April 14, 1965
AIP
Comedy, Musical, Fantasy
DVD
B-
This is a lot of people's favorite Beach Party movie and it's easy to see why. The script is again by director William Asher and Leo Townsend, so the formula was fully worked out but not yet stale. The guest stars are recognizable, especially in retrospect Linda Evans as Sugar Kane. (Yes, the same spelling as Marilyn's character in Some Like It Hot.) Frankie & Dee Dee get another nice duet, this one more uptempo and in a round. (Annette's hair by the way finally looks its natural black, no visible red highlights.) The title song is the catchiest in the series, and the first half of the movie is pretty solid. The Bonehead (McCrea, no longer Deadhead, but close enough) & mermaid (Marta Kristen) romance is actually sweet and funny. And, yes, my fave Mike Nader, now named Butch, gets a bunch of lines (including saying the word "groovy" at least three times, as in "Let's dig this groovy chick"), some stuntwork, and a bit of a romance himself. (With either Patti Chandler as Patti or newbie Donna Michelle as the latest Animal, I think the latter. Patti Chandler seems to be one of the end-credits dancers.) Don Rickles, now Big Drop, gets a seemingly improvised scene where he insults Frankie and friends like he's in Vegas, while Paul Lynde goes through the entire movie powered by deserved snark. (His sidekick is Earl Wilson as himself, not having aged much in the eighteen years since Copacabana.)
All that said, I find the movie in the middle range of the series, about equivalent to the first entry. Part of the problem is that Donna Loren gets only one song, while Linda Evans gets two. (And Linda's are dubbed!) More seriously, the movie has two plot threads that just don't work. One is the kidnapping of Sugar by Von Zipper and his Rat Pack, which leads to her rekidnapping by South Dakota Slim, again played by Timothy Carey. The other is the Bonnie & Steve jealousy subplot. The two skydiving instructors who work for Big Drop are played by then spouses Deborah Walley and John Ashley. Now, I don't have a problem with Ashley playing someone outside the Beach Party crowd (especially since it means an expanded role for Mike Nader), and I find Walley a welcome addition to the AIP family. They have good chemistry together, as do she and Frankie. But this is my least favorite of her AIP roles because Bonnie not only tries to make Steve jealous with Frankie, she rips her blouse and tries to convince everyone that Frankie attacked her! The only good thing to come out of this plotline is Annette's line "Don't you 'I love you' me!"
Returning members of the Beach Party crowd are Frank Alesia, Duane Ament, Ray Atkinson, Linda Benson, Linda Opie Bent, Pam Colbert, Ronnie Dayton, Mickey Dora, Johnny Fain, Ed Garner, Guy Hemric, Luree Holmes, Mary Hughes, Darlene Lucht, Laura Nicholson, Salli Sachse, and Ned Wynn. There's also newcomer Stephanie Nader, but I don't know if she's related to Mike.
Dark-haired, frowning Myrna Ross replaces auburn-haired, smiling Linda Rogers in the Rat Pack, and Von Zipper refers to her and Alberta as Puss 'n' Boots. (Alberta is Puss, I guess because she has seniority.) Jerry Brutsche (still Jeromey, and continuing the Duck Soup sidecar rip-off), Allen Fife, Bob Harvey, John Macchia, and of course Andy "J.D." Romano (still reading the newspaper to Von Zipper) are all back. Buster Keaton is now playing "Buster" and dressing like he did in the silent days, while Bobbi Shaw, as "Bobbi," is still Swedish and spends the entire movie in the gold & mink bikini she bought at Aunt Wendy's dress shop.
The Hondells would do some other teen flicks I own, but they're not very memorable here or elsewhere. Jackie Ward, who dubs Sugar's singing voice, would also sing in Charlotte's Web. Paul Lynde would rock the house in that movie, as Templeton the rat, and in the meantime he would get a TV gig as Uncle Arthur on Asher's Bewitched.
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| "Into groups of two"? Math isn't their strong point. |
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