Riffraff: Winter A-Go Go (1965)

Remember how I said at the beginning of my Looking for Love (1963) review that I can see where the movie was going with its ideas they were just poorly executed. Well the same goes for Winter A-Go Go as some of the ideas could have worked if given to a screenwriter that could pull them off. Like with Looking for Love not all the ideas work but there are some that could have.

The film stars James Stacy and William Wellman Jr. as Danny Frazer and Jeff Forrester. They decided to create a ski lodge where teenagers can go and hang out with beautiful girls as the main attraction. This is where the movie does something oddly brilliant, we see that William Wellman Jr.’s character Jeff does not like James Stacy’s character sexualizing all of the girls for his own gain. We also see that their secretary (Beverly Adams) is not sexualized (and she’s the only woman that avoids being sexualized throughout the entire film). So naturally I thought Wellman and Adams’ characters should get together and what do you know they do. It turns out Adams has a mega thing for Wellman and it seems like he is pretty oblivious to it until we see he feels the same way. The sad thing is, however, the plot is certainly not used to its full potential. At one point Adams tries pretending to be someone else via incognito to see if she can woo Wellman but he knows it is her right away and instead of allowing for him to play with the idea a little more it is completely dropped two seconds later and they get together for the remainder of the film which still has a while to go. See movie, that was an idea and maybe not a great one but it at least it could have allowed for something like, you know, a plot point.

I actually liked Wellman’s character for the most part. I mean he is not three-dimensional or anything but he is a refreshing change from the Beach and Beach knock-off jerks I usually see in these films. That being said, I did not care for James Stacy’s character. There is a running joke that he tries every night to sneak into one of the girl’s rooms (a different girl every night) and always gets caught as Wellman set up some alarms to make sure this would not happen so things can stay perfectly chaste at this sexy ski lodge. This was not funny the first time so I don’t know why they kept doing it but we’re supposed to find it charming I guess (he is also strangely wearing a nightgown, I thought those went out of style at the turn of the century or something).

As I’ve stated everyone besides Adams is sexualized as she is a secretary dressed in regular clothes you would wear in a location with cold weather. Granted it makes you like Adams more but the other girls are overly sexualized and it is quite ridiculous. A good chunk of the movie is just the hired girls dancing to bland rock music (I long for Ski Party’s soundtrack which was made this same year) in sexy Santa outfits (no this is not a Christmas film). The Reflections make a brief appearance and Stacy sings one song but The Nooney Rickett IV get some moments. They don’t dance in sync and the Rockettes they ain’t. The film also depicts a lot of skiing which is done with faraway shots clearly indicating stunt doubles doing the work.

I should also talk about some of the other sideplots going on. Well, there is one with yet another couple where the woman likes an oblivious man and it is way worse and unimaginative especially since this couple lacks the charm of the alpha couple. There is also one involving two guys trying to destroy the ski lodge because they were hired to do so which also ties into a woman staying at the ski lodge that hits on all the guys there mainly Stacy’s character. That last one gets a bit of screentime but despite that it really is not worth explaining but there are some ideas laced in there as the thugs aren’t just bland thugs meant to screw with the plot and be stupid villains but again it is poorly executed. One of the girls Stacy really tries to go for is our old friend Nancy Czar who I thought looked familiar right away but I knew who she was right when she did a bizarre twist dance as there is only one person who can move like a malfunctioning robot without exploding. I should also mention a warning as one of the characters in this movie is one of the worst Asian stereotypes I’ve seen in a long time. It will make you long for the days of stereotypes in King Kong (1933) as it is that bad. The less said the better.

If you can get past that awful stereotype of a character I highly recommend riffing this. It is a lot of fun just like a lot of Beach rip-offs (but it’s okay because it doesn’t actually take place on a beach, right?) as it has all of these subplots and poor attempts at comedy to make it entertainingly bad. The musical moments seem to go on forever and the ideas that are worth expanding on don’t get expanded on so if you are a fan of worthwhile plots that could get you a little mad. Still, I highly enjoyed riffing this one as it is easy and fun to tear into.

When I think back to this movie in general I think of what could have been. Any notion of this film having a brain on its shoulders is shot to hell when it does things like retreads plots, overly sexualizes women that seem to like it, and having a cringeworthy stereotype. If only the Wellman and Adams plot was focused on and cleaned up a bit more (at least it does have a good bit of screentime) and the “villain” sideplot was given more humanization and character development. If it just did that then it could have been one of the bests of its class but right now where it stands it just has a lot of missed opportunities therefore making it just another dumb teen flick.

~Virginia