The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)

aka Monster from the Surf

How bad is it? It's terrible.

Should you see it? It's a good kind of terrible.

If possible, see the version called "Monster from the Surf," which differs only in that the surfing scenes are in color and the jarring juxtaposition of color and black and white within scenes are funny.

The girls who dance on the beach (to Frank Sinatra, Jr.) while their boyfriends surf are getting killed by what appears to be a monster. The local expert claims the claw marks are the sign of a certain kind of fish and he talks about radiation and growth, but he seems fishier than the monster. His diatribes about the wastrels on the beach "going to jail!" are a lot of fun. The monster for some reason is covered in seaweed, which is an interesting touch, though the face of the monster is laughable. In the end, there's a fight between the hero and the guy in the rubber suit (hey, that's ambiguous, I'm  not giving it away) and a chase that ends with a fiery crash. The movie looks like it took a week to make and is difficult for me to separate from "The Horror of Party Beach," which would make a good double feature. [Horror of Party Beach will be reviewed here eventually.]