Aging socialites with nothing better to do than lie on the beach and be picked up by gigolo Beach boys are the focus of this colorful soap opera that features some campy lines but is emotionally empty. Still gorgeous here, Lana Turner is living a pointless life and no amount of boys, booze and beach can fix it. She's dealing with the fallout from the suicide of one lover and the frustration of younger husband Cliff Robertson finds himself drawn to the dead lover's former girlfriend (Stefanie Powers) who shows up out of the blue.
There's homoerotic eye candy for the presence of beach gigolos Hugh O'Brien and Ron Husman who parade around in teeny tiny tight shorts and no shirt, and share a teeny, tiny beach house. They become the companions to two aging rich observers (Ruth Roman and Virginia Grey) who are obviously envious of the smoother looking Lana whom Roman seemingly has dirt on. As the situation gets more tense and the plot thickens faster than boiling oatmeal, it gets more absurd, and interest wanes. All scenic and exotic, but there's really very little love going on, only possession from Turner towards her varied studs, and it becomes obvious that these characters are as emotionally dead as the deceased Beach boys is physically.
Perhaps the lack of a strong film director (TV veteran Alexander Singer) hurts this, as does the unbalanced script. A bullfight subplot dominates the last quarter, and that slows this down to the pace of a TV golf tournament. Turner is beautiful but her character is one dimensionally shallow. Robertson is stronger, and Powers instills her character with a variance of nuances. But the best thing to come out of this is Ruth Roman, the Ava Gardner lookalike who had an interesting career but was overshadowed by Turner's old MGM pal. Ironically, Robertson would come onto the TV series "Falcon Crest" after Turner was killed off, playing her nephew.
There's homoerotic eye candy for the presence of beach gigolos Hugh O'Brien and Ron Husman who parade around in teeny tiny tight shorts and no shirt, and share a teeny, tiny beach house. They become the companions to two aging rich observers (Ruth Roman and Virginia Grey) who are obviously envious of the smoother looking Lana whom Roman seemingly has dirt on. As the situation gets more tense and the plot thickens faster than boiling oatmeal, it gets more absurd, and interest wanes. All scenic and exotic, but there's really very little love going on, only possession from Turner towards her varied studs, and it becomes obvious that these characters are as emotionally dead as the deceased Beach boys is physically.
Perhaps the lack of a strong film director (TV veteran Alexander Singer) hurts this, as does the unbalanced script. A bullfight subplot dominates the last quarter, and that slows this down to the pace of a TV golf tournament. Turner is beautiful but her character is one dimensionally shallow. Robertson is stronger, and Powers instills her character with a variance of nuances. But the best thing to come out of this is Ruth Roman, the Ava Gardner lookalike who had an interesting career but was overshadowed by Turner's old MGM pal. Ironically, Robertson would come onto the TV series "Falcon Crest" after Turner was killed off, playing her nephew.