Winter A-Go-Go (1965)

(On Cable TV, December 2021) Cinematic history is littered with low-end movies aping better movies—or at least more commercially successful ones. None of those movies are essential… but they can be worth a curious look in the right mood. Winter A-Go-Go is one of those mid-1960s films aping the success of the “Beach Party” teenage comedies — twentysomething actors playing younger characters, plenty of girls, some singing and dancing, and not much in terms of plot. The original Beach Party films are not very good, and this copy is even worse: Heading over to Lake Tahoe for some unconvincing snow scenery, much of the action focuses on a mountain lodge being refurbished into a teenage hangout. Except that the characters are dull, the stereotypes are rampant, the comedy doesn’t work and the musical acts are hardly worth remembering. Director Richard Benedict’s work can work as a mildly entertaining anthropological experience to what filmmakers thought was important to mid-1960s teenagers as well as an ordinary time capsule of what was cool back then. The straightforward “men lust after women, women know what’s up” dynamics can feel refreshingly uncomplicated but that’s true to the point of mindlessness — you can watch the film in vain waiting for something more. While unmemorable, the musical numbers can be evocative of a bygone era, so at least there’s that. Still — you’d be better served watching those Beach Party movies you haven’t yet seen yet — Winter a-Go-Go is practically obscure these days for a reason.