Personally, I hate the beach. It’s hot. Sand gets up your ass. It’s just so goddamn boring lying there on a towel waiting for a tan line to kick in. Some days just a whiff of Coppertone in the air can cause me an involuntary shudder. But I adore beach scenes in films. Mainly because it gets actors out of their clothes and into swim suits where they belong.
Now the most famous of all beach scenes has got to be Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr making out as a surf breaks on them in From Here To Eternity (1953).
Better still was the hilarious parody in Airplane! (1980) with Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty embracing on the shore covered in kelp. But here are other favorite movie beach scenes:
Jaws (1975) When Chrissy strips down for a moonlight swim at the beginning of the film (only to become chum for the shark) it sadly also signaled the beginning of blockbuster summer movies.
“10” (1979) Bo Derek’s buxom run along the beach made her a star and made corn-rowing your hair the rage, a real “hair-don’t.”
Chariots Of Fire (1981) Every time I hear that damn Vangelis music all I can think of is men dressed in white shorts running along the beach in that sappy, Oscar-winning British film.
The Blue Lagoon (1980) Chicken of the sea with Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields as shipwrecked teens on a deserted island frolicking in the water in makeshift swim suits.
A Summer Place (1959) “Is kissing me tough?” asks virginal Sandra Dee to horny boyfriend Troy Donahue in their secret Maine beach hideaway. “Stopping after one is!” he moans.
Planet Of the Apes (1968) “Damn you to hell!” screams Charlton Heston on the beach while standing before a half-buried Statue Of Liberty in the sand.
Summer Lovers (1982) Peter Gallagher skinny-dipping for the first time while vacationing with girlfriend Daryl Hannah on a Greek island in this nudie hoot.
Humoresque (1946) The best walking-into-the-ocean film suicide has got to be Joan Crawford as a bored rich arts patroness drunkenly wandering into the crashing waves. I like it better than James Mason’s suicidal dip in A Star Is Born (1954).
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) Who can forget Bette Davis dancing along the shore holding ice cream cones as the grotesque former child star Baby Jane Hudson? Eagle-eyed Robert Aldrich fans can see, when the camera pans upward, that house that blows up during the finale of Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon running out of the water onto their towels frugging wildly and singing the credits in the best of their teen beach comedies.
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) Elizabeth Taylor in a scandalous white bathing suit attracting young male “bait” for cousin Sebastian in the film version of the gothic Tennessee Williams play.
Barton Fink (1991) John Turturro as a 1940s Hollywood screenwriter sitting on the beach with that mystery box at the end of this terrific Coen Brothers film.
The Sandpiper (1965) Married minister Richard Burton lip-locking with free-spirit Bohemian artist Elizabeth Taylor in front of her Big Sur beach shack with “The Shadow Of Your Smile” blasting on the soundtrack.
The Horror Of Party Beach (1964) Radioactive sea monsters (with what looks like a dozen hot dogs sticking out of their mouths) rising up out of the water to attack teens in this fabulously stupid drive-in movie.
La Dolce Vita (1960) Memorable finale to this great Federico Fellini movie with Marcello Mastroianni and a group of jaded partygoers straggling down to the beach in the morning.
Moment By Moment (1978) Wealthy Marin County matron Lily Tomlin picking up stud-puppy John Travolta on the shore of her beach house (when he offers her a few “reds”) in this “what were they thinking?” howler.
Love Has Many Faces (1965) Lana Turner as a wealthy playgirl in Acapulco meeting a wily gigolo (Hugh O’Brian) on the beach wearing a very revealing speedo.
Dr. No (1962) The statuesque Ursula Andress rose from the sea in this first James Bond movie and into movie history.
Casino Royale (2006) Years later a studly James Bond (Daniel Craig) comes out of the water to even up the lecherous gaze.
The Night Of The Iguana (1964) Richard Burton, as a defrocked minister, rises out of the sea with a sexy Sue Lyon and Ava Gardner dances down to the Mexican bay with her maraca-shaking beach boys in this great film based on Tennessee Williams’ play.
Death In Venice (1971) Shoe polish runs down the forehead of a dying Dirk Bogarde (to the strains of Mahler’s 5th Symphony) as he watches pretty boy Tadzio cavort on the Venice beach for the last time in Luchino Visconti’s film.
Where The Boys Are (1960) Connie Francis’s theme song blaring over the credits of this popular movie about college kids descending on Ft. Lauderdale during spring break.
Blood Beach (1980) Slug-like monsters sucking people into the sand under Venice Beach with the best ad campaign: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water- you can’t get to it!”
No Boys in the Sand?