WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS (1965)

At Brooksley College, a talent show with male students in drag, with live music from Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, is interrupted by a bevy of real women decked out in sexy showgirl outfits, courtesy mischievous rich student Danny (Harve Presnell) and his buddy Sam (Joby Baker). After the show, they take the girls to the men's dorm and a newspaper photo results in negative publicity. Then a showgirl named Tess (Sue Ane Langdon) threatens to sue Danny for breach of promise—a common ploy in those days to make a man live up to a proposal of marriage—so Danny and Sam head out to the Cody College of Mining and Engineering in Nevada to hide out while these storms blow over. The first student they meet is Peter Noone, lead singer of Herman’s Hermits (playing himself). Not long after, they're treated to performances by not just the Hermits but by jazz great Louis Armstrong and later by Liberace. Danny is soon interested in Ginger (Connie Francis), whose father Phin (Frank Faylen) is about to lose the family ranch to gambling debts. Danny gets the idea to give the ranch a makeover, with the help of the Cody College student body, into a dude ranch for divorcées. Then Tess shows up with a couple of shady types who may be trying to collect the money Phin owes. As you can guess, a happy ending is in store for all.

This teen-oriented musical (though the lead actors are all in their 20s or 30s) is based directly on the 1930 Gershwin stage musical Girl Crazy, made into movies with Wheeler and Woolsey (1932) and Garland and Rooney (1943), and a few of the Gershwin songs, including "But Not for Me" and "Embraceable You," remain. In addition to the Hermits' hit "Listen Children," Peter Noone also sings a respectable version of "Bidin' My Time." Of course, Armstrong is great, and even Liberace is fun, doing a novelty number called "Aruba Liberace" which contains snatches of Liszt. Presnell, a leading man in the rather wooden mold of Gordon MacRae and Howard Keel, is unappealing here though he eventually came into his own in stage musicals, and for years he played Daddy Warbucks in productions of Annie and its sequel. Francis is similarly unappealing and this film killed off her short film career. Also, she is quite short and Presnell is quite tall and they look silly next to each other. Baker, whom I liked in the short-lived 60s sitcom Good Morning World, comes off the best of the main actors—oddly, despite being the third lead, he is billed ninth in the credits. Sue Ane Langdon is a scene-stealer even though she's only in the beginning and ending sections of the movie. There's a nice climactic car chase (including a trippy fantasy effect featuring the cars not colliding when they should). The songs are generally OK, and the best production number is the seven minute outdoor dance (reminiscent of a similar number in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) set to "I Got Rhythm"—it starts out slowly but builds nicely into an impressively choreographed dance. Generally, this is hard to recommend to a general audience, but fans of musicals might like to see this under-the-radar film. Pictured are Baker and Presnell. [TCM]