Don't Make Waves (1967) User Reviews (24)

DON’T MAKE WAVES (Alexander Mackendrick, 1967) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 4 July 2007]

This is one of a multitude of sex comedies Tony Curtis starred in around this time in his career; incidentally, I had seen about half of it some years back (also on Italian TV) but had to abort the viewing due to a bad reception!

Anyway, if the film is at all remembered today, it is primarily for two reasons: it not only marked the cinematic swan song of a great director, but was also the official Hollywood introduction of the beguiling but ill-fated Sharon Tate. Two more (if lesser) claims to fame should be the undeniably funny Chaplinesque ‘house-teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff’ climax and the fact that leading rock band The Byrds perform the film’s rather charmingly light title tune.

Patchy and somewhat hesitant overall, it is nonetheless engaging and occasionally delightful; the satirical barbs aimed at L.A.’s muscle beach mentality (especially David Draper, the amiably moronic blonde hulk who is Tate’s boyfriend), the then-current astrological fad and businessmen indulging in extramarital activities often hit the target – even if with a much blunter edge than in Mackendrick’s previous film with Curtis, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957). Two other lively highlights of the film are the initial ‘meeting cute’ between Curtis and leading lady Claudia Cardinale (in which, as he tells her himself, she inadvertently manages to ruin his whole life in 30 seconds flat!) and the potentially disastrous sky-diving stunt performed by Tate and (unexpectedly) Curtis, which ends with both of them landing in his newly-inaugurated pool.

The film does benefit from a workmanlike cast: Curtis is in good form as an opportunistic young man who, while being compulsively pursued by the accident-prone Cardinale, becomes hopelessly infatuated with luscious, free-spirited beach girl Sharon Tate (her effortlessly sensual slow-motion exercises on the beach early in the film are quite disturbing to watch now when one realizes that she would die so horribly in less than two years’ time); Robert Webber is a swimming pool company executive driven to his wits’ end by lover Cardinale and the blackmailing schemes of Curtis, who soon shows his salesmanship skills by selling a pool to Jim “Mr. Magoo” Backus (playing himself) and a celebrity fortune-teller with the unlikely name of Madame Lavinia (played by famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen).

While it is undoubtedly Mackendrick’s least (i.e. most inconsequential) film – and could well have been the reason why he left the profession and went into teaching – it’s a tribute to his mostly unsung genius that the film is as enjoyable as it is despite the evident flaws.

Confused genre, but I like it.

[simnia-1 · 7/10 · 21 June 2006]

This film starts out very promising and had me laughing right away with its long chain reaction sequence of disasters. Carlo, in an unperturbed Tom Hanks manner, stops at a beautiful overlook on the California coast, watches a lady painter lose her temper at her easel, who then flings her painting off the cliff in disgust. Carlo then attempts to take a drink from a defective water fountain that shoots a powerful stream of water at his face. Then the lady drives off, but her fender hooks his VW Bug's bumper, causing his car to roll downhill. Then follows a series of humorous and futile attempts by Carlo to stop his car from rolling, the car finally goes over the cliff, crashes in front of both the lady and an oncoming bus, followed by Carlo rolling down the hill after it. During the ensuing argument with Laura, who is arguing vehemently in Italian, she lights a cigarette that ignites the spilled gasoline, causing Carlo's car to blow up. Carlo's clothes then catch on fire and he has to strip in public while a not-so-helpful bystander pours a bucket of water on his head instead of on his burning pants.

After the great opening sequence, however, the film became a little odd. It was humorous, but the humor then had a hard edge to it, something like the style in "Up the Creek" (1984), especially when Carlo is forced to sleep on the beach by a nasty paramour, then suffers a realistic clunk in the head by a surfboard while swimming the next morning. Then the film gets kind of artsy, with slow motion and freeze frame scenes of Malibu in her swimsuit, jumping on a trampoline. It seems to want to turn into a teen beach party type flick then, with lots of scenes of surfers, swimsuits, bodybuilders, and The Byrds playing live, but doesn't quite go in that direction, either. Then it moves back into more hard-edged comedy with Carlo working as a swimming pool salesman, then there seems to be a tacked-on episode at the end with Carlo's house starting to slide down a hill during a rainstorm. When the house finally rolls and slides all the way down to the beach, the film then ends!

Yes, the film is odd, but I like it! Although the fundamental problem was probably a poorly planned story, the high quality production caused this problem to manifest itself as a unique style, with hard-edged humor, a mixture of genres, a mixture of cultures, and an overall odd story structure. Technically the details are quite good (other than the slightly weak sliding house effects at the end). The photography is good (other than some grainy and mismatched footage of a little girl surfer), the Southern California coastal scenery is beautiful, the music is lively and good, and the '60s style interior decor is wonderfully retro to behold: tikis, a peacock chair, modern art paintings, an interesting bed with a chain net, wood-paneled offices, and so on.

Watch this film if you like the styles and atmosphere of the late '60s, avoid it if you're looking for a clear-cut comedy, clear-cut beach party flick, or clear-cut artsy film.

A lot of fun...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 6/10 · 31 May 2007]

SPOILER ALERT! By no means a masterpiece, but certainly a lot of fun. The director Alexander Mackendrick knows how to pace a comedy and though not as biting as his earlier collaboration with Tony Curtis (SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS), it has a lot of good things in it. Curtis moves and loses every material thing he owns thanks to hot-blooded Claudia Cardinale and her "patron" Robert Webber. He exacts his revenge in the most clever ways possible. The cast is at the top of their game: Curtis is suitably befuddled; Webber is suitably caddish; Cardinale is suitably sexy. The strange supporting cast includes Mort Sahl (who has at least one funny joke pointed at the Eisenhower administration!), Sharon Tate as a ski-diver, Jim Backus and Edgar Bergen as Madame Lavinia! Also featuring a great set piece (an entire house slipping from its stilts while most of the cast is carrying on inside). There's some real swingin' music on the soundtrack!

Middle aged version of a Beach Party film

[a_chinn · 6/10 · 27 January 2018]

Okay middle aged version of a Beach Party film has tourist Tony Curtis visiting California and run off the road by Claudia Cardinale, who then takes him back to her place, where a French style bedroom farce ensures. These kooky 20 and 30 somethings encounter crazy Californian surfers, bodybuilders, skydivers, and other assorted kooks. The film is never boring, but it's also never all that funny or clever either. One of the positives for the film is a supporting role by Sharon Tate, who's gorgeous and again had a terrific screen presence, reminding us of of what a loss the world had with her murder. Overall, if you want a lightweight comedy to the pass the time (which you'll completely forget about once it's over), you could do worse than "Don't Make Waves."

Good Beach Movie ! ! !

[Kelt Smith · 7/10 · 19 October 2000]

Tony Curtis made alot of bad movies around this time, but DON'T MAKE WAVES is one of his better films. Here Curtis, as Carlo, is a southern Californian who's life is turned upside down when his car with all of his worldly possessions is accidentally destroyed by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale. Taking pity on Carlo, she takes him to her apartment. Sugar daddy (Robert Webber) soon shows up and promptly throws Carlo out. Having had enough, Carlo takes his circumstances and newfound information and turns them into a grand lifestyle. The usually funny Joanna Barnes turns in a sobering performance as Webber's neglected wife. Bodybuilding title holder Dave Draper is very good as not too bright musclebound Harry. It is the late Sharon Tate's performance as Malibu, Harry's on again off again sky diving girlfriend that is the real find in this movie. She's gorgeous, sexy, and about as swift as Harry. Feeling overlooked by Harry and his muscle buddies, she deadpans to Curtis, "If you were a man, would you find me attractive?" Title song performed by THE BYRDS. The rest of the score was done by Vic Mizzy, who also did the music to GREEN ACRES. In case you wondered why the music had a familiar ring to it, that's the reason. Fair amount of cameos by movie & TV stars. Look for Edgar Bergen, Jim Backus......and others.

Not a sex farce, not a cerebral beach flick...so what is it??

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 4 November 2001]

A very flaky comedy, a perplexing mix of moods involving Southern California hustler Tony Curtis with an accident prone actress, her married lover, and an assortment of beach bums and bunnies. A curiously lackadaisical pace, an almost dream-like non-focus, and the blithe, throwaway performances don't especially give the proceedings an edge, but they do help the movie stand out from other films in this genre. But what genre is it exactly? It isn't a laugh-out loud comedy, it isn't a character study, it isn't brainless but neither is it particularly witty. Just an occasional big laugh, and it certainly looks good. Sharon Tate gets an "introducing" credit, just as she did on "Eye Of The Devil" released the year before. Her role as "Malibu" is utterly undemanding, but still it's nice to see her having fun. ** from ****

Don't waste your time unless you like the stars a lot.

[Poseidon-3 · 31 December 2008]

Everything looks good, especially the stars, in this wacky comedy, but it ultimately becomes muddled and fails to deliver. Curtis plays a transplant to California from the east coast who has barely set foot outside his car when fiery artist Cardinale manages to destroy practically everything he owns, including most of his clothes! She takes him back to her beach pad so that he'll have a place to sleep while she looks into the insurance matters, but for some reason her married sugar daddy Webber isn't too keen on the idea! Curtis decides to con Webber in order to get a job and make money while flirting with Cardinale, though he also has his eyes on (and who wouldn't?!) shapely, bikini-clad Tate who lives in a bus with some hippies on the nearby beach. Somehow it all winds up in a snazzy house, which is slowly sliding down the face of a mountain as the people inside sort out their romantic issues. Curtis is in great shape here (he's frequently shirtless or in blue shorts) and tries hard to make a strong comedic impression. Unfortunately, he is just, like the others in the cast, undone by a haphazard and rather aimless script. Cardinale is sexy and curvy and also looks terrific, but her character is uneven and she hasn't exactly mastered English completely. Webber is perfectly cast as a demanding and sneaky businessman. Barnes plays his rather brittle wife. She has bangs that cover the better part of her face and her character isn't very well developed. Draper plays a big, blonde lug of a bodybuilder. One real treat here is the unbelievably luscious Tate as a character called Malibu. Impossibly tan with golden hair, she actually was the inspiration of the later "Malibu Barbie" and it's one case in which the real thing outdid the questionably proportioned plastic one. Like many others in the film, her talent is squandered and she's mostly used for her looks, but tremendous looks they are. Backus and his real life wife enjoy themselves in a cameo while Bergen has a small role as spiritualist. The opening sequences of the film are engaging and promising. However, as the storyline begins to play out, it all becomes very tiresome and convoluted. By the time the big climax arrives, viewer interest is at a pretty low ebb. The everything-but-the-kitchen-sink disaster-style ending is sort of like some of Blake Edwards' more desperate cinematic products. The effects in it range from so-so to cruddy. The film piddles out as if everyone got tired and decided to end it on the spot.

The total insanity of living in the USA's NOT-so-Golden State . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 26 June 2020]

. . . is on full display throughout DON"T MAKE WAVES. This expose documents how many folks smugly tuck themselves in at night and shockingly wake up dead. Whether it's a mudslide filling up every inch of their bedroom or an untimely rain deluge dropping their home in the middle of an interstate, "California Living" is mostly about dying unexpectedly. To paraphrase the opening credits here, "Introducing Sharon T. to Helter Skelter, Tinsel Town Style."

Waves of strangeness

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 6 December 2019]

'Don't Make Waves' was hardly one of those films that was doomed from the outset. Tony Curtis' film career was spotty but he was always appealing enough, and the same can be said for Claudia Cardinale. Sharon Tate in my predictions would have become a bigger star if she hadn't been so brutally murdered in one of the most shocking mass murder sprees in history. Also like to love Alexander Mackendrick's previous work, especially 'Sweet Smell of Success' and 'The Ladykillers'.

While it is watchable enough and has some good things, 'Don't Make Waves' didn't really do much for me regrettably. Curtis' career was, or at least his film choices were, particularly hit and miss at this time of which this was a middling project for him, and as far as Mackendrick's films go 'Don't Make Waves' is a lesser effort of his and not a particular fair representation of him. Actually find it a little sad that a promising director ended his film directing career on what is actually a contender for his worst film.

There are certainly good things here. The film looks great (excepting the more stock moments not always being seamlessly incorporated), very artfully shot without trying to be overly clever and quite vibrant. The music is quite infectious, easy on the ears and doesn't feel tacky or like it belong, while the title song epitomises charm. 'Don't Make Waves' starts off very promisingly, very good-natured and amusing.

It also finishes great, the climactic sliding house sequence is quite thrilling and holds up impressively. The cast do more than gamely, while Curtis is very likeable and Cardinale likewise the one that makes the biggest impression is Tate, who is both sensual and witty.

However, 'Don't Make Waves' is pretty all over the place when it comes to the story. The mishmash of genres, some meandering aimlessness and quite muddled structure gave off a weirdly wacky feel and rather suggestive of the film never being sure what it wanted to be. The pace can suffer too, it starts off great and it picks up in the climactic moments but in between the energy sags. Some of the pace is fine, some of it is dull, while there are still amusing moments between the start and climax in some places the strangeness gets a bit over the top.

Also felt that Mackendrick's direction was disappointing pedestrian and only workmanlike in its best moments. There are some good-natured and witty moments in the script, but too much of it falls on the wrong side of cheesy. The rest of the cast other than the mentioned three never rise above just getting the job done level.

Summing up, not bad but not particularly good. 5/10

mudslide comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 24 June 2019]

New Yorker Carlo Cofield (Tony Curtis) is driving in southern California. He encounters flighty Italian Laura Califatti (Claudia Cardinale) who accidentally sets his car on fire destroying all his worldly possessions. He asks for her insurance but she offers a place to stay instead. Her patron Rod Prescott (Robert Webber) shows up and kicks him out. Carlo is forced to sleep on the beach and Malibu (Sharon Tate) saves him from drowning. He pushes his way into Prescott's company as the high priced pool salesman. He also discovers that Prescott is married to Diane (Joanna Barnes). He schemes to break up Malibu from her muscle bound boyfriend Harry.

I don't really like Carlo. The world is transitioning outside. The muscle beach concept is a little fun if a little silly. This feels like two stories smashed into one. I think Carlo as a fish out of water in the California beach lifestyle holds good possibilities. As for the other half with Cardinale and Webber, that should be the love triangle if that's the story for the movie. The movie needs to cut out one side or the other. The combination becomes a mess. Also, Carlo schemes too much for my liking for the lead. I don't want him to end up with anyone. Overall, I don't find much funny in this comedy.

Weather Report......a tsunami set to strike Malibu.

[copper1963 · 9/10 · 14 April 2006]

Perfect posture and great bodies dominate in this oddball Tony Curtis comedy. Just about everyone in these reels of celluloid has a superb physique: Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate, and even the muscle men pumping iron on the beach. Hard to believe fact: this movie was based on a novel! Some of the bloated beach bums must have stumbled in from a "method" acting class. The leader savors every line of dialog as if it was Milton or Shakespeare. Weird. The setting is radiant to the eye. The special effects people deserve a gold metal for delivering some of the most realistic shots, up to that time, of the ground cracking open and an upscale villa sliding and tumbling down a steep embankment and into the surf. Impressive. It's sad to see Sharon Tate--so young and pretty--just three years before the Manson Gang got their hands on her. Miss Tate's character is skilled in many physical pursuits: trampoline and skydiving included. In one improbable scene, she saves Tony Curtis, James Bond-like, by strapping herself to the free-falling con-man. Miss Cardinale has the curves to match her rival, but she is straddled with shrill dialog and a cranky demeanor. Jim Backus plays himself and performs his "Mister Magoo" routine. I think the movie works so well because it perfectly captures the Southern California scene at a time when many things were changing--and not always for the best. The mid-sixties was the last gasp of a more innocent time and cinema. View after midnight--it rocks.

A weird hybrid

[marcslope · 5/10 · 1 October 2020]

MGM must have thought, let's throw as many genres as we can into one movie with this odd amalgam of '60s sex comedy, beach party frolic, and Irwin Allen-type disaster flick for the last 10 minutes. It's one of several misbegotten efforts at the time to revive Tony Curtis's career (he had a good one the following year, "The Boston Strangler"), and he seems dispirited and out of sync as an opportunistic nobody who gets involved through unlikely circumstances with Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate, and Joana Barnes while pursuing a "How to Succeed"-like climb up the corporate ladder at a swimming pool company. Maybe it's meant to be satirical; the screenplay, by Ira Wallach, is so listless and episodic it's hard to tell. Cardinale's fine, and David Draper, as Tate's boyfriend, displays not only a muscular physique but some comic timing. Guest appearances by Jim and Henny Backus, Mort Sahl, and Edgar Bergen round the thing out, and the climax, with a crowded Malibu beach house plunging down a cliff, does generate some tension. It's an odd duck, but valuable as a time capsule, and a demonstration of directorial nadir: Did Alexander Mackendrick, who made "The Ladykillers" and "The Sweet Smell of Success," really helm this?

two beautiful women & the byrds

[theeht · 20 August 2004]

This movie seems to have a lot going for it. The stunning photography of gorgeous Los Angeles; a charming theme song by The Byrds; two of the most beautiful women you could imagine , Sharon Tate and Claudia Cardinale; plus some funny folk in supporting roles. Strangely it misses. It just goes on and on with no laffs, and no particular purpose. Sharon , As in The wrecking Crew, proves she had great potential in comedy, and is so gorgeous you want to see more of her. So I would recommend this movie only for Sharon Tate fans. If you arent a fan, you will be disapointed as there is really nothing else here worthwhile. I waited to see the movie for a long time, and felt ripped off.

Needed a Bit More Chemistry and Humor

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 9 August 2019]

Having just arrived in Malibu "Carlo Cofield" (Tony Curtis) has the misfortune of meeting an accident-prone young woman named "Laura Califatti" (Claudia Cardinale) who manages to wreck his car and set fire to all of his possessions inside. Feeling somewhat guilty she invites him to her house in order to give him her car insurance paperwork. Unable to locate it right away she allows him to spend the night on the couch with the hope that she can manage to obtain it from her boyfriend "Rod Prescott" (Robert Webber) the next day. But as luck would have it Rod comes to the house unexpectedly and that's when trouble begins for everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although this film started off pretty well and certainly had potential, it fizzled out about half-way through due to both a lack of chemistry and humor. It does, however, feature two extremely beautiful women in Sharon Tate (as "Malibu") and the aforementioned Claudia Cardinale as well as a decent performance by Tony Curtis. But other than that there really isn't that much here and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Doesn't make it!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 19 November 2016]

Additional credits: Sky-diving sequence photographed by sky-diver Doyle Fields, helicopter cameraman Nelson Tyler, and Bob Buquor. Westrex Sound System.

Copyright 16 May 1967 by Filmways, Inc. — Reynard Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at neighborhood theaters: 20 June 1967. U.K. release: 27 August 1967. Australian release: 4 January 1968. 8,694 feet. 97 minutes. Cut by M-G-M to 85 minutes in the U.K.

SYNOPSIS: "A delicious spoof on life and love among the body- building cultists of Southern California." — M-G-M publicity.

COMMENT: So this is the film where all the mysterious stills that M- G-M showered on reviewers showing a lot of mud sliding all over Robert Webber, came from. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't deserve any publicity. Whose fault! The original novel in its determinedly screwball narrative and equally maladroit characters? The heavy- handed direction? Or the seriously over-the-top enthusiasm of the actors?

Whatever, the picture is swamped by tedious dialogue, seen-too-often characters and typically cornball TV situations. Even Edgar Bergen has a hard time making something of his thin material. A major problem is that all the characters are unsympathetic. Sharon Tate probably comes out of this mess best, though her part proves disappointingly small. Claudia Cardinale, on the other hand, looks as fat as her part. Whether the photography, her costumes, or she herself are to blame, who can tell?

Mackendrick's stolidly hammer-and-chisel direction fails to generate audience interest or involvement. Given the jumpily episodic script with its ridiculous plot development, maybe that's no surprise. Go to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and become submerged! Other credits are likewise undistinguished. Production values likewise rate as very average, despite sky-dive and running-car stunt-work. Obvious miniatures and clumsy special effects also do not impress.

don't make waves

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 21 July 2022]

It sure looks like TCM's Alicia Malone has been taking Dave Karger lessons, huh? How else to explain this usually discerning gal's calling this empty, 60s beach flic "fun" or the most boringly inept of its cast "delightful"? Best adjective I can come up with is "sad", considering that it was the final film of a great director. Solid C.

PS...Great title song by The Byrds. And downhill from there.

Absolutely superb sixties comedy

[LesHalles · 8/10 · 8 July 2002]

This is one of my favorite movies about Los Angeles. It has everything.

Gorgeous locations on the beach, stunningly beautiful actors, a brilliant and witty script full of hilarious, exageratted incidents which are nevertheless typical of LA.

It is not only funny but engaging, the plot is interesting. It was even better the second time I saw it on the big screen, where it is best seen.

I was totally captivated by this film.

I find this film much wittier and funnier, for example, than "Some Like It Hot", also with Curtis, and I find Sharon Tate much sexier than Monroe in that film.

The plot is a bit crazy but compeletely believable and consistent with itself and reality; as a comedy it falls in the exagerrated or surrealistic category, only slightly dark because of the various difficulties that beset the hero.

Above all it is a brilliant comment on Los Angeles of the sixties and is still valid in the 2000's. An overlooked gem, a great cast, which may work best for those who have lived in LA.

Another film like this, with good LA locations, less comedy more suspense, is "Into the Night".

Beachfront disaster

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 30 March 2015]

My first thought after seeing Don't Make Waves is that a lot of people, a lot of well to do people who bought beachfront homes the way Tony Curtis does and then see them lost to mudslides the way his is in the climax might have not seen the humor in all that. The $25,000.00 that Mort Sahl gets from Curtis for the home is nothing compared to what their delicate value is today. In fact Sahl is the smartest one in Don't Make Waves.

Tony Curtis is a solitary tourist in southern California who through a series of wild circumstances loses his car and all his clothes and money and who Claudia Cardinale takes in as a poor vagabond.

Cardinale is the kept mistress of Robert Webber who is playing his usual two timing rat villain that he does in serious and comic parts. But Curtis inadvertently picks up a piece of information that allows him to blackmail Webber into a job with his swimming pool company. Webber's telling a lot of tales to both Cardinale and wife Joanna Barnes who controls the pursestrings for him and the company.

Curtis turns out to be an innovative and aggressive swimming pool salesman and life on the beach is great for him after he buys Sahl's place. His first meeting with Sharon Tate involves mouth to mouth resuscitation. If he can get passed her bodybuilder boyfriend David Draper. Draper is nice, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He's also the last word in biceps, 24 inch pythons as Hulk Hogan would put it.

Don't Make Waves had Sharon Tate given 'and introducing' billing. Who could have predicted her tragic end?

I was also not pleased with the resolution regarding Webber and Barnes. Today's feminists, even the next decade's feminists would be up in arms over it.

Still Don't Make Waves has some good moments in it that will please Tony Curtis fans.

Peculiar Attempt

[vox-sane · 11 August 2003]

"Don't Make Waves" -- is it an attempt at an mature beach movie? A spoof of beach movies? A midlife crisis movie? A Tony Curtis-as-middle-aged-hustler movie?

Tony Curtis plays a not-so-young man whose life is ruined and all his earthly belongings destroyed by an accident prone mistress (Cardinale) of an obnoxious pool magnate (Webber). Curtis worms his way into the pool company -- apparently not to wreak revenge (or is it) but just to get ahead. On the way he picks up a cute sky-diving obsessed young woman (Tate -- who unfortunately has become a curiosity piece in the few movies she lived to make) who was also being sought out by a good-hearted and dull-witted Muscle Beach type (Drake).

The characters wind confusingly through each others lives until they come to a climax that needs better special effects than they had in 1967, and then the movie ends abruptly.

The movie shows lots of potential trying to get out. There are many good ideas thrown out. Some lie flaccid after being thrown out, others are merely thrown out and left to die.

The cast is full of surprises: Mort Sal as a wry house salesman, Edgar Bergen as a fortune teller, Jim Backus (as wife) as themselves, being hustled by Curtis into buying a pool! And this also proves how the movie went wrong. Edgar Bergen had a charming persona in his act, which (for those of you who don't remember) as a ventriloquist -- on the radio, no less. Instead of playing to his charming persona, they cast him as a waspish old man; and instead of playing on his ventriloquism to make the character wacky, they ignore it completely. They shoehorned a man with special talents into a part that could have been played by any competent actor, and which should have been played as a gift cameo part for someone who would pull out all the comedic stops (say,Paul Lynde?)

Pluses include the Vic Mizzy sound, and the fact that, and the obvious fact that none of the actors take the material seriously, except for Robert Webber, whom no one seems to have told was in a comedy. It's a movie that one watches the way one eats sour cream and onion potato chips if one doesn't like sour cream. The taste both repels and attracts. It's movies like this that ensured the decline of Tony Curtis' career.

This should have been buried with the undertow.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 31 May 2022]

It's obvious that the cast had way too much sun before they started filming this lame beach comedy that has little to offer outside of some babes in bikinis and moronic musclemen, with Tony Curtis way out of his league and absolutely foolish looking mixing it with the likes of Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. This film starts off with the most annoying plot device. A character who means well ends up being a human faultline, unintentionally causing problems because their temperament does not allow them to think which results in constant disaster for other characters.

In this case, the walking earthquake is Cardinale whose foolishness creates chaos for Curtis. She has him spending the night at her Beach house, and when her married lover, Robert Webber, shows up, she's alternatingly crying right and trying to hide evidence that he is there. She's basically really unlikeable from the moment she appears, while Webber and his wife (Joanna Barnes) aren't exactly a couple to root for either. Curtis is involved in a real estate scheme which marks a truly boring subplot. Sharon Tate is the official sex pot of the film with a bunch of beatnik beachcombers, none of whom who have intelligence larger than a grain of sand. Edgar Bergen has a thankless cameo. If it wasn't for the presence of Jim and Henny Backus as themselves in a cameo, I would give this a complete bomb.

What an Odd Movie

[lnoft97-412-316846 · 2/10 · 15 January 2023]

It's like it's trying to be a naive, dopey 'Beach Party' movie. Nice to look at, a cast worth looking at - but curiously dated, and misses the mark.... Tony Curtis was about...40? (he must have been in it for the paycheck)... and the tragic gorgeous Sharon Tate showed off her slim acting talents to fit right up with him! Claudia Cardinale is breathtaking, and doesn't belong here....no nice peppy music, curious flat. Maybe they were trying to make a 'beach party movie for adults? I suppose it's a good time killer to just look at the beautiful beaches and beautiful actors, but they all seem miscast and run around like 16 year old ninnies. MEH.

Colorful trip back to the '60s in California

[sfride67 · 10/10 · 4 January 2006]

I like to watch movies as I workout on my exercise bike, and this movie was visually entertaining--all those sights and sounds and styles of Southern California in the late '60s, big fun. Sure, this is a 'light read' but it is a colorful chronicle and a trip back to Muscle Beach, dude. Well, that's all I had planned to say until I was prompted to write more text--I have to write a minimum of ten lines. Whoa, that's like taking an essay test. How am I going to write ten lines about this movie? I'm not a movie reviewer. Well, pass me the popcorn and let me give this a go. It starts with a guy and his Volkswagen and if you watch it, you'll see what happens next. Thanks for reading my movie review. I think it was excellent.

Horrendous addition to the "beach movie" genre

[Ripshin · 15 January 2005]

Tony Curtis, Edgar Bergen, Sharon Tate????? While the first thirty minutes of this film are perhaps promising, the plot quickly becomes insanely silly.

Perhaps the pedestrian direction of this film is predetermined by the fact that Filmways was the production company. One would expect no less from the makers of numerous mindless sitcoms of the 60s.

Slow motion scenes of Sharon Tate bouncing about, and numerous shots of various California beefcake bodybuilders strutting their stuff, are interspersed with ridiculous, unrelated scenes of supposed comedy.

The "introducing Sharon Tate" credit is dubious, considering she "debued" in FOUR films the same year, including "Valley of the Dolls." An experience to be missed.

The End of Alexander MacKendrick's Directoral Career

[aramis-112-804880 · 6 December 2023]

Tony Curtis plays a man who moves to California to find his life turned upside down. After having his car and all his belongings destroyed in an accident, he joins the firm of a pool salesman (Robert Webber, who apparently didn't get the memo that this was a comedy) and bounces between Claudia Cardinale to the incredibly beautiful Sharon Tate. Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you're as pretty and charming as the young Curtis.

Guest stars include Jim Backus (playing himself!) as a pool client and ventriloquist Edgar Bergan, deprived of his dummies, as a fortune teller. Why bother to include an actor with special skills, and beloved for them (like Bergen), and not make use of them? Now, a fortune-teller speaking through a dummy might've proved very funny, indeed. Alas.

The last bit is indicative of why "Don't Make Waves," with all that's going for it, misfires.

Director Alexander MacKendrick helmed one of the best comedies ever made ("The Ladykillers," with Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers) as well as "Man in the White Suit" and the Tony Curtis classic "The Sweet Smell of Success," which had (arguably) Curtis' best dramatic performance.

Curtis was a dab hand at comedy but he made too many of these false starts. Nevertheless, he's the second best thing in the movie. Or is it the third (see below)? The first is the incredibly lovely Sharon Tate. I know, movie stars (male and female) have the best make up and lighting and photography available; but she pops right out of the screen. Had she lived she probably would've aged into cameos on "The Love Boat" and "Murder She Wrote" or been a minor-key Carol Lynley without the hysterics, but at this stage of her career she was a head-turner ripe for brief, meteoric stardom.

As another review pointed out, the 1960s were full of excellent comedic supporting actors (many of whom, no names, wound up on "Hollywood Squares"). The "beach" movies of Frankie and Annette pulled out better comic support than this, which was presumably a beach movie aimed at an older crowd, who had jobs and wives and husbands and perhaps lovers on the side (or wanted them).

Frankly, except for Tate's performance (which is hilarious, in context; though, given the rest of the movie, perhaps it wasn't meant to be . . . But I will say, potato chips will never seem the same), the muscle-building subplot doesn't hold much interest for me. The movie seems to push for a "beach movie" ambience without the overall good vibes Frankie and Annette were able to gin up. Unfortunately, from the cynical Byrds opening song to the contrived climax the only good vibes come from the typically upbeat Vic Mizzy score. If you don't know Mizzy's work, look him up. His delightful background music livened many comedy movies and TV shows of the day and his "sound" is unmistakable.

I'm open-minded when it comes to the art of movies. I keep a suspension of disbelief. It doesn't bother me to see people who are allegedly "too old" for their roles. All I care about are good performances. What else matters? People who cavil about actors being "too old" for their love interests (etc.) remind me of the hypocrites who hate musicals because it's "unnatural" to hear people burst into song but never raise a whimper over manipulative background music that often dictates how we're to feel through a movie because the writers, directors and actors haven't taken us there. How I'd love to have a background score to my life! But that's what's truly "unnatural." Sometimes an actor or actress who is "too old" for a role are capable of bringing a depth of characterization some fresh young punk can't. All I want is a good acting job and if it's there I'm satisfied. I won't complain about the acting here, though depth of characterization is missing, and that's a writers' problem. I sense the actors trying to flesh out their parts (well, Tate does a good job of that!) but they don't have much to grab hold of. And the casting seems wonky in places.

Mainly, it's the spotty writing that makes this movie an overall misfire. The writers (and whoever gets credit, movies usually have plural writers) raise some excellent ideas they never carry through. It's like telling joke without a punch line. It reminds me of the Vaudeville comic on the stage who, when a heckler cries, "Louder!" raises his voice. And when he does, the heckler says, "Louder! And funnier!" The (again, contrived) climax (no spoilers) is well done (for 1967 f/x) and satisfying enough, though I assume they were trying for a big laugh. Again, alas.

As entertainment, "Don't Make Waves" isn't a total waste. Fans of the goofier Tony Curtis won't be disappointed with his performance, which may be a riff on his more serious role for MacKendrick in "The Sweet Smell of Success." But whatever this movie aspires to be, it doesn't quite make it.