Home > FILM > The Secret Cinema: A Swingin’ Summer

• Tweet
• Outlook
• ICAL
• PRINT
• Email
• Feedback

• RSS

• Official Website
• Buy Tickets

The Secret Cinema: A Swingin’ Summer

Presented by International House Philadelphia at The Ibrahim Theater at International House

December 15, 2011

Comment on Facebook

Dir. Robert Sparr, US, 1965, 35mm (archival dyetransfer Technicolor Techniscope), 80 mins, color.

After the success of Gidget and Beach Party, there was a tidal wave of 1960s drive-in movies that featured surfing, dancing teens, bikinis, rock ‘n’ roll music, and minimal plotlines. Set in Lake Arrowhead, California, A Swingin’ Summer combined all of those genre trademarks sans the surfing. Good-natured kids take over the dance pavilion and become rock concert promoters. They somehow recruit the Righteous Brothers, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Donnie Brooks and surf-rock group The Rip Chords (famed for their hit “Hey Little Cobra”). The eclectic cast includes choreographer/actor Michael Blodgett (blond Lance Rocke in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls), James Stacy, William Wellman, Jr (son of the legendary Hollywood director), pioneer hippie/health food advocate Gypsy Boots, and a young and especially striking Raquel Welch, in her first featured role—she brings down the house with her scorching song “I’m Ready to Groove.”

Richie Rotkin appeared in A Swingin’ Summer as a singer in the featured act The Rip Chords, and still performs across the nation with them to this day. Richie will be at the screening to introduce the film and share stories about what it was like to make a teen movie and live in Hollywood during the sixties.