This may be news to you but “winter” is a genre of film and I’ve made a good case to support this. Here’s a review of another favourite winter movie.

Winter A-Go-Go  (1965)

Starring William Wellman, Jr., James Stacy, Beverly Adams, John Anthony Hayes, Julie Parrish and Nancy Czar. Directed by Richard Benedict. From Columbia Pictures.

Young, good-looking best friends Jeff Forrester (Wellman, Jr.) and Danny Frazer (Stacy) run a ski camp in Heavenly Valley, a winter resort town in Lake Tahoe. Jeff has inherited the place but the mortgage is held by a gangster-type who wants it for himself. The gangster-type sends a couple of clowns to make life rough for the boys and their guests so that they won’t be able to make their payments. Through the course of all this, Jo Ann (Adams) pines for Jeff and Danny makes dates with all the girls they hire to work at the place. Skiing, dancing, singing and laughs abound.

And that’s about it. There’s not much plot to talk about; which is just fine with a movie like this. As with American International’s beach party movies, Winter A-Go-Go does well depicting the effervescence of youth, the seemingly careless time of life. It shows surface concerns in a light-hearted way. Anybody watching knows life is never – and has never been – that simple but there is something comforting in seeing problems taken so lightly, treated with a song and a dance and handled so easily. It’s what we call an “escape” picture and it’s perfect for winter viewing. After all, these kids willingly go to where the snow is.

The cast is filled with great looking people, some of which actually have character and do alright. Wellman is the handsome son of the legendary directer William Wellman (Wings, The Public Enemy, A Star is Born, Nothing Sacred). Wellman appeared in Swingin’ Summer – again with James Stacy – the same year as Winter A-Go-Go and went on to a minor career in television. James Stacy is another story altogether. He was born in Los Angeles to a Lebanese-American father who was a bookmaker. Handsome and charismatic, Stacy was married to actresses Connie Stevens and Kim Darby. An avid motorcycle rider – as seen in Winter A-Go-Go – he was riding with his girlfriend in 1973 when he was struck by a drunk driver. His girlfriend was killed and Stacy lost his left arm and leg. In an early judgement against establishments that serve patrons to intoxication, Stacy was awarded a $1.9 million settlement against the bar that served the drunk driver. Stacy returned to acting, playing roles that incorporated his disability and earned two Emmy nominations. Unfortunately, his final years were marred by sexual molestation – as perpetrator and victim – prison and a suicide attempt. He died in 2016 of anaphylactic shock. He was 79.

On a lighter note, pretty Canadian Beverly Adams was born in Edmonton. When she was a child, her family moved to Burbank – I always wonder how that happens; Edmonton to Burbank! She was uncredited in two Elvis Presley films, appeared as klutzy dream girl Cassandra in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, played Matt Helm’s girl friday Lovey Kravezit (?!) in the Matt Helm films and then retired when she married hairstylist Vidal Sassoon. They had four children, one of whom, actress/model Catya, died of a drug-induced heart attack. Adams and Sassoon divorced in 1980 and Adams started her own line of pet care products.

John Anthony Hayes plays Burt, one of the guys that tries to sabotage the hotel. He plays a rat well as evidenced by his turn as Frank who was mean to Fabian in Ride the Wild Surf. Julie Parrish showed up a year later looking quite fetching in Paradise, Hawaiian Style with Presley and Fireball 500 with Frankie Avalon. A career appearing on random television episodes came to an end in 2003 when she died of ovarian cancer, aged 62. Keep an eye out for cutie Dori, played by Judy Parker. Judy was married for 45 years to Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons. She co-wrote with Bob the fantastic “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”. Judy just died in 2017, aged 79. And watch for Paul Gleason among the gang of kids hanging out at the lodge. He would go on to play jerks in The Breakfast Club and Die Hard. Real-life ski instructor, Peter Brinkman, plays himself. According to both IMDb and Wikipedia, director Richard Benedict is the same Richard Benedict who portrayed “Curly” Steffans in Ocean’s 11 (1960). But I can hardly believe it.

As with all films of this ilk, we need music. Nooney Rickett sports one of the better names I’ve ever heard. And just try to find some info on the guy! He did join Arthur Lee in a later configuration of the legendary band Love. His Nooney Rickett Four sings “Ski City” (“put away your surfing gear and grab some skis”), a blatant knock-off of “Surf City” written by the prolific team of Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller and “Do the Ski (With Me)” (“If there’s a bump, you better jump. If there’s a tree, turn your ski”) co-written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. What Nooney lacks in personality he makes up for in hair. The engaging title track (by Greenfield/Keller) is performed by the Hondells. Joni Lyman delivers “King of the Mountain”. Joni is attractive with a real contemporary look. The Reflections wear some great sweaters and sing “I’m Sweet on You”. They are better known for their great blue-eyed soul hit “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet”. James Stacy leads the gang through “Hip Square Dance”, a ridiculous idea that is saved only by some half-decent choreography. It’s a foolish segment that brings to mind Bob Denver’s creepy upside-down goatee number in For Those Who Think Young.

Filming took place in the Eldorado National Forest in Eldorado County, California and at Heavenly Mountain resort in South Lake Tahoe near the California-Nevada border. There’s a great scene near the beginning of the film when the kids drive up to Jeff’s resort to begin work and you see some of the hotels in the area. One of which you can clearly see is the Lakeview Arms Motel of Bijou, California in Eldorado County. The place no longer exists but I saw on eBay that someone is selling an old hotel key from the place. The scenery is wonderful and the movie looks like it could have been made by the Heavenly Valley Chamber of Commerce.

An interesting note about this film is that it ends with a wedding between two of the principals. That kind of adult seriousness is almost never depicted in films like this. It’s notable in this case that these two go ahead and get married without parents or any of the usual pomp or prep. This must have appealed to the teens in the audience – it may even have given them ideas. The fact that there’s a wedding is actually huge.

In conclusion, it’s a fun little film to watch in the winter. The acting, of course, is not great but the two male leads seem to be harbouring some serious depth underneath the required goofiness and the girls are attractive and earnest. There is some great scenery and some really nice winter clothing; nice sweaters and women’s clothes. It’s an adventure you’d love to have yourself in a pretty cool place. Like one of the girls says when they first get to the lodge and see that it’s not in the best of shape: “It’s better than my room at home”.