Das Mädchen vom anderen Strand

Frankie Avalon, on naval-reserve duty in Tahiti, does not trust Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to stay faithful, so he hires Bwana (Buster Keaton), a witch doctor, to help. Bwana conjures up a floating bikini, "stuffs" it with Cassandra, and sends her to distract advertising executive Ricky from Dee Dee.

What to make of this beach movie from American International... it has Mickey Rooney, which is good... and Buster Keaton, which is very good (how AIP convinced him to play these roles is beyond me). And most interestingly, we have the Kingsmen performing.

I liked the running gag with the pelican, but was just confused by the "Healthy Girl" song. And why they even cast a pregnant Funicello is a mystery. I am not knocking her for being pregnant, but it is weird to cast someone pregnant in a beach movie -- she is sitting on the sand in baggy clothes, quite in contrast with everyone else.

Frankie (Frankie Avalon) is 'working' his Naval Reserve duty on the beaches of Guna Guna Islands with his island bunny. She brings him to witch doctor Bwana (Buster Keaton) with his concerns about Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) stepping out on him. Bwana creates a wild bikini and stuffs it with Cassandra (Beverly Adams) who entices all the men to her. Ad man Peachy (Mickey Rooney) arrives looking for the perfect girl. His assistant Ricky overlooks Cassandra and falls for Dee Dee. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his motorcycle gang are back once again.

Frankie Avalon is barely in this one. Annette Funicello has never been a great actress unless watching her eat KFC is appealing. What's the point of Funicello if she's not with Avalon. It would have been great to have her be the Queen of the beach alone teaching kids to surf. More than anything, Mickey Rooney seems to have the most screen time. The rest of the girls are little more than bikini models. Their greatest contribution is spelled out in the first song, their measurements. It's all very light weight. Only Mickey Rooney is capable of any comedy and he's treading water in a sea of clueless young people. This movie needs a younger couple who could take over the franchise. It's sad to see legend Buster Keaton playing a witch doctor. It's inherently sad to use him in such a questionable manner. The most fun aspect of the movie is the title. It is the pinnacle of cheesy beach movie titles.

My 12 year old watched this with me this morning (it was raining) and she was laughing at the old fashionedness of the movie. I would have rather watched a better example of the "beach movie" but we still had fun.

At one point Mickey Rooney tells one of the bikini clad girls how cute she is and goes to chuck her on her chin, and on the way to her chin, his hand clips her right breast. My daughter said, "Hey, did he just touch her boob?" Well, we have TIVO and rewound the movie. Yes he did. How'd that get by the censors?

But the musical scenes were hysterical for her, and we both agreed that Annette looked way too old to be hanging out with all of the bikini girls! And why wasn't she screaming when she took that motorcycle ride?

Frankie Avalon off doing his Naval Reserve training in those innocent days before Vietnam is wondering whether Annette is being true to him back at the beach with all those other hunks around. He's stationed on a tropical Pacific Isle with lots of other curvaceous cuties around. He asks one of them to bring him to the local witch doctor for help. The witch doctor sends a pelican out to spy on Annette back at the beach.

So help me this is the beginning of the story. But it's not a half bad film, in fact it gets down right satirical at times. In addition to Frankie, Annette and the rest of the beach crew, some Hollywood old timers got some work in this film and they get a chance to overact outrageously. They include Brian Donlevy and Mickey Rooney as a pair of scheming advertising executives along with Dwayne Hickman who's their schemer in training, Harvey Lembeck as a Marlon Brando type motorcycle gang leader and Buster Keaton as the witch doctor.

I'd try to see How to Stuff a Wild Bikini if for no other reason than to see all these players ham it up. Though in some spots the pelican gives the best performance in the film.

I purchased the DVD version of this movie and would like to inform other 'Beach Party' movie lovers that MGM has done a great job on the video and sound. I have in the past had to suffer through very low quality VHS copies of the Beach Party movies, where I wound up throwing away the tape and putting a VHS tape that I recorded off TV into the box. That won't be the case here! (even if I could record a DVD) As for the movie ... Well, it is my least favorite of the Frankie and Annette Beach Party movies ... And I think I'm in the majority there. But if you love the Beach Party genre of movies you have to have this one too and you don't need me to tell you about it.

<standing salute to MGM>