The Swinging Set

As the song lyrics gush in the opening credits "Come on along and join the Swinging Set" as you watch this quite silly, but fun film about Terry (played by Mary Ann Mobley), a student at Wyndam College for Girls who writes songs under a pseudonym and already has her first hit single, a ditty called "Help Stamp Out Men!". When the college board finds out about her songs (with lyrics like "She knows all there is to know from A to Z about S - E - X") they want to expel her for bringing "scandal" to the school - so Terry and her gal pals agree to have "nothing to do with men" on their Christmas holiday ski vacation in Sun Valley. But, oh no, they are soon being chased around the resort by Terry's music publisher (Chad Everett) and a French artist who want her to pose for a publicity painting wearing nothing but guitar and baby doll nightie!

Actresses wearing bikinis and shorty nightgowns who can *barely* act combined with fake-looking snow scene backdrops, poorly lip-synched song performances, and handsome, but oh so boring young Chad Everett makes this sound like a pretty bad movie - but that's all completely part of the campy, nostalgic, 60s fun here! Yes, this film is a bit of fluff, but quite enjoyable. It is full of swinging party scenes at places like the Go Go Club, with kids dancing the Swim and Watusi, and lots of great, live performances by such groups as The Animals and The Dave Clark Five, and one of my favorite parts of the movie, Stan Getz along with the jazzy, cool girl performance done by Astrud Gilberto singing "The Girl from Ipanema" . Worth seeing for the music alone.

Great material for Mystery science theater. Just imagine you're Crow or Tom Servo and toss in the appropriate comments. This movie is so bad that is crosses way over the line into high camp. That's when the humor becomes unintentional. I love it. What were they thinking? A couple of old pros, character actors Willard Waterman and James Millhollin provide some actual humor. The main reason to see this movie is the music. The Animals and the Dave Clark Five do a horrible job lip-synching their songs but there are actually a couple of honest jazz musicians in Stan Getz and Jimmy Smith who are great. There's also a dixieland band of young guys who even tap dance. Unreal. Freddy Bell and Roberta Lynn are the worst third-rate Vegas act you can imagine. favorite line: "Where did you almost get that bikini" "I wear a 10 but and 8 looked so good, I bought a 6." Nancy Sinatra, Chris Noel, and Mary Ann Mobley are smokin' and for you girls there's Chad Everett. This movie is about what Hollywood thought the hip college student were like in 1964 and they couldn't be more wrong. The results are hilarious. Check it out on Turner tv sometime, tape it if you have to. You'll be glad you did.

The best movie representation of dated and camp I could dream. Despite excelling at every aspect of dated material, it finds unexpected ways to amuse. It's obvious lesson on women's rights, and the absurd manner in which it tries to illustrate sexual equality, is an unexpected bonus. You may want to watch it more than once so you can catch smaller details. For example: the background on the ski mountain, and the fact that her lipstick is applied on top of the snow. If you only like 'quality movies' then don't even consider it. You must appreciate 60's pop music because there are a lot of hysterical band/dance scenes. If you like this sort of thing then I recommended it strongly.

Okay, it's got Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, plus the Jimmy Smith Trio, so as others have said, if you like jazz, you've got two good scenes. Personally, I love the Dave Clark Five and The Animals, but the songs they perform here are far from their best. They aren't hits, and why they'd choose to waste filler material on a movie with the potential to reach a bigger audience is beyond me.

One of my pet peeves is when a film features a song clearly written by an older songwriter with a background in show tunes and the like, and tries to pass it off as a big pop hit. I can't fathom any universe in which the song performed by Mary Ann Mobley, "Get Yourself a College Girl", would be a hit. And yet she's presented to us as this major songwriter with her finger on the pulse of today's youth.

The script feels like it was thrown together on the set. Is it about Mary Ann Mobley being booted out of college? No, wait, it's about her fighting and falling in love with her publisher. Nope, never mind, it's about re-electing a senator. Oops, looks like we're out of time. The end. But before we go, here are the Dave Clark Five and The Animals to sing some more songs you've never heard of while we film them in a straight-on close up that looks like a mugshot.

Wow, this film is a real doozie as far as beach and party movies of the 60s was concerned...the acting is grade Z and I cant imagine the producer paid any of the actors more than a few thousand bucks apiece to make this "gem".....Mary Ann Mobley, Chris Noel, Nancy Sinatra, Joan O'Brien are the eye candy in this typical teenage boy loves girl fluff that was going around in mid 60s movies ala all the beach party fluff from Frankie and Annette...if it made tons of money for American International pictures you would guess other producers would hire young starlets for penny ante salaries to continue this stuff. The producer had no script except to hire some popular English singing groups for cameos like the Dave Clark Five and the Animals and some struggling bands like the Standells.....this film did not require any acting ability to speak of....this compounded by wooden, painted mountain scenes in the background of a ski lodge and phony cotton snow on the ground at a California ski lodge gives you an idea of the budget. Mary Ann Mobley is a stitch...she pretends to hate a music producer who wanted her to pose in a skimpy outfit but then falls madly in love with him in one 20 second scene at the ski lodge....ugh!!! All Nancy Sinatra can do is stand by a doorwall at the lodge and act like she is a smitten newly wed and mumble in sexy tones about being married....a four year old could recite her dialogue....actress Chris Noel though departed after this film and went to Vietnam according to legend and met and fell in love and got married to an army officer.....she also did a radio pop music show on the airways for the soldiers in Vietnam in the latter 60s......all in all if you can stand grade zero acting and poor sets you will like this teenage scruff.