Thank goodness Sam Elliott took his shirt off twice in "Frogs." The wife of Daniel Petrie supposedly saw "Frogs" while her husband was trying to cast the lead role in his new movie, "Lifeguard," and she suggested he consider a minor actor with a suntanned physique named Sam Elliott. Mrs. Petrie proved to be a shrewd judge of man-flesh because it's impossible to imagine "Lifeguard" without Elliott's presence. And thank goodness Elliott wasn't asked to shave his gloriously-hairy chest for that "Southern California" look! This is a movie made on that cusp between the turbulent 60s and the self-satisfied 70s, about a man who's happy with a job which others think is beneath him. Quiet, thoughtful, and with a career-high performance by its leading man, "Lifeguard" had little impact at the box office back in 1976 but over the years it's acquired a loyal and discerning following. (Of course, there is the matter of Elliott's character having sex with an underage girl played by Kathleen Quinlan.) Elliott spends much of the movie wearing red "Baywatch" style swim trunks but at one point, for a swimming race, he slips into a tight mini-pair of Speedos which clearly shows he's "reproductively-gifted."

This is a very pleasant movie without a lot of sex and violence. It concerns a man in his 30's who is uncertain which direction his life should go after being a lifeguard since high school. At his high school reunion fifteen years later he begins to wonder where to go. A nomadic woman on the beach wants him and his former flame in high school wants him back in her life. Look for Jimmy Van Patten and Parker Stevenson starting to gear up their careers back then. An unexpected outcome and overall good movie that makes all of us wonder about our purpose out there in life. Shot around Hermosa Beach in the wonderful summer of '75. Sit back and enjoy it.