Sprengkommando Ledernacken

I love awful movies, and this is one of the most bizarre, awful movies I've seen in awhile. And to think it was set during WW II, the one we won. The director must have been an Ed Wood devotee because the sets are cheesy, the acting is over the top, there's lots of stock footage, and everyone is taking the whole thing very seriously. I was waiting for the overlay of Bela Lugosi and stampeding buffalo. Tab Hunter is very manly, Frankie Avalon has repeated Wizard of Oz style dream sequences where he sings about his girl "with the apple pie eyes", and Jim Backus is always telling everyone to get some sleep. I love this movie and I want to add it to my collection!

Out of mild curiosity and boredom, I just watched OPERATION BIKINI. I'm still trying to get my brain back to semi-rational thought after seeing this train wreck. All I can think is-- the producers had a bunch of stock WW2 footage and a few rooms of a borrowed submarine set. Then they threw in a bunch of folks they had under contract. What the heck is Jim Backus doing in this thing????? The man was already a well-known character actor, from tragic roles like the father in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE to the voice of MISTER MAGOO. For no apparent reason he's a member of the UDT team that also has Tab Hunter and Franky Avalon; I'm guessing he's the naval equivalent of a sergeant, as Hunter's character is in charge but Backus seems to be the one who runs the squad. That is, when he actually has any lines. Mostly he just stands there. In fact, much of the cast just stands there. It's like the producers only had a budget for a very limited amount of dialogue and figured that if the actors simply stood there and filled the frame, that would count as acting. Scott Brady had never been a major player but, like Backus, he seems to have come in for a few days work and a paycheck. Gary Crosby was trying to make a go of it, playing off his derelict father's name and the family resemblance. Like Backus, he also mostly stands there.

Oh, man.... this film is just so very wrong in so many ways..... It's like a bunch of students trying to perform a high school production of UP PERISCOPE and then they decide to rewrite the second act!

And worst of all, the producers destroyed what little merit the film might have had. As it looked on paper, the film would have been a modest sub adventure, suitable for a double bill. But then they added Frankie Avalon and decided to give him musical numbers! AND THEY WERE IN COLOR!!!!!! The rest of the movie is in black and white and all of a sudden along comes this bizarre COLOR musical interlude?!?!?!?!?!? And 20 minutes later, HERE IT COMES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankie Avalon also had a gratuitous musical number in his other 1963 sub adventure, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, but at least there it made sense!

Oh, and for a final totally unrelated finale, the film ends with COLOR footage of two 1963 starlets in bikinis playing on a beach while the credits roll. Looking at that made me realize how little the producers thought of the film. OPERATION BIKINI is not a good film-- hell, it's barely adequate!-- but the color sequences show a mindset of cynical desperation or Ed-Wood-level incompetence.

Operation Bikini is a unique entry in filmmaking history. AIP knew they had a bankable star in Frankie Avalon, but they hadn't quite found the right formula for him, so they stuck him in this war programmer about the Submarine Service. Also along for the ride are Jim Backus, Jody McCrea, Tab Hunter, and a bunch of other familiar faces. The film is basically Beach Party At Sea, and is surely the only film bold enough to feature Frankie singing schlocky pop songs in between explosions and two fisted action. Not only does Frankie sing, he does it whilst projected in black and white against a proto-psychedelic colour background of nubiles and nymphets. Your jaw will drop. Save one last gasp of indignation for the truly tasteless ending which could only have come from the over-heated imagination of Samuel Z. Arkoff.

It was raining outside and I thought I would watch a movie on one of the cable stations. Not really reading the storyline I saw this movie called 'Operation Bikini'. Hey, a war movie about submarines- thats interesting, think I will watch. WHAT THE .........

This movie was down right terrible. I understood the plot but had no idea what was happening on the TV screen. It felt more like it should have been a bad script from 'McHale's Navy' than a WW2 action movie.

I will not even progress to the bad acting but what about the casting. Why in God's name is Jim Backus in this movie? Why would anyone want Frankie Avalon singing in a picture about World War? I step out of the room a minute and upon returning thought a commercial was on. But it was Frankie Avalon singing in color with the rest of the movie in black and white. I never understood that dreamy scene.

At one point in the film they were trying to show that many Japeneese were giving chase to the American. They showed a patch of dirt and all you see is feet running. They used that clip over and over again but never showed any people. Now that was cheap.

The only thing good about the movie was the ending. Not only because the film was ending but they had girls frolicking on a beach in bikini's. Oh yes, that was in color also.

Just poor overall.

As if the really fake submarine deck scenes and awful dialog wasn't bad enough, we then have to contend with the Eva Six character falling in love with Tab Hunter, right after he HITS HER. I guess that's what defined male/female relationships in 60's cinema. "Beat me up and I will immediately fall for you." Thankfully, she dies before the end of the movie, so we don't have to imagine them going back to the States to continue this ugliness as a married couple.

Jim Backus looked so bad in this movie that I had to infer that he was preparing for his role in "Gilligan's Island." His delivery was stilted, slow and terrible - as though he had to be prompted from off-camera before each line. The whole production must have consisted of scenes wrapped after the first take.