might be something young women should experience. Her speech eventually inspires the insecure Melanie Tolman (Yvette Mimieux) to lose her virginity soon after the young women arrive in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Tuggle Carpenter (Paula Prentiss), on the other hand, seeks to be a "baby-making machine," lacking only the man to join her in marriage. Angie (Connie Francis) rounds out the group as an athletic girl who is clueless when it comes to romance.
The girls find their beliefs challenged throughout the film. Merritt, a freshman, meets the suave rich-boy Ivy Leaguer Ryder Smith (George Hamilton), a senior at Brown, and realizes she's not ready for sex. Melanie discovers that Franklin (Rory Harrity), a boy from Yale who she thought loved her was only using her for sex. Tuggle quickly fixes her attention on the goofy "TV" Thompson (Jim Hutton), a junior at Michigan State, but becomes disillusioned when he becomes enamored of the older woman Lola Fandango (Barbara Nichols), who works as a "mermaid" swimmer/dancer in a local bar. Angie stumbles into love with the eccentric jazz musician Basil (Frank Gorshin).
Merritt, Tuggle, and Angie's post-adolescent relationship angst quickly evaporates when they discover Melanie is in distress after going to meet Franklin at a motel and instead finding there another of the "Yalies", Dill, who rapes her. Franklin had moved on to another girl, but told Dill that Melanie was "easy" and set up the ambush. Melanie ends up walking into the nearby road looking distraught, her dress torn. Just as her friends arrive, she is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital.
Ultimately, it seems the group has learned the potentially serious consequences of their actions and resolve to act in a more responsible, mature manner. The film ends on a melancholy note, with Melanie recovering in the hospital while Merritt looks after her, and with Merritt's promises to Ryder to continue a long-distance relationship. He then offers to drive them back to their college.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Whether it was meant to be or not, this film is one of decisions, learning, and friendships that are strengthened due to the experiences four college girls share during Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale.
It's a testament to how well this film has held up for the past forty-three years, not an easy task considering it's subject matter.The basic premise is this: Four college girls escape the freezing north during spring break and head to Ft. Lauderdale because as the title says, that's where the boys are.
What Where The Boys Are does have going for it is a witty ahead of it's time script by screenwriter George Wells (based on a novel by Glendon Swarthout), a cast of attractive relatively new stars assembled by producer Joe Pasternak and some nice Florida Scenery.The cast is headed by Dolores Hart as Merritt Andrews.
Pay close attention to her performance as Merritt as I did and you'll understand what we may have missed.Paula Prentiss makes her big screen debut as Tuggle and immediately shows a fine screen persona with a flair for comedy.
Jim Hutton plays TV Thompson, a hitchhiker who has a thing about hats, that the girls pick up on their way to Fort Lauderdale.
Also on hand are a delightful Barbra Nichols as the sea nymph and Chill Wills in a couple of brief but funny scenes as a police captain.Where this film excels is in the performances and chemistry of it's young cast.
Enjoy the witty dialog, the on screen chemistry of the stars, the Florida scenery, and listen to Connie Francis belt out Where The Boys Are a few times.
Like many others who have commented previously on Where the Boys Are (WTBA), I was initially rather shocked at the film's frank discussion of sex.
I was born 11 years after this film was released and watching movies like this gives me a unique insight into history that goes well beyond the broad brushes of most sixties reviews and textbooks.
Clearly both boys and girls of the time were struggling with the implications of sexuality in relationships - not a whole lot different than today.What is different about WTBA than the films for young people of today or of my youth (e.g., The Breakfast Club) is the explicit discussion of marriage.
None of the movies for youth that I have seen recently even touch the subject of marriage except maybe to joke about it.While many would argue that no one gets married at 19 anymore, that ultimate end of any relationship still looms out there for young people like a giant prize (or punishment) at the end of dating.
5)  And of course the boys actually came out and asked for sex, although couched in the "decent" terms of the fifties/sixties.People (mostly "liberated" women) complain that this movie was about oppression of women (they didnt feel "complete" without a man), but this was women's liberation (women were horny and honest about it)The marvelous casting and dialogue made this film one of the great american classics of its genre that still holds up today.definitely a 10!.
Forty-five years have elapsed since its original release, but it is amazing how this 1960 film introduced a particular genre that continues to be produced today granted in a far more explicit manner - the spring-break, beach-party movie where attractive teens go through a sun-drenched mating ritual and somehow love triumphs over carnal knowledge.
Back then, the concept didn't seem quite as jaded as it does now, and consequently there is an entertaining naiveté about the timeworn story of four co-eds from a snowy Midwestern college who journey to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break to meet boys.The plot is based on the then-accepted notion that girls in college are only marking time waiting for husbands to come along, but the journey to that goal depends on the girl.
The four in question are Merritt, a smart blonde who is not living up to her academic potential as she questions the moral code around premarital sex; Melanie, so deeply insecure she mistakes sex for love with a less-than-honorable Ivy Leaguer; Tuggle, a tall brunette who zeroes in on an even taller, eccentric hitchhiker; and Angie, the supposedly plain one who gets used to being ignored by men.Directed in a perfunctory fashion by Henry Levin, this is not the type of movie where you are terribly impressed with the performances, but I have to say the acting is certainly miles above subsequent beach-party movies.
As the most troubled of the girls, Yvette Mimieux (always loved her name) accurately captures the constantly forlorn, little-girl-lost state of Melanie, a teen-aged Blanche du Bois in the making.So pert and charming as Angie, Connie Francis actually seems miscast as a plain-Jane, especially when she sings "Turn on the Sunshine" with a stage polish completely out of character.
She is an under-appreciated comedienne with a loopy charm and vibrantly twangy voice all her own - it's a shame her career never really took off the way it deserved to.I think the film does make a valid, sometimes even perceptive attempt to address the confusion that Eisenhower-era girls had over sex and love.
At the same time, the film is filled with predictable comic scenes, including a contrived mêlée in an underwater tank with the zaftig and nasal Barbara Nichols as Esther Williams-wannabe Lola Fandango.Prentiss offers her services and remembrances to the alternate audio commentary track on the DVD, which also comes with a looking-back featurette which includes interviews with Prentiss and Francis.
Delores Hart, Yvettte Mimeux, Paula Prentiss, and Connie Francis are "Where the Boys Are," a 1960 film about spring break in Fort Lauderdale.
The boys are Jim Hutton, George Hamilton, and Frank Gorshin.The four young women drive down to Fort Lauderdale for spring break, with an agenda of having fun and meeting men.
With the exception of Angie (Connie Francis), the gals meet guys immediately - Tuggle (Prentiss) meets TV (Hutton), who hitches a ride to Lauderdale with them; Merritt meets the wealthy Ryder (George Hamilton), and frail, pretty Melanie (Mimieux) meets Dill (John Brennan).
Despite Merritt's free-thinking, she and Tuggle intend to stay pure; Angie doesn't have a choice; and Merritt -- Merritt is in for some tough realizations.All in all, a fun movie and a great look at the '50s mores and the power of the Hays code, which was still punishing girls who had sex before marriage.The best things about Where the Boys Are is seeing all these stars as young and fresh, with their movie careers just beginning, and another chance to hear Connie Francis sing the title song and "Turn on the Sunshine." She was terrific.
Already a huge singing star by 1960, Francis, of course, is still singing after a miserable life that includes the death of her brother, rape, and a bipolar disorder.Spring breaks today still have plenty of booze and suntans but also plenty of everything else (including young women disappearing) - enjoy this film about a much more innocent time..
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.
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.
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?
In this production, the approach to sex is direct but lighthearted and it all seems like great fun, until the final act when Jim Hutton lusts after Barbara Nichols, leaving Paula Prentiss behind, and most of all when Yvette Mimieux is abused.
Nevertheless, it's fun to watch (Sister) Dolores Hart discussing petting with a teacher who sends her straight to the principal's office, Paula Prentiss defining herself as a baby factory, Yvette Mimieux blaming herself for being too lovely and Connie Francis just singing and being the comic relief although Prentiss, Hutton, Nichols, Frank Gorshin and Chill Wills also provide a chuckle here and there..
It may look like another boys & girls on the beach movie, but there's a bit more happening here than in your average Frankie & Annette beach frolic.
The vastly underrated Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux, Connie Francis and especially Dolores Hart are all accomplished actresses.
The story revolves around 4 college girls on their way to Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break.
George Hamilton, Jim Hutton, & Frank Gorshin portray the "boys".
Films revolving around three-girls-about-town are sure bets for campy dialogue, wild costumes, and overblown theme songs: "Three Coins in the Fountain." "Come Fly with Me." "The Pleasure Seekers." "Valley of the Dolls." 1960's "Where the Boys Are" cleverly disguises itself as a harmless beach-blanket romp (and tosses in a fourth girl, Connie Francis, so she can belt out that overblown theme song), but fear not: the theme of this "kids" picture is the same as those aforementioned trash classics: Sex. As is de rigeur for films of this ilk, each character represents a singular, one-dimensional purpose: Good Girl (Dolores Hart), Bad Girl (Yvette Mimieux) and Goofy Girl (Paula Prentiss).
Given its time period, the film actually fires off a few eyebrow-raising salvos on pre-marital sex and a woman's desire for it; but, of course, the Good Girl still waits, and the Bad Girl pays for her wanton ways.
In the end, "Where the Boys Are" isn't quite as enjoyable as, say, "The Pleasure Seekers" because it simply isn't trashy enough, but it IS a fun, fluffy look at sex and the single girl, circa 1960.
I was in high school at the time (soph) and I could probably have taken 40 different girls to see that film when it first came out...everyone was talking about it as the top date movie.
The gals, Connie Francis, Delores Hart, Paula Prentiss and Yvette Mimieux got their careers started and advanced with their appearance in this film, although Hart had appeared in a couple of Elvis films before WTBA.
To be honest, the movie began as a typical- and not so great, teenage comedy flick, in which a couple of youngsters are going on a spring break holiday.
Paula Prentiss really impressed me, also with her beauty and the movie further more features George Hamilton and Frank Gorshin in some early roles.
It's Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, and Paula Prentiss who want to know Where The Boys Are in this MGM film which gave the studio a chance to display some of its young starlets.
The answer is course Fort Lauderdale where the girls are on spring break.So are the boys and they consist of George Hamilton, Frank Gorshin, and Jim Hutton.
The film has the girls as innocents looking for love and the boys as looking to score.
Prentiss reminded me a great deal of her performance in Man's Favorite Sport which I think is one of the funniest films of the Sixties.One of the girls has an unfortunate encounter with a kid who was looking to score.
The others just have a good time.Connie Francis got one of those "and introducing" billings and she got a big hit record with the title song back in the day.
It's the perfect cast for a Spring Break Beach movie.This isn't necessarily an award winning worthy film, but if they gave awards for Popcorn and Powder Puff Pieces, then this would be in the top 10.
So relax, enjoy, and be prepared to be entertained two times over by the great Connie Francis who acts and sings the famous title song.
MGM cast several of its contract stars such as George Hamilton and Dolores Hart in this fun filled picture set in Fort Lauderdale and made two of its players Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton a comedic team and International Movie Stars.
Fun times at the beach and romantic adventures are what four Midwestern college girls hope for when they journey to Florida for a week of Spring Break.
The two main "boys" are played by George Hamilton and Jim Hutton, both in their twenties when cast.
Comedy begins OK, but quickly degenerates as the kids start matching up (of all the couples, Connie Francis and Frank Gorshin, playing a nearly-blind jazz musician, are certainly the oddest).
Obviously dated as "Spring Break" today isn't anything like it was depicted in this movie.
Four co-eds (yes, that's what female college students were called back in 1960) goes on spring break because that's where the boys are (hum Connie Francis).
And, it was this movie that started the whole spring break trek anyway - a bacchanalia rite of passage that is better left undone if one does not want to lose more than what they can live with when looking back on their college days.
Warming up in class, random dating and premarital sex are college lecture topics of the day as Ms. Hart advises her teacher she intends to "play house before marriage." With copulating on their minds, Hart and three girlfriends decide to spend spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joining Hart are extra tall Paula Prentiss (as Tuggle Carpenter), softly sexy Yvette Mimieux (as Melanie Tolman) and sweetly singing Connie Francis (as Angie).
They pick up hitchhiker Jim Hutton (as "TV" Thompson) and find tanned George Hamilton (as Ryder Smith) on the beach...Like many thinly-produced 1960s films aimed at young audiences, this starts out mildly fun and slows to a sluggish pace.
The men have little to do, with Mr. Hutton doing it best.**** Where the Boys Are (12/28/60) Henry Levin ~ Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis.
Where the Boys Are Considering the annual antics of spring break, there's a good reason why the state of Florida is shaped like a penis.Thusly, female college students, like the ones in this drama, flock to Fort Lauderdale every year.Students from an uptight Midwest university (Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss) head down south on their spring break in hopes of engaging in the premarital sex that their school forbids.When they arrive, the girls quickly pair off with their male counterparts (George Hamilton, Frank Gorshin, Jim Hutton, Rory Harrity) and harmless heartbreaks ensue.While the experienced girls discover they have more to learn about sex, the inexperienced ones are broken by the darker side of the holiday.Not only does it depict the sun-seeking pilgrimage bluntly but Where the Boys Are also boasts a memorable soundtrack.Now if only Ft. Lauderdale could find the economic benefit to used condoms Green Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.com.
A bunch of college girls (Delores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis) spend Easter vacation in Ft. Lauderdale.
There they meet some handsome young men (among them are George Hamilton, Jim Hutton and Frank Gorshin) and love, sex and drama occur.For its time this was pretty shocking.
Yes, the kids are having a good time singing, dancing, drinking and frolicking in the pool in beautifully warm Florida during their annual break, but there is a rape scene here and it is well acted by a troubled Yvette Mimieux who turns in a genuinely fine performance as one of the girls out for a good time, but certainly gets more than she has expected.Dolores Hart, or should I call her by her current name, Sister Dolores Hart, is really amazing as the girl in trouble with her studies and that family living professor, who goes to Florida to unwind but instead finds true bliss with the wealthy playboy, played by the always debonair George Hamilton.In her first film, Connie Francis plays the spunky Angie along for the ride.
This movie is first and foremost a somewhat dippy teen film that you might enjoy for the antics of Spring Break 50+ years ago (and oh how times have changed!).
The most poignant and serious moments come from the character played by Yvette Mimieux, who has been having sex with a guy, thinking he loves her.
This movie begins with 4 female college students who live in the Midwest and decide to drive to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Spring Break.
Even so, I liked the singing of Connie Francis (as "Angie") and I thought the scene where "Basil" (Frank Gorshin) fell into the fish bowl was quite hilarious.
"Where the Boys Are" tells the story of four girl students, Merritt, Melanie, Angela and Tuggle, who leave their university in the snowbound Midwest for a spring break in Fort Lauderdale with love and romance on their minds.
The film then traces the ways in which the girls' attitudes and expectations change during their stay in Fort Lauderdale.
The adventures of Merritt, Tuggle and Angela would fit firmly within the normal "beach party movie" tradition of rather silly romantic comedy with lots of fun, music and attractive youngsters of both sexes.