Catalina Caper

There are only three things that I can say complimentary about Catalina Caper, one was that it offered some nice scenery of Catalina beach and the beach city of Avalon, Little Richard sang a number and Tommy Kirk got a needed paycheck. After his exile from Disney Studios and mainstream Hollywood, he probably needed the work and as we know he was taking work from wherever.

I'm sure it was the tourist board of Catalina Island that commissioned Catalina Caper, just make lots of nice cinematography of our island and then put some kind of story on it. Kirk plays a kid from Arizona where they don't have beaches, he's a self described 'desert rat' and he's there with buddy Peter Duryea to learn the beach scene.

Little does he know that he gets himself innocently involved in the stealing of an ancient Chinese scroll from the Ming dynasty by the parents of one of the beach kids. Despite his parentage the kid is honest and the beach gang unite to return the scroll and save the parents from jail. It's all frighteningly dumb.

A few laughs from Robert Donner who rivals some of the great slapstick comedians of the day in number of pratfalls he takes as an inept insurance investigator. The songs which are just grafted into the film are all right. Kirk and Ulla Stromstedt are clearly too old for the parts they play.

Catalina is a beautiful place from which dumb stories are located.

Even by 60's beach party movie standards, this is really cheesy. Actually, awful is a more accurate term. I guess this was intended to be a fun beach party movie but somewhere along the line, it turned out to be a physically and psychologically draining experience. Bad acting all around. Lots of awful music, including a little number in which Little Richard humiliates himself. And a lot of *ahem* comedy that falls flat on its face (quite literally in the case of the obnoxious pratfall guy who serves as the would-be comic relief). And to top it all off, thrown into this mess, making the movie even more convulted than it already was, is a subplot involving an ancient scroll stolen by a bunch of bungling jewel thieves.

This movie was turned into a classic episode of the dearly departed MST3K, so I can't really say this movie turned out to be a complete waste of film. But if you dare watch this soul-sucking movie without the company of Joel Hodgson and his robot pals, you might end up with the urge to jump out the nearest window to put yourself out of your misery.

I could not imagine watching this without Joel and the bots.

Tommy Kirk acts like he'd prefer to be anywhere else. A cameo by Little Richard does nothing for his career. The music is awful, the dialogue terrible, and the plot (something about a stolen painting and a lot of young girls in bikinis) was incoherent. A real stinker.

By itself, CATALINA CAPER is a fourth-rate beach party flick with a few pleasant but forgettable rock songs (including one by Little Richard, of all people!) and a lame art heist plot grafted on. As an episode of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 with ribbing by Joel Hodgson & Co. that's far more funny and clever than anything screenwriter Clyde Ware came up with, it's a scream! Just goes to show you *can* satirize comedy if you're talented enough! Tommy Kirk tries real hard to act like a romantic leading man, but even Cary Grant would have a tough time in this melted marshmallow of a movie. And hey, is Del Moore, The Man Who Would Be Jack Benny, actually durable character actor Max Showalter, a.k.a. Casey Adams? Sure looks like him! Anyway, this movie has some nifty eye candy in the form of babes of both genders in show-stopping swimsuits (swimsuit designer Anne Cole is the *real* star of this movie, if you ask me), but it's best seen and enjoyed accompanied by the MST3K gang's zingers.

Catalina Caper is relatively painful. The plot, if you can call it that, involves a group of kids hanging around the beach for some summer fun. A piece of artwork (aka "the scroll") is stolen by this guy who looks like Drew Carey for his boss Duval, who talks like Al Capone. He tries to keep said scroll from this other crime boss Lakapolous. The kids get involved in the case, so that's where all the exciting action takes place. Don Pringle is the main hero of the story. He spends most of his time chasing after this weird dark haired girl. Oh and then there's this other guy in a suit running around trying to expose Duval and he gets into all these slapstick situations that are really, really dumb.

In between the little tidbits of story, you get little music breaks. This includes an appearance by Little Richard! You also get to see some...guys sitting around singing and then this other chick singing a song called "Book of Love". Yeah...not much else to say about that. Not only to you get to hear their great songs, you get to watch all the kids dance too! The way they move looks really painful at times. Makes you just want to jump right into the movie and dislocate a hip with them! They danced like fools in the 60's. Mindless zombie beach goers.

This movie is best viewed in the MST3K version, lots of great jokes there. Joel & the 'bots do a beautiful job of tearing this one apart. See it for a lot of good laughs. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a rockin' scuba party to get to. I feel a dance number comin' on!