Co-ed Lee Sullivan, a student at an unnamed California college, inherits a house on the beach from her late uncle. She wants to use the building as a boarding house for girls, thus both alleviating the student housing shortage and financing her education. Meanwhile, Adam Miller plans to turn the beach house into a boys' boardinghouse, claiming that he received permission to do so while Lee's uncle was still alive. Adam secretly files first for an off-campus housing permit, and the boys take up residence in the house. Lee also receives a permit, and naturally, problems develop when both male and female students decide to co-habitate - this administrative mix-up also makes for much ducking and dodging of the university authorities. In spite of being at odds with each other, a romance blossoms between Lee and Adam.
After making 1963's The Young Swingers and 1964's Surf Party, this was director/producer Maury Dexter’s third teen flick - and second effort to imitate AIP’s Beach Party formula. AIP would later hire Dexter to direct Maryjane and The Mini-Skirt Mob. Dexter has said that casting Sonny and Cher was the idea of Fred Roos. While promoted as a standard beach party film with posters showing most of the female stars in bikinis and a title song with the lyrics "...only two steps down to the nearest wave, and surf's up every night!", no one in the cast actually wears swimsuits in the film, nor do any of them do anything on the beach - except walk on it - fully clothed. In fact, Frankie Randall, the male lead, wears a windbreaker on top of his shirt for most of the film. Although little surfing is shown in the film apart from a few random insert shots of extras on surfboards, the "surfing coordinator" for Wild on the Beach was Phil Sauer, who had also worked on AIP’s Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach ; Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini ; as well as Columbia’s Ride the Wild Surf. This was also the second time Dexter used the Boulder, Colorado-based surf band The Astronauts.
Frankie Randall performs two songs, "The House on the Beach" and "The Gods of Love".
The Astronauts perform four songs in the film: the rockabilly "Rock This World", and the three surf tunes "Little Speedy Gonzalez", "Pyramid Stomp", and "Snap It"
Sonny & Cher sing "It's Gonna Rain", and Jackie & Gayle sing "Winter Nocturne".
Cindy Malone sings "Run Away from Him" ; Russ Bender sings the country & western song "Yellow Haired Woman" ; and Sandy Nelson performs "Drum Dance".
Critical response
"The third of Maury Dexter’s Beach Party rip-offs, Wild on the Beach is so third-rate and low-budget that an unintentional sense of 'realism' creeps into it."
