Follow the Boys (1963)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

From the title, I guess I was expecting bouncy nonsense like Where The Boys Are (1960) or one of the Gidget puff pieces of the early '60's. Instead the 90-minutes flattens out into a talkfest that undermines both hints of comedy and what little music there is. In fact, the poignant Francis is largely wasted amid an expanded cast and forgettable songs. Instead we get an almost endless series of one-on-one personal palavers as the four couples try to straighten out their relationships with nothing more lively than table talk. It's almost like someone's getting paid by the word. What the movie does have are scenic settings of the French and Italian Rivera where the Navy puts into port and their girls follow them. These are certainly visual treats. Also, the little pink jalopy is a good touch that represents the sort of imagination that should have crafted the film as a whole. Anyway, fans looking for beach bunny escapism should unfortunately look elsewhere.

In her period of movie stardom singer Connie Francis got a bunch of lightweight vehicles from MGM which were more designed to give her opportunities to sing and sell a few records. A movie career was strictly an afterthought for Connie Francis, the best of her films was the remake of Girl Crazy and that had Gershwin score going for it as well.The featherweight plot of Follow The Boys has Connie with two other of her peers Paula Prentiss and Dany Robin being chaperoned around by the older Janis Paige on the way to their navy husbands and sweethearts who are enjoying duty on the Italian Riviera. Not much to say but all the couples go through the usual mating games. The men are Ron Randell, Richard Long, Roger Perry, and Russ Tamblyn.There really isn't much more to say that you'll love the film if you like Connie Francis and her singing. She gets seven songs in the score.

Copyright 5 February 1963 by Franmet Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at Loew's neighborhood theaters: 27 February 1963. U.S. release: March 1963. U.K. release: 28 April 1963. Australian release: 24 October 1963. 8,568 feet. 95 minutes.COMMENT: There has to be an entertainment rating less than zero for "Follow the Boys". Audiences shouldn't just demand their money back, they should insist theater managements pay damages for false advertising. A bit of location scenery surrounds a banal plot, rendered even more tiresome by boringly stereotyped characters mouthing flat, mundane dialogue. The men are irritating bores, and any interest one might have in the physical attractions of the brain-dead girls is quickly dashed by unflattering make-up and warts-and-all photography. Aside from the title tune, even Miss Francis' songs are listless and uninspired. Thorpe's less than sparkling direction with its telegraphed pratfalls and strictly charmless widescreen compositions is yet another negative.

Bad comedy trying to cash on the fresh approach to sexual mores of «Where the Boys Are» (1960), but Connie Francis, who provided songs and a few comic lines in that one and received first credit in this one, was not as lucky as Dolores Hart, whose character establishes the tone of the 1960 cult film with her defense of free sex in one of the first scenes. Francis' singing is not enough to carry this comedy afloat; and Janis Paige is wasted in a melodramatic role. Locations are attractive, and Paula Prentiss, Russ Tamblyn and Dany Robin are okay, but the three of them had better moments in their film careers than the silly situations provided by the scriptwriters. «Follow the Boys» has some value, though, as a comic dramatization of the story of the women called "seagulls", who followed their mates, love interests, or easy ways to get a green card, from port to port in Europe. Although today it is not a very flattering portrait of modern woman, the fact that this motion picture was made at all makes one think that it seemed more than adequate for the post-war population. But even by 1963 standards Richard Thorpe's direction was tired, the songs were forgettable, and the script was poor.