Palm Springs Weekend (1963)

Palm Springs Weekend    
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Earl Hamner Jr.
1963/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] P.S. I Love You – Palm Springs city slogan[/box]

I live 25 miles from Palm Springs so naturally I had to watch this sitcom of a movie.

It is Easter Break in early 60’s Palm Springs.  Stephanie Powers’ father is the Chief of Police.  He looks askance at all the rowdy goings on.  Basically this a a Where the Boys Are style plot.  The boys are Texan Ty Hardin, odd-ball Jerry Van Dyke, nice-guy Troy Donahue and bad-boy villain Robert Conrad.  The girls are Powers, pseudo-sophisticate Connie Stephens and “plain-Jane”  Zeme North.  There’s a sub-plot about a middle-aged hotel owner and the chaperon/coach of the boys.  She has an obnoxious bratty son played by Billy Mummy.

Every year in the Coachella Valley we celebrate Mid-Century Modernism week celebrating the style and architecture of exactly this era.  Palm Springs was in its hey day in 1963.  The scenery and style made it fun for me to watch.  The story on the other hand is a piece of fluff made worse by Jerry Van Dyke’s style of “comedy”.