TOD:
I'd been wanting to ketchup on the films of (Mother) Dolores Hart, and it had been ages since I'd watched Where the Boys Are with any kind of attention being paid, so I spun that one and...oh my goodness. To see it now and recall how "notorious" it was in its day, at least for the likes of my family and their friends... well, so were movies like Peyton Place and Butterfield Eight. We (us kids) were simply not allowed to see those movies at that time. But Boys is a hoot in how it so totally does NOT depict the true Spring Break world, the true Fort Lauderdale (except for the most basic beach shots), or the teenage/college age world...AT ALL. It must surely have seemed quaint to many even when new. But it mentions "sex", and that apparently turned the world upside down.
Even though we didn't see it, the movie sort of resonated with us, as my family had moved from Columbus to Fort Lauderdale in October 1960, and this opened and premiered in all of its notoriety right there at the Gateway Theatre (which happily still exists) in December. We felt a certain connection to it even while shunning it. Anyway, it held my interest and Ms. Hart is lovely, as is the young Paula Prentiss who is actually more charming in this than in many later roles. Connie Francis' musical contribution is iconic, of course, but she fares the least well in appearing at the age these "kids" supposedly are. But every teen/college film in those years suffers in that way.
The other Hart film was Come Fly With Me which I had somehow managed to miss throughout the years. It only recently became available on a Warner Archive DVD-R, so I grabbed it and had my way with it last night -- my way with it including having to kick brightness and contrast levels up several notches just to make it watchable. It's a dark and murky transfer, and you get used to it after a few minutes, but man, you gotta wonder what happened. No matter, you get what you get with those Archive releases and I'm glad to have it. This was more "innocent" than I expected, given the Mad Men-era Pan Am-ish theme. Very very interesting. And it's quite something to see Ms. Hart's final shot, knowing that shortly following that she was taking her one-way drive up to the Abbey.