Maslin Beach

The British during the 60s churned out shoestring situation comedies like The Sandwich Man which offered a series of lame gags built on some equally lame premise such as, in that case, following a sandwich-board man and showing the characters he meets on his rounds. Maslin Beach, written and produced by Groom (who was also producer on a 1981 sexploitational film, Centrespread) similarly treats us to the interactions of a gaggle of people who visit the titular (ho ho!) South Australian nudist beach. The premise is of course, commercially canny, although it doesn't descend to The Benny Hill Show level or offer any salacious pleasure, adopting a more naturalistic, deflationary strategy.

Curiosity value gives the film some limited appeal and in its own way it partakes of the rough-and-ready charm characteristic of other Aussie beach films like Palm Beach or Puberty Blues, but it's so amateurishly made (the savings on wardrobe obviously still didn't leave a lot to go round) that bar the sheer cheekiness (ho ho!) and the novelty of seeing normally clothed people naked, it's more bare-all than bearable.

 

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