1967 Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
New Yorker Carlo Cofield goes on a vacation to Southern California, where he quickly becomes immersed in the easy-going local culture while getting entangled in two beachside romances.
If you had to splice in a dog on a surfboard, riding the waves, I would end my directing career like Alexander Mackendrick did with Don't Make Waves.
Don't Make Waves is a turkey of film, marketed as a sex comedy but minus the comedy. Carlo Cofield, played by an ever so hammy Tony Curtis, is an incel who wants to steal Malibu Stacy, played by a stiff Sharon Tate, from the evil chad, played oafishly by Dave Draper.
The whole central idea of Don't Make Waves is this simple notion: don't take advantage of other people to either get ahead in life or feel better about yourself. Karma is a bitch that is going to bite you, as personified…
'I want to be where the action is. I want to live a life of understated elegance..' (Tony Curtis as Carlo Cofield)
Brief Synopsis: A drifter (Curtis) loses his car and all his possessions after being involved in a freak accident caused by the mistress (Claudia Cardinale) of a pompous businessman (Robert Webber). Pandemonium ensues!
Verdict: If you're enticed by the prospect of watching a quirky time capsule of the eccentricities of late '60's SoCal which pokes fun at the counterculture era in general and the fad for beach movies in particular, then look no further than Alexander Mackendrick's overlooked final film. Curtis made a whole slew of forgettable sex comedies at this point in his career as his popularity…
Most film buffs these days concur with Andrew Sarris that Tony Curtis gave his best performance in director Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell Of Success (1957). How many agree with Sarris’ further assertion that Curtis’ second-best performance came in this comedy also directed by Mackendrick 10 years later? I do! Curtis had been a major influence on youth culture the previous decade — Elvis Presley modeled his hairstyle on Curtis’ — but his stardom was on the wane when he made this satire of a man on the verge of middle-age who becomes infatuated with Southern California’s youth and youth culture. The film skewers the male fantasy it invokes: Curtis makes a fool of himself as he attempts to bed nubile…
I've not seen as many as I'd like to, but I'm a floozy for a silly, fluffy, colourful 60s comedy, and this is one of the better I've seen. It has the advantage over something like SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL by virtue of the fact that it isn't 60 hours long*. It's also got a killer theme song sung by The Byrds, sets it off on the right foot!
A beautiful woman accidentally destroys the vehicle of a hapless dolt (Tony Curtis) which contains all of his belongings. So he is forced to start fresh on the sunny beaches of Cali! Fortunately he is able to manipulate his way into a gig as a pool salesman, and when you…
The multiple taglines on the poster indicate how frantically this film is trying to be hip:
Turn on!
Stay loose!
Make out!
...but when you've got it made ...
"Don't Make Waves"
Make Love
Filmed in the way-way-way out West. In the land of glutes and pects [sic] where the boys and the girls are really surfing it up!
It was exhausting seeing old-timer director Alexander Mackendrick try to keep up with the young folk, and for me this film was a flabby, witless mess. It wasn't without its compensations though. Tony Curtis is reliably fun, Sharon Tate is an image of perfection and the slip-slidey house and musclebound beach bum subculture get marks for novelty. Mr Universe David Draper…
A nice combo of two fun sixties genres: the sex comedy and the beach comedy. It's also well directed, which is to be expected of the same director as Sweet Smell of Success. The problem is the script isn't really very good, and despite the all star tryptich of Curtis, Cardinale, and Tate doing some fun work with the dialogue, the plotting is kind of aimless and the scenes do not string along together nicely at all.
"All great salesmen are nothing more than a collection of personality defects."
This being a sixties sex and beach comedy, it is very sexy which is what you'd hope to expect from those genres. It's kind of funny too. There are actually more…
I'm sorry, but what in the actual FUCK was that third act???????? this is a literal masterpiece of an insane movie, criterion release WHEN??????
(just wish sharon tate had had more than 40 lines + character development outside of the ditzy athletic bimbo)
Unfortunately for Alexander Mackendrick and Tony Curtis the sweet smell of success eluded them when the pair were reunited ten years after their previous triumph.
It's a shame this director's last movie - a little-seen broad satire - has been all but forgotten as there are elements in it I really like; namely the slapstick bookending scenes and the opportunity it affords to see the doomed Sharon Tate in one of her few screen appearances.
Online Access: ok.ru/video/1100082907650
Your glutes? I told you what was wrong with your glutes a year ago. S-E-X, old buddy.
Alexander Mackendrick's final picture is a bizarre combination of beach party rom-com and disaster movie. Sharon Tate gets to do an amazing slow motion trampoline scene.
A decade after making his masterpiece, Alexander Mackendrick's directorial career would flame out with an odd little beach movie satire called Don't Make Waves. That's what this is supposed to be anyway, but I'm not in the best position to judge that. I've never seen any of the sixties beach movies and that whole subgenre feels largely lost to time. Not forgotten exactly, but they do seem contained to a specific moment in history that haven't had a shelf life outside of that context. The bigger issue though is that the film just isn't very funny. The film is going for a sex comedy, but it isn't wild enough and while there's some clever screwball mix-ups and relationship dynamics in…
I’ve seen this a few times before and it’s a bizarre movie that really stuck with me like food to my ribs. One of my favorite Tony Curtis performances, he’s cartoonish in his perfect movements. It’s Bugs Bunny and Buster Keaton. Did Tony do his own falls and rolls? He really was on fire. What the fuck.
I love how bonkers the plot goes. One of the best summer movies to get high and watch.
Claudia Cardinale is so fuckin hot in this picture and she’s got this exaggerated bitchiness that’s gorgeous.
It’s a funny movie for real, I love it. Give it some time if you aren’t enveloped into the pacing and world of this movie, it may take…
