Operation Bikini

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.

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!

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.

1st watched 6/16/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Anthony Carras): Unfocused war movie that tries to throw in video clips from Frankie Avalon and dancing girls in bikini's at the end to lighten it up? If it would have been a war adventure from beginning to end it would have been better. This film is basically about a special mission being sent to Bikini Island in the south Pacific to rescue a sunken U.S. submarine(for what reason I wasn't sure). A miniature romance begins with Tab Hunter and an island girl, but she gets killed in the next scene, and supposedly Frankie is enticed in his dreams by a seductive island girl and is tempted by her in his song while his girl is at home waiting for him(of course this is just a setup for his singing - he never encounters the temptation). Silly little things like this, and Jim Backus trying to throw in lame humor when his character really doesn't seem like he should have any, is also silly. This movie reminds me of something the studio chopped up and sold for what it wasn't about, to try and make some money(which I hope it didn't). Bottom line this is a lame attempt at a war movie with a couple of lame songs song by Mr. Avalon.

new words need to be invented to adequately describe just how bad this film is. to call it stupid is a compliment. i just watched this on turner classic movies. my god what an embarrassment, the most profound sentiment it raised in me was to hope that all involved with making it were severely beaten afterward. i was rooting for the japs. i'm having trouble filling ten lines of text for this review because lets face it how many different ways can you say horrible? three more lines to go. this movie is terrible, this movie is an insult to ed wood, this movie should be burned and every participant still alive should be hunted down like simon wiesenthal on a nazi then have their DNA eradicated from the gene pool. stick a sharp pencil in your eye before watching this horrid crapulence