COASTAL DISTURBANCES
This summer it does. Holly meets Leo Hart, a lifeguard also on the rebound. Tumbling hard for this dreamy, awkward lady, Leo wastes no time telling her–with his paws. When Holly tries to photograph the beach, Leo in effect insists on entering the frame. To prevent her resistance, he symbolically buries her in sand. When Holly talks about the Indians who once peopled her beach or fantasizes about love among the dolphins, Leo drags her back to the present–the only tense it seems possible for them to share.
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Too young for their parts, Bill McCallum and Mary MacDonald Kerr fail to convey the love hunger that should make Leo eager and Holly afraid to take a risk that’s as spiritual as it is sensual. Mistaking loud for sincere, McCallum coarsens Leo into a randy beach bum on the macho make. Playing Holly as if she has a tic douloureux, Kerr distractedly pouts her way through a part that demands at least a token vulnerability. With remarkable perversity, Brailsford insures that no annoying chemistry between the actors or intrusive spontaneity spoils the cliche mongering that Howe tries to pass off as love.
