Sergeant Deadhead

Sergeant Deadhead
August 18, 1965
AIP
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi
VHS
B

The same day that you could first see Annette singing about her ambition to be a monkey's aunt, you could watch Frankie "being shot up with a monkey."  (In each case, it's actually a chimp.)  Outdoing his double role in Bikini Beach, Frankie plays the title character, who undergoes a personality change while up in space (with the "monkey"), but he also plays Sgt. Donovan, a patriotic lookalike.  Much of the usual AIP crowd is around (see below), but we also get officers played by Fred Clark, Reginald Gardiner, Gale Gordon, Cesar Romero, and best of all Eve Arden, who has perfect comic delivery and even gets to sing a very Ardenic song, "You Should've Seen the One That Got Away."  She's named Lt. Kinsey, and the movie has a lot of tasteless but amusing sex humor, much of it involving the Frankies and Deborah Walley (as Lucy) at her sexiest.  The movie succeeds at some of what John Goldfarb attempted, including political satire.  Not that this is sophisticated wit-- after all it's still AIP-- but it is very funny.  After I don't know how many viewings (although none in recent years), I still giggle helplessly whenever I listen to Pat Buttram as the irritable, Southern-accented President.  ("If I had my spurs on, I'd kick you in the shins!  I'll sic the dogs on ya!")  I'd go with a B+, like Pajama Party (also penned by Louis M. Heyward), but the first 15 or 20 minutes are a bit slow (Buster Keaton, in his last AIP appearance, is given some unfunny slapstick), and, alas, there's no title song.  On the other hand, I love the sheer goofiness of a military band that can only play "Jingle Bells."

John Ashley is cast against type as a nerd with sinus trouble, while Jody McCrea (who used to be known as Deadhead) is nowhere in sight.  Other beach folk who've joined up include Ray Atkinson, Bruce Baker, Patti Chandler,  Jo Collins, Sue Hamilton, Luree Nicholson Holmes, Mary Hughes, Janice Levinson, Stephanie Nader, and Salli Sachse.  This time Mike Nader is teamed up for comedic purposes with Norman Grabowski, as air policemen.

The recasting of the Ratz and Mice is less obvious: John Macchia and Andy Romano as Marine MPs, Alberta Nelson as a WAF, but also Jerry Brutsche as the newspaper vendor and Bob Harvey as the bellhop.  (Both Jeromey and Robert find Lucy "Va-va-va-voom!)  As for Harvey Lembeck, he's still inept and menacing, as the man who breaks out of the guardhouse using exploding fountain pens.

Bobbi Shaw is now American and named Gilda.  Donna Loren is another WAF and gets a torchy solo at the wedding reception.  Dwayne Hickman has a brief appearance but gets a special thank-you in the end credits. Romo Vincent, the tuba player, would be Jack Happy in The Swinger.  Newsman Ed Reimers plays himself here but would be an announcer in The Barefoot Executive, which, yes, also features a chimp.

The Monkey's Uncle

The Monkey's Uncle
August 18, 1965
Disney
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

The title and some early scenes suggest that this is going to be sort of a teen version of Bedtime for Bonzo, but Merlin's quasi-adoption of Stanley the chimp is less of the focus than various threats to football at Midvale College.  At least that title allows for one of the better title songs of the '60s, sung by Annette and the Beach Boys, with Sherman Brothers lyrics like this:

Annette: I'd live in a jungle gym in order to be with him.  I love the monkey's uncle, and I wish I were the monkey's aunt!
Beach Boys: Monkey's aunt!....

Annette: On the day he marries me
All: What a nutty family tree!
Mike: A bride!
Brian: A groom!
Beach Boys:  A chimpanzee!

That right there raises the movie from a C to a C+.  (This will be far from the last time that the Beach Boys will do a title song that's much better than the movie it's attached to.)

This time, Merlin's misadventures are slightly more realistic, although "man-powered flight" fueled by an adrenaline smoothie pushes this back into sci-fi.  The first half of the movie is about sleep-learning through LPs.  Questionable ethics again pop up, with the judge urging Merlin to find "an honest way to cheat" on exams, for football player Norm and another idiot jock.  Merlin gets some sexist dialogue about Jennifer being stupid and illogical, you know, feminine.  There's a sort of rival for Jennifer, but because this is Disney, we're cheated of a moment when the girl is supposed to come out of the shower, presumably in a towel.  (By the time of Enchanted, it would be a whole other world of course.)

You'll notice that Annette not only looks non-pregnant, but her hair still has red highlights.  This was actually filmed in '64 (I think shortly before or after Uncle Walt found out that Tommy Kirk was gay), but not released for awhile.

Arthur O'Connell, Darius Green III here, was a reporter in Citizen Kane, and more recently played Gidget's first film father.  Similarly, Frank Faylen, who's the anti-football Mr. Dearborne, was Ernie the cabdriver in It's a Wonderful Life, but he's probably better known as Dobie Gillis's TV dad.  Leon Ames is back as Judge Holmsby, with a much larger role than before.  Connie Gilchrist again plays Holmsby's housekeeper.

Girl Happy

Girl Happy
April 14, 1965
MGM
Musical, Comedy
VHS
C+

Almost a decade into his film career, Elvis was cranking these out at a rate of about three per year, although this is the oldest one I own.  (I used to have Kissing Cousins, 1964.)  Some are forgettable, some are moderately entertaining, and some are screamingly hilarious.  This is one of the moderately entertaining ones.  The songs are pretty good, although they do have some of the oddest titles, notably "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce."  (Confusingly, "Do the Clam" is in this rather than Clambake.)  Despite the movie's title, Elvis romances only two girls, Mary Ann Mobley (looking rather sexy for a Miss America of the time) and Shelley Fabares.  The latter is playing a 21-year-old and was 21 in real life as well but already an acting veteran (The Donna Reed Show in particular).  She would team up with Elvis again.  My favorite "girl," however, is 34-year-old Nita Talbot, who plays the stripper Sunny Daze.  Her professional costume looks like newspapers, but she later wears a dress that she loans to Elvis so he can break out of jail, after breaking in.  (Don't ask.)  I would've given the movie a B- if she were in it more, or if any of the rest of the supporting cast could've come close to her contributions.

Elvis plays a singer in this one and he's got a trio of comic-relief actors who lip-sync to the Jordanaires somewhat convincingly.  Jimmy Hawkins, who's Doc (the naive one), was Tommy Bailey at age 5 in It's a Wonderful Life, and he would be Larry in Spinout.  Joby Baker, Wilbur here, is probably best known as Stinky/Judge in the Gidget movies.  (Gary Crosby, Bing's son, is the third of "the three blind mice.")

Peter Brooks, who plays nerdy Brentwood Von Durgenfeld, was forgettable Clay (with the umbrella) in Gidget Goes to Rome.  Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty was muscleman Biff in Muscle Beach Party and he's Charlie here.  (His next role would be in Easy Rider, which I've never seen.)  Norman Grabowski plays a jock college student here, as he does in the Merlin Jones movies.  Lyn Edgington was in Dear Brigitte.  Jackie Coogan (playing Sgt. Benson here), Jim Dawson, Milton Frome, Kent McCord, and Olan Soule were all recently in John Goldfarb.

Red West was in John Goldfarb and would be in Spinout the next year.  (He was a close friend of Elvis's.)  Gail Gilmore and Chris Noel would do Beach Ball.  Nancy Czar, "Blonde on Beach," would be Gloria "Jonesy" Jones in Winter A-Go-Go, while Beverly Adams, here "Girl #2," would be Jo Ann Wallace in WaGG, but more importantly be sort of the title character in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.   Tommy Farrell, Louis here, would be a reporter in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!  Hank Jones would be in The One and Only...Family Band.

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
March 25, 1964
Disney
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

By this point in their careers, the two young leads were such Disney veterans that she's known in the credits as simply "Annette," and both are recognizably caricatured in the opening cartoon, which is set to Annette singing the title tune.  They'd done some earlier movies together and have a nice, easy-going chemistry.  Unfortunately, they're not given much to work with.  To begin with, Merlin (played by Kirk) is supposed to be a science nerd, but the two main things he experiments with-- mind-reading and hypnosis-- are more in the nature of pseudoscience.  Yes, misadventures ensue, including some questionable ethics.  Not only does a judge nag Merlin into hypnotizing him to commit a misdemeanor (chimp-napping), but the Science professor not only tricks Merlin into harmless activities like eating a raw potato (telling him it's an apple) and drinking water (telling him it's whiskey), but he has Merlin kiss "the first pretty girl he sees."  Jennifer (Annette) is jealous it's not her, but no one in the class seems to have a problem with the girl being kissed against her will!

Still, there are some mildly amusing moments, like when Kirk eavesdrops on the thoughts of other students in the library, including a beatnik poet.  It's never explained how he doesn't hear everyone in the vicinity, or for that matter how when the Science teacher says Merlin will hear only his voice, Merlin misses all the professor's asides to the class.  My favorite bit, as someone who much prefers cats to dogs, is when Merlin hypnotizes his cat to stand up to the bully neighbor dog.

This was originally made to possibly air as two hour-long (including commercials) Disney TV programs, but reedited for theatrical release it proved popular enough to merit a sequel, The Monkey's Uncle (although as Merlin insists, Stanley is a chimp, not a monkey).  Uncle would have some of the cast besides Tommy and Annette reprising their roles:  Norman Grabowski as the jock Norman, Leon Ames as Judge Holmsby, and Connie Gilchrist as the judge's housekeeper.  (He was the father in Meet Me in St. Louis, while she was Norah Muldoon in Auntie Mame.)  The Augusts would also co-write Uncle's screenplay, while Bill Walsh would co-write Mary Poppins, which would feature the voice of Dal McKennon, who's Detective Hutchins here.  Robert Stevenson would direct both Poppins and Uncle.  Burt Mustin, the elderly bailiff, then 80, would do a lot of television and appear in Mame a decade after this.