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.

Heartless
1995
6.9/10
As
2023
7.0/10

Boudica
2023
5.9/10

Monster's Battlefield
2021
6.8/10

Q
1982
5.7/10

The Accursed
2021
6.5/10

National Family
2023
6.7/10

Operation Napoleon
2023
6.2/10

Sayen: The Huntress
2024
5.9/10

Evil Does Not Exist
2023
6.7/10

The Burning Sea
2021
6.6/10

Abbé Pierre - A Century of Devotion
2023
6.6/10

The Zone of Interest
2023
7.0/10

Muzzle
2023
6.5/10

Sayen: Desert Road
2023
6.3/10

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
2023
7.1/10

The Clean Up Crew
2024
5.5/10

How to Make a Killing
2025
6.5/10

Damsel
2024
7.0/10

The Benetón Family
2024
5.4/10
God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance
1968
5.5/10