June 3 Tony Curtis

Happy Birthday Paulette Goddard, Tony Curtis, Leo Gorcy and Josephine Baker.

TCM celebrated Tny Curtis’s birthday. I watched Don’t Make Waves. It is a swinging beach story. The opening is a cartoon montage of a car crossing the country with cuts of bikini clad women subliminally inserted. Tony Curtis is a man who drives to a look out over the ocean to eat his lunch. He sits on a wall and sees a woman painting, who looses control of her easel and in frustration throws her painting in the ocean. The woman, Claudia Cardinale, packs up and leaves. The bumper of her car then hits Tony’s car, a red Volkswagen bug an the car starts to go down the road. Tony tries to stop the car, but fails and it goes over the road. It ends up upside down right next to Claudia’s car on the road and into a van full of surfers. Tony follows the car down, he is battered but basically unharmed. Claudia lights a cigarette which catches the papers fallen out of the car on fire, which then spreads to the car. Everything Tony had was gone. Claudia takes him back to her apartment to get the insurance papers. She can’t find them. Since Tony has no where to go she invites him to spend the night on her couch. While they are a sleep, her benefactor comes to see her. Tony hides but he is caught. Tony goes to sleep on the beach. He goes into to the water to swim and get clean, but is caught by the surfboards. Sharon Tate rescues him. She is a girl of one of the surfers with the van from earlier.

The story kind of goes down hill after that. Claudia’s benefactor, who is married, owns a pool company, a specialized pool company. Tony goes to his office to get everything the man has by working for him. He gets a house and has a pool installed. It is rainy season in California. Tony notices a large crack in the pool. He tries to get assistance from the fire and police department but can’t get the help he needs. At is house is all the cast of characters. Tony, Claudia, her benefactor, his (soon to be ex) wife, Sharon and her boyfriend. The pool breaks off and slides down the hill. The front door is stuck and won’t open. The house partially slides to the right. They pry the door off and mud slides into the room. The house then flips to the left and then upside down. Later the house slides down further the hill and lands right side up. Everyone gets out safely. Tony and Claudia go off into the sunset.

The Bryds sing the opening theme song. There are women in bed topless, there are body building men in shorts, Tony Curtis often only in his boxer shorts and bikini clad women. It is a beach story but it is an adult version which you will not find innocent Frankie and Annette. To me the best part was the beginning and the end.