BEACH BOY REBELS (1969)
Starring
Rodney Bedel
Elain Taylor
Joan Van Vranken
Walter Philbin
and
Ronald Von Klaussen
as the Police Inspector
Guest Stars
Joe E. Ross
and
Willie Pastrano
Directed by
Stewart Merrill
[Terry Merrill]
Produced by
Dee Wright
A Southern Films Production
No MPAA rating
CHRIS POGGIALI: With nothing to go on but the title and poster, I'm guessing that BEACH BOY REBELS is about "Murph the Surf" and the Star of India heist?
STEWART MERRILL: Not really. At the beginning of the movie, a jewel robbery is taking place and the robber throws a bracelet out the window. His buddies are supposed to get it but it bounces off a ledge. They can’t find it, but the “beach boys” find it and take it to a fence. There’s some violence in it, some shootings. I’ll tell you the problem I had with BEACH BOY REBELS. I gave it to a distributor and that son of a bitch played it everywhere, and I never saw a penny from it.
(A full interview is in the works. Meanwhile, we're working with Mr. Merrill on digitizing the last surviving print of BEACH BOY REBELS.)
Thanks to Eric Harvey (Serious Exploitation) for bringing this film to our attention, and Bill Grefe for putting us in touch with Mr. Merrill.
"and Ronald Von Klaussen as the Police Inspector!" I bet that lured the crowds in.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work as always, Chris!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see BEACH BOY REBELS.
ReplyDeleteBy "digitizing," I hope you're implying that BEACH BOY REBELS might show up on DVD someday.
ReplyDelete"Digital scanning" is what we meant, and yes, that's the intention if the print can be saved.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read the interview and see the film. Always interesting stuff!
ReplyDeleteJust a little bit of a diversion, but an ad has another title that also interests me.
The Girl with the Fabulous Box, a title I don't think is in the IMDb (unless proven wrong) also strikes me as another film worth finding out about. The AFI books mentions a NASA Exploration in it's all too brief synopsis and the ad hypes the "Whipped Cream Orgy" in a wacky Comedy, and the trailer to Our Man Steel has both in it's trailer. Could it be the original title? The name of the Director mentioned in the AFI, Charles Nisbet, might be a pseudonym and is possibly more like the "Donn" of Exploitation himself - the hype of seeing it "before the fuzz does" clearly rings of something Davison might use. (Our Man Steel was part of Jet Set Productions' line-up, too). Just guessing here, but that "Box" on the lower left hand of that ad caught my eye.
Back to the original topic, I wish all the best for the digital scanning of the print to Beach Boy Rebels. Sounds like a fun flick!
Godspeed!!!
ReplyDelete@Screen 13: They're the same film. That's definitely Michael Nouri (of FLASHDANCE and THE HIDDEN fame) in the OUR MAN STEEL trailer, and he's the star of THE GIRL WITH THE FABULOUS BOX.
ReplyDeleteHow did things turn out with digitizing this one?
ReplyDelete