Bikini Beach

USA 1964
produced by
Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson for AIP, Alta Vista
directed by William Asher
starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer, Keenan Wynn, Don Rickles, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Danielle Aubry, Meredith MacRae, Delores Wells, Paul Smith, James Westerfield, Donna Loren, Stevie Wonder (back then still billed as Little Stevie Wonder), the Pyramids, the Exciters Band, Janos Prohaska, Timothy Carey, Val Warren, Mary Kovacs, Renie Riano, Sheila MacRae, Ronnie Dayton, Alberta Nelson, Linda Rogers, John Macchia, Bob Harvey, Andy Romano, Jerry Brutsche, Allen Fife, Von Deming, Boris Karloff
written by William Asher, Robert Dillon, Leo Townsend, music by Les Baxter

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies, Eric von Zipper

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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The surf's up once again for Frankie (Frankie Avalon), Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) and the gang (among them John Ashley, Jody McCrea and hipswinging Candy Johnson) ... and once again Frankie and Dee Dee have arow, which makes Dee Dee an easy prey for British star Potato Bug (also Frankie Avalon, sporting a terrible Brit accent) ... much to the dismay of Frankie, who is overcome by jeaslousy but won't admit it, and he challenges Poatato Bug to a drag race.

Meanwhile, rich newspaper owner Honeywagon (Keenan Wynn) writes a series of articles against our beach boys and girls, comparing them to apes - and just to prove it he has brought a live ape (actually Janos Prohaska in an ape suit) who perfectly, er, apes our beach folks. But then he gets interested in young teacher Vivian (Martha Hyer), who has taken the side of the beach boys and girls, and she finds out that he only writes against them to turn everything into an old folks' home ... and suddenly Honeywagon totally changes his attitude and supports our young surfers.

A third narrative strand concerns Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his gang of bikers, the Rats, who as usual want their revenge on the lovely beach folks ... so this time around, Eric plans to sabotage Potato Bug's dragracer and put the blame on Frankie ... but instead he sabotages Frankies dragracer ...

It all ends in a minor crash at the drag race, an extended chase scene with Eric driving a go kart, and finally the customary barroom brawl at the end of which the Rats are once again defeated by our surfers, Frankie and Dee Dee are a couple again, and Don Rickles' bar is once again in ruins.

In the end, Boris Karloff has a cameo appearance as an art dealer, that has little to do with the prior proceedings.

Third of the series of Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies, and by now the formula seems incredibly worn, which is not at all helped by a script that seems to go nowhere, Frankie's awful performance as Potato Bug and an over-reliance on gags from previous movies, like Eric Von Zipper constantly using his finger to knock himself out or Candy Johnson swinging her hip to knock everyone else out.

Some of the other films of this series are fun to watch in a nostalgic way despite of all their flaws ... this one though is just bad.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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