The Horror of Party Beach

''The Horror of Party Beach'' is a 1964 American horror film in the beach party genre, directed and co-produced by Del Tenney. The film, described as "a take-off on beach parties and musicals," is considered to be one of the worst films of all time.

Plot

Near a small East Coast beach town, a boat dumps a 55-gallon metal drum labeled "Danger Radioactive Waste" into the ocean. The drum opens upon reaching the bottom, releasing its contents upon a sunken ship and a nearby human skeleton. The skeleton is transformed into an aquatic, humanoid monster. The monster immediately ambulates toward the beach, where a dance party featuring The Del-Aires musical group is in progress.

Hank Green, an employee of local scientist Dr. Gavin, attends the beach party with Tina, his girlfriend. They quarrel and Tina leaves him and begins flirting with Mike, the leader of a motorcycle gang, as Hank talks with Dr. Gavin's daughter Elaine. Hank starts a fight with Mike, but ignores Tina afterwards. After also being spurned by Mike, Tina swims to a rock jetty where she is attacked and killed by the monster. Tina's body washes ashore, still covered in blood.

The police enlist Dr. Gavin to help with the investigation and he proposes Carbon-14 tests as a means to investigate the genetic structure of a tissue sample. Elaine confesses to her father her romantic feelings toward Hank. Eulabelle, Dr. Gavin's housekeeper, then suggests that "voodoo" is responsible. Elaine later decides to skip a slumber party. The monster, now joined by additional monsters, subsequently attacks the slumber party, killing over twenty of the attendees.

Later, three female travelers stop to change a flat tire and are attacked and killed by monsters. As Hank and Elaine attend an evening dance party at the beach, one of the monsters stalks two young women who are walking through town. Frustrated when the women are picked up by a passing automobile, the monster attacks female mannequins on display in a storefront window, in the process severing its arm. Dr. Gavin and Hank study the still-living severed arm. Dr. Gavin characterizes the muscle tissue as "a sea anemone, a species of protozoa." Although they cannot devise a way to kill it, Eulabelle accidentally spills a container of metallic sodium on the arm, which kills it. Dr. Gavin thus realizes a chemical method for destroying the monsters: the application of "plain old sodium."

Two drunken men stumbling through town encounter a dead, mutilated man inside a parked truck. Shocked by what they see, one of the drunks is shortly thereafter attacked and killed by the monsters. Following a montage of additional women being attacked and killed, the police initiate unsuccessful searches for the monsters by tracking the latter's trail of radioactive water. As Hank drives to New York City to obtain a supply of metallic sodium, Elaine performs her own search for the monsters at a local quarry, near where the female travelers were killed. Upon learning this, Dr. Gavin rushes off to assist Elaine, bringing a small amount of sodium with him. As Elaine is testing the quarry water, which registers as highly radioactive, she notices the emergence of a monster. She manages to avoid an attack by walking away, but she falls and becomes incapacitated by a bloody leg injury. Dr. Gavin arrives at her side and, by tossing sodium, kills an approaching monster in a fiery explosion. As additional monsters approach, Dr. Gavin engages one of them in extended hand-to-hand combat. Hank then arrives with a large supply of sodium, kills the monster that is attacking Dr. Gavin (in the process badly burning Gavin), and with the assistance of police, destroys the remaining monsters.

Cast

* John Scott as Hank Green
* Alice Lyon as Elaine Gavin
* Allan Laurel as Dr. Gavin
* Eulabelle Moore as Eulabelle
* Marilyn Clarke as Tina
* Agustin Mayor as Mike
* Damon Kebroyd as Lt. Wells
* Munroe Wade as TV Announcer (credited as Monroe Wade)
* Carol Grubman as Girl in Car
* Dina Harris as Girl in Car
* Emily Laurel as Girl in Car
* Sharon Murphy as 1st Girl
* Diane Prizio as 2nd Girl
* The Del-Aires as Vocal Group
* Charter Oaks M.C. as Motorcycle Gang

Production

''The Horror of Party Beach'' was directed by Del Tenney. His career began as an actor, working at the Los Angeles State College, appearing as an extra in films such as ''Stalag 17'' and ''The Wild One''. After moving to New York to act professionally, he worked as an assistant director in exploitation films, including ''Satan in High Heels''. Tenney was approached by producer Alan Iselin, whose family owned drive-in theaters in Albany, New York, to make a double feature for drive-ins. He offered to put up $50,000 and come up with the titles and pressbooks if Tenney would also contribute $50,000. The titles Iselin created were ''The Curse of the Living Corpse'' and ''Invasion of the Zombies''. The original scripts for both films were written by Tenney and his wife Margot Hartman. Unlike most beach party movies filmed to that time, ''The Horror of Party Beach'' was shot in black and white and on the Atlantic coast, with the primary filming site being the Shippan Point area of Stamford, Connecticut. The biker gang in the film was portrayed by the Charter Oak Motorcycle Club (described as being "affiliated with, but...a step beneath, the Hells Angels") of Riverside, Connecticut.

The monster costumes were designed by Bob Verberkmoes, a theater set designer, and constructed at Gutzon Borglum's sculpting studio in Stamford. The costume heads sat atop the actors' heads, such that the actor looked through a hole in the costume neck. Two monster costumes were constructed; upon completion, one was found to be too small for the hired stuntman/actor. Production assistant Ruth Glassenberg Freedman had a 16-year-old son, Charles Freedman, who fit perfectly into the small suit, and he was subsequently recruited to portray a monster(s) in the film. The underwater skeleton transformation scene was shot on a stage, with images of tropical fish in an aquarium later superimposed over the dissolving stage shots. Chocolate syrup was used for blood during the monster attack scenes.

The advertising for the double feature of ''Horror of Party Beach'' and ''Living Corpse'' capitalized on a gimmick first utilized by director William Castle, in which newspaper advertisements included a call-out that 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!" Theaters were encouraged by the distributor to have patrons sign a "Fright Release" before they took their seats. The trailer for the double feature also included this claim. Although billed in its promotional material as "The First Horror Monster Musical," all the songs heard in the film were presented as either soundtrack music or source music, as opposed to the style of a traditional musical with songs sung by central characters of the story. Ray Dennis Steckler's ''The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies'' also made the same claim a few months earlier. As a tie-in, a monographic fumetti comic book by Wally Wood and Russ Jones detailing the film's story was released by the Warren Publishing Company under its Famous Films masthead. It has a 35-cent cover price.

Edward Earle Marsh (aka Zebedy Colt) composed the film's soundtrack; Wilfred Holcombe was credited as the musical director. Marsh and Holcombe wrote three songs that were performed in the film: "Joy Ride", "The Zombie Stomp" and "You Are Not a Summer Love." Gary Robert Jones and Ronnie Linares, both of the Del-Aires (a Paterson, New Jersey

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