Summer Love ** (1958, John Saxon, Molly Bee, Jill St John) – Classic Movie Review 11,672

Director Charles F Haas’s 1958 Universal Pictures black-and-white musical comedy film Summer Love is the sequel to the 1956 film Rock, Pretty Baby!, and stars John Saxon, Jill St John, Judi Meredith and Molly Bee.

John Saxon and several of the original cast re-appear, though not main star Sal Mineo who was said to be ‘too busy’.

Jill St John in 1958.

Jill St John is making her major studio film debut here. She was 16 in May 1957 when Universal Pictures signed her to a contract for seven years starting at $200 a week.

The script is written by William Raynor and Herbert H Margolis, telling a thin story in which Jimmy Daley (John Saxon) and his band mates, Mike (John Wilder) and Ox (Rod McKuen), land a performing date in Lake Tahoe, California. Ox has booked the band at a summer camp, where the musicians are also expected to work.

It was double billed with The Big Beat.

John Saxon in 1958.

The cast are John Saxon as Jimmy Daley, Molly Bee as Alice, Rod McKuen as Ox Bentley, Judi Meredith as Joan Wright, Jill St John as Erica Landis, John Wilder as Mike Howard, George Winslow as Thomas Daley III, Fay Wray as Beth Daley, Edward Platt as Thomas Daley, Shelley Fabares as Twinkie, Gordon Gebert Tad Powers, Beverly Washburn as Jackie Bronson, Bob Courtney as Half-Note Harris, Hylton Socher as Fingers Porter, Marjorie Durant as Hilda, and Walter Reed as Mr. Reid.

Jill St John (born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim; August 19, 1940) is known for playing diamond smuggler Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl of the 007 franchise, in Diamonds Are Forever. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Come Blow Your Horn.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,672

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