Sergeant Dead Head

It's cool to see the 'beach party' gang play different roles, and to see the great Buster Keaton in his 4th and final appearance in one of the AIP studios comedies. Another reviewer on here said Gale Gordon was on sabbatical from 'The Beverly Hillbillies'--WRONG! Gale Gordon was Mr. Mooney on 'The Lucy Show' at this time. Raymond Bailey was Mr. Drysdale on 'The Beverly Hillbillies', not Gale Gordon. (Bailey isn't in this movie, by the way.) I think that's who they were thinking of.

But...this has to be the WORST of the Nicholson/Arkoff produced AIP musical comedies of the 1960's.

I pretty much have all of the 'beach party' films on DVD, so I know what I'm talking about.

YIKES! It is cool to see character actors like Eve Arden, Fred Clark, Harvey Lembeck, Cesar Romero, Pat Buttram and Gale Gordon, but this is such a bad movie! The other AIP movies aren't the best either, but this one is truly bad in comparison. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? It's available on DVD if you look hard enough online. Message me for the site where I found it if you really want to see/own this movie.

Inept is a kind word to describe this misfire. Appalling is more accurate. For some reason, Arkoff and Nicholson decided to branch out from beach pictures, taking most of their regular cast and crew along for the ride. Frankie plays two characters again (though nowhere near as endearingly as in his Frankie/Potato Bug double role) and this time Deborah Walley is the love interest--apparently Annette had enough sense to stay out of this one. Unbelievably they are cast as lovers stationed at the same military base (this decades before the services were sexually integrated) where space missions originate. Ms. Walley's superior officer is played brassilly by the always fine Eve Arden (who sings a dreadful song mid-picture); Frankie's counterpart is the equally good Fred Clark. Gale Gordon, on sabbatical from The Beverly Hillbillies, is also along, as is Cesar Romero as an Admiral. Buster Keaton, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Bobbi Shaw...how can it be BAD? Well, it is. I didn't laugh once. There is one vaguely funny scene between two military policemen but it's too short to generate any real guffaws. The songs are much worse than usual and Deke Heyward's story is unforgivably poor.

When I say that this a screen comedy for dead heads I don't mean for followers of the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia. In fact to avoid seeing this film people ought to be grateful they've passed.

There's a little bit of The Nutty Professor in Sergeant Dead Head and by the way that's Frankie Avalon's character name, O.K. Deadhead. An accidental trip into outer space with a chimpanzee has him changing personalities from being a lovable klutz to being an aggressive Buddy Love type. That's causing consternation with all concerned from the president on down to Deborah Walley fellow Air Force non-com and in love with the lovable klutz.

But when Avalon becomes aggressive like Buddy Love all concerned he might be too hard to handle. So they look for a lookalike and find another Frankie Avalon in the Air Force. After that this whole affair becomes witless beyond the point of endurance.

When casting Pat Buttram as a Lyndon Johnson like president is someone's idea of humor you know this film has to be bad. Frankie Avalon isn't even given any good songs to sing.

If you like Frankie Avalon wait for a beach film.

Accidentally fired into space, Sergeant Deadhead (Frankie Avalon) returns to Earth with strange personality changes. This upsets the brass, who hoped to make him a press hero.

"Sergeant Deadhead" isn't as funny as the better Avalon beach movies, nor the spy spoof "Doctor Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine."

Part of the problem is the movie's dated theme: the space race, during the era animals were being sent up in rockets (actually, it was made after that, but we'll have to stretch a point).

The cast is first rate. The top brass of the service include Fred Clark, Cesar Romero, Gale Gordon and Reginald Gardiner. Also on hand are Eve Arden, Buster Keaton and Pat Butram as the president. A great comedy cast.

Unfortunately, a comic is only as good as his material. The aim, apparently, was to turn Avalon into a sort of Jerry Lewis. As if we needed two of them.

With so many old pros in the cast, you'd think one might've risked his contract to stand up and say the material isn't working. It has a few laughs, but no more than you'd squeeze out of a so-so Carol Burnett sketch. Not good for a comedy running an hour and a half.

Too bad. I hate to see a talented cast go to waste.

Second-string drive-in fare from American-International Pictures, here trying to evolve their "Beach Party" series into a more standard comedy genre--but with Frankie Avalon on-board, who could tell the difference? Sergeant Avalon is sent into orbit with a chimpanzee. Deborah Walley is his love-interest, Buster Keaton is an Air Force handyman, and Fred Clark is the befuddled general (no Annette Funicello this time, not even in a cameo). The nickname "Dead Head" was very popular with AIP's stable of writers; Frankie gets to wear the moniker this time, and he looks more than a little embarrassed monkeying around with this script. Eve Arden has a few funny lines and gets her own number, "You Should've Seen the One That Got Away", composed by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner (who also contribute a cute love song for the gals in the barracks, "How Can You Tell"). Some frisky scenes--such as when the female Airmen drop their bath towels to salute the brass--but the rest is slapstick-stupid and routine. *1/2 from ****