BEACH BALL

Beach Ball riding on the coattails of the AIP Beach Party series of films holds its on as a decent flick in the genre. Simple plot (even if it doesn't make a lot of sense), girls in bikinis, some light humor, auto racing, skydiving, scuba diving, surfing, and a custom car show, coupled with appearance by some of the top music acts of the era makes for an enjoyable viewing. 

Edd Byrnes (Kookie) writes songs and manages a group named The Wiggles. They've got rented instruments and are being hounded for payment. If they can just win a local talent contest they'll have the money to buy their instruments. Edd and the group come up with a plan to get grants for college and then use the money to pay for their instruments. When four nerdy girls (who are in charge of the funds) find out the boys (well they're probably in their 30s) are not really going to use the money for college they tear up the check. Then, as it can only happen in the movies, the nerdy girls take off their glasses and go to the beach to teach the guys a lesson. Of course the guys don't recognize them (must be like when Clark Kent takes off his glasses, no one can recognize he's Superman). Anyway, the girls try to convince the boys to go back to school and since there are four girls and four guys, need I mention love develops for all. Of course, something happens to split the love birds up, but holding true with the world of beach party films, everyone reunites for a happy ending.

The music for the most part is good. The Supremes appear at the car show and I thought they were weak on singing the title theme "Come to the Beach Ball with Me", which just didn't fit with their sound and they appeared to be uncomfortable singing. On the other hand, they did a great job with their other performance"Surfer Boy". Both of these songs were written by Motown's Holland/Dozier/Holland. The Walker Brothers also perform at the car show and cut loose on "Doin' The Jerk". The Four Seasons, all suited up like they're in New Jersey instead of at a beach club sing their 1964 hit "Dawn (Go Away)". The Hondells sing Brian Wilson's "My Buddy Seat" and the Righteous Brothers, who for some odd reason just happen to be hanging out at the guys house, do a great job with "Baby What You Want Me to Do".

LADY SINGS The BLUES

I first saw Lady Sings The Blues many years ago and remembered it as being a really good movie. Re-watching it recently, it seems that the passing of years has changed how I feel about it.

Lady Sings The Blues plays more like a TV movie. There's a presumed rape (by Scatman Crothers), but it takes place off screen. There's drug use, but we don't see actual drug use, it takes place off screen. Even the death of Billie Holiday's mother takes place off screen. It's like the director or more likely Motown, wanted to shield the audience and make a cleaner, neater movie than really could be made out of the real life story of Billie Holiday.

Speaking of drug use, the first couple of times the movie leads us to believe that each time that Billie Holiday experiences racism, she turns to drugs. Only the last bout of drug use in the movie is shown to be recreational. Trying to hit the viewer over the head about how terrible racism is and then having, for the most part, the rest of the movie showing us Whites and Blacks intermingling and treating each other as equals causes a perplexing juxtaposition of ideas.

At no time while watching Lady Sings The Blues did I feel like I was experiencing the real characters, I always felt that I was just watching people playing at their parts. I was really surprised when I realized that Diana Ross was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Billie Holiday. Diana Ross is a great singer, but it's a real stretch to call her more than an adequate actress.

Lady Sings The Blues really had a hard time deciding what it wanted to be about: Billie Holiday's life struggle for success, her love life, or her drug life. It seemed to meander from one thing to the next and back again.

At a running time of 2 hours and 14 minutes, it could have easily been cut to 2 hours; since the very last part of the movie moves Richard Pryor from a background supporting player to a main player in the movie in order to kill him off. This just seemed very odd to me.

I don't really care that most of the facts in the movie are wrong or jumbled out of place in Billie Holiday's life; since the movie is entertaining, just more on the level of a movie of the week or a Lifetime movie. I don't really care that Diana Ross doesn't sound or look anything like Billie Holiday. I don't really care that the movie makes it appear that Billie Holiday wrote "Strange Fruit" after conveniently getting off a bus to use the bathroom in the woods and running straight into a couple of lynch victims hanging from a tree. I mainly don't care about these things, because Lady Sings The Blues never really made me care about any of the characters in the movie.

Couple of videos below, one of Diana Ross and one of Billie Holiday both singing "Good Morning Heartache"