Operation Bikini

When I saw this in the cable listings, I thought, 'OMG, Tab Hunter AND Frankie Avalon in the same *serious* war movie?!' I just had to watch it. I was going to give it a few minutes till I read BrunoCat's amusing review and decided to slog through the whole thing. A mini-time capsule of a sad era in Hollywood, when actors' kids and slack-jawed pretty boys kept talented actors out of work. The double-digit IQ fairly oozes from poor Michael Dante's pores. This is the time when Sinatra's ultra cool Vegas persona was in full swing, and an attempt is made to fit Frankie into this mold. Fuhgedaboudit! Only the divine Bobby Darin could do that, and he out-cooled Sinatra most of the time. I still miss him! Another historical aspect is the view of women: the sexy/gorgeous ones are for sex, the wholesome/pretty ones for love, and the non-white ones can be sort of loved but mostly coerced, as their true purpose is to sacrifice for the white lover's success. Sadly this is still a frequent theme; "El Mariachi" (1992) comes to mind. Anyway, I agree with BrunoCat: this is something you've never seen before and should watch just for the experience!

Where to start -- a singing war movie? well they do have FrankieAvelon, so why not.

Thurston Howell III as a Navy Chief? That's Jim Backus playing the tough guy.

The Wrong Sub... The target of the UDT is the Grayfish, SS-342. Except the SS342 was the Beleo class sub The Chopper. It never served in the Second World War (although commissioned during it) and was on active duty when the movie was made.

The Grayfish was also the star of perhaps the best WW2 Submarine movie ever made - Torpedo Run (made only five years before this stinker). In reality there never was a USS Grayfish

I could go on but what's the point.

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.

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.

I agree pretty much with what everyone else wrote, so I won't reiterate the confusion, sadness and astonishment this movie subjected me to but I'm certainly relieved that other people seem to share my impression of the movie.

But I am curious if anyone else agrees with me that the voice-over narration at the end (while the girls in bikinis are prancing around) sounds like a young William Shatner?

Another thing that has me a little confused is why the Underwater Demolition Team ("UDT") that Tab Hunter's character was in charge of was a USMC unit, as opposed to a Navy UDT (precursor to SEALs, which didn't come around until the 1960s).