Çam Sakızı (1962)

Murat is the captain of a small touring vessel, along with his first mate =. After an onboard altercation, they strike up a friendship with two feisty girls, Güldür and =, who quickly take a shine to the two sea dogs. They persuade the duo to take part in an upcoming boat race against a brutish rival, despite the prowess of his advanced ship. Can the group win the day? And will they find romance together too?...

Not to be confused with the 1974 rom-com, with which it bears no relation beyond the same name (translating to Pine Gum), Çam Sakızı is a romantic comedy with a seafaring spirit to it...Well, coastalfaring anyway.

This is a fairly basic rom-com, particularly of the era. But not in a bad way. I was looking forward to seeing it for a while now. Now that I have, it's pretty entertaining. It feels like your typical fluffy affair from the 60s, that you could easily picture starring someone like Doris Day. Nothing groundbreaking, but it passes the time well (assuming you understand the language).

The story is basic, and the movie perhaps runs a little too long for what it is at 96 minutes, but it's never boring. We get good character introductions, fun shenanigans, and some action in the end. Everything culminates in the boat race, which the heroes naturally win. For no other reason than they just happen to go a little faster, but it's satisfying enough.

The romance is cute. It gets rolling pretty quickly, with both couples striking up good friendships that soon lead to more. Meanwhile, the comedy is all fairly basic, nothing getting more than a chuckle out of me, but it's only a light picture anyway, and nothing in it was unfunny, or aggressively annoying.

The characters here are good. Murat is a fine lead character. Not the deepest of heroes, but leaves a positive impression. His sidekick meanwhile is more comic relief, and is never annoying.

The girls are a wild pair! They're sisters who get along swimmingly, until the slightest disagreement, then they chase each-other across the house, and demolish their rooms in big brawls that end in massive amounts of spanking! They have fun interactions with the various other characters throughout, be they good or bad.

The supporting cast is good. The girls' father is a good guy, and has some nice earnest moments, giving him a connection with Murat. Then there's a nerdy and hapless guy who tries everything he can to get the attention of the sisters, despite constant setbacks, and them finding different beaus. He knows how to pick some good tunes though! The villains are a pair of bullies, who you enjoy seeing getting taken down a peg, be it verbally, in bar fights, or in a race, where all the fancy equipment they boast about is put to the test. I really liked what happens in the ending, which was a sweet 3 Musketeers style moment of throwing villainy to the side.

The score is made up of many cute 60s-ish tunes, which I got a kick out of. The last act also has a healthy amount of classic parade marches for the boating contest, and such. I half expected the 'Monty Python theme' to play!

Çam Sakızı is quite a good looking film, and it captures the boating content well! There's presumably a mix of race footage shot separately, and actors inserted in, but if so the seams are all hidden fairly well. The only problem is the quality of the print I saw, which was a point below garbage. Low-quality rarely adds to the enjoyment of a movie, but this is one where it really hinders the visual experience! The film is in black-and-white, and looks fine, although I do wonder how it would've looked in colour. Some movies need a flourish, some can do without, and this one could've gone either way.

The movie also has a snazzy opening credits sequence, which use a mix of illustrations and photos. I only saw it once I was lucky enough to discover another better print of the movie, containing these credits. Then again, maybe not so lucky if I only found it after I'd seen the movie.

The cast here does a good job all-round. Orhan Günşiray is a fine lead, playing attractive romantic figures just as aptly as he would smartasses and comedy characters. Neriman Köksal and Suna Pekuysal are gorgeous and funny (I pissed myself laughing at the adorable way Neriman says Boo in her accent!), while = is decent as the sidekick and Ahmet Tarik Tekçe is a fun villain. There are also plenty of moustaches to go round, as you can expect from a Turkish production!

Çam Sakızı is a fun enough rom-com, with enough to entertain, even if there's nothing overly special about it. It's just a simple artifact of a great period...