Muscle Beach
Sun-kissed gymnasts and playful beach scenes; ideal for fans of nostalgic documentaries and vintage vibes.
Genres: Documentary
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Muscle Beach
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Overview
Muscle Beach was shown in competition at Cannes in 1949 and won a prize at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1951. The short became a cult favorite, screening at film clubs around the world. Strick used an army surplus movie camera to shoot the film during weekends in the fall of 1948. The songs in “Muscle Beach,” composed and sung by political folk singer Earl Robinson, with lyrics by screenwriter and poet Edwin Rolfe, accent the film’s three-movement structure as it transitions between soaring gymnastics shows, flirty beachgoers and children playing near the now-demolished pier at Ocean Park. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.
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Featured User Reviews
"Think like an athlete, cut them apron strings, starve on your own..." This is essentially a very early music video. A vehicle for a 10 minute musical appreciation of the beach. It's all actuality - fit young people using gymnastics apparatus, people sunbathing, kids playing, ice cream, soda pop - all to an accompaniment from Earl Robinson under the gaze of a seagull. At times the lyric is quite observational and witty, but after about four of these nine minutes, it all becomes a bit repetitive. Proof, if it were ever needed, that gym babies were alive and well in the 1940s too!
