The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini

First, I should clear up any confusion that may have arisen from the title: not only is the ghost's bikini invisible, but what's underneath her bikini is also invisible. Now, I must ask: how was Boris Karloff reduced to starring in a "beach party" movie? "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" is basically a cross between beach party movies and the old-style horror movies. Karloff plays Hiram Stokely, a corpse who must accomplish a good deed within 24 hours. Fortunately for him, the title character (Susan Hart) has the answer: he can protect a bevy of teens who are descending on his estate for a party. Tommy Kirk plays the main youngster.

Overall, the movie is pretty much an excuse for everyone to party as they would on the beach, except that they're doing it in what appears to be an English castle. I couldn't tell whether the movie was supposed to happen in California or England. I guess that this movie is better than most beach movies, just because it stars Boris Karloff. Oh, and the title character is pretty hot. But other than that, it's just another beach party movie.

The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini if it hasn't should attain a certain amount of screen immortality in having one of the most eclectic casts ever assembled for one film. Of course the film isn't exactly Citizen Kane or Gone With The Wind.

The title role in this last of the Beach Party cycle is played by an ethereal Susan Hart who parades around in a bikini which certainly wasn't in fashion when she and Boris Karloff were young and dating. Karloff has gone on to meet his maker, but apparently Susan who died young and was his beloved has interceded with the Deity. Karloff was a stinker in real life and Susan has come to give him one more chance to do a good deed to insure his entrance to heaven with her. He'll even go in as a young man because apparently there is sex in heaven.

Karloff has to make sure that his rightful heirs inherit his ill gotten gains in life and those heirs would be Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, and Patsy Kelly who acts as den mother to the whole beach crowd who move in with the three of them. They have to stay in the ostensibly haunted house after the reading of the will. You know something sinister has to be up with that kind of clause in the will. Especially when the will is drawn up by Basil Rathbone as the lawyer who wants his hands on the Karloff fortune. Rathbone is aided and abetted by Jesse White, Benny Rubin as a Jewish Indian, and Rathbone's nearsighted daughter Quinn O'Hara. And crashing the party as they always do is Harvey Lembeck and is intellectually challenged motorcycle gang of which he definitely is the leader.

Incredible when you think about it, but making his last big screen appearance in an over 50 year career is that first leading man of Hollywood, Francis X. Bushman. He has a small role as Rathbone's butler. And part of the beach crew are the daughters of a pair of singing icons, Nancy Sinatra and Claudia Martin. I leave it to you, have you ever seen a more widely varied generational cast than this?

It's an incredibly dopey film, but charming in its own way. But what a place to find Messala, Sherlock Holmes, and the Frankenstein monster.

I have a special affection for this little trifle. I saw it at our post theater twice when I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. It was a time when we were killing time, just waiting to be discharged, and this film conjures up a time of innocence when I was dying to re-start my civilian life. But most of all, I was (and still am) a tremendous fan of Miss Nancy Sinatra, especially all through my Army days, and it was thrilling fun to go see her movies at the post theater. She also did "The Wild Angels" and "The Last of the Secret Agents." All the other commentators are right. No classic, but mindless, harmless fun ! Oh, Nancy ! We were so young, and it was a different world !

Representing the (somewhat fatigued) tail-end of the "Beach Party" saga, minus Frankie and Annette, this haunted house comedy has some style in the live-action cartoon vein, but is hurt overall by an unenthusiastic cast and too much chatter. Sleepy Tommy Kirk and distracted Deborah Walley are involved in the reading of a will in a spooky mansion; Susan Hart is a sexy apparition (wearing a dopey-looking blonde wig for F/X purposes); Boris Karloff saunters through, tossing off droll comic lines in a debonair manner; Harvey Lembeck returns as Eric Von Zipper (although he doesn't look happy about it); and Nancy Sinatra is one of the teens there for a slumber party (she sings "Geronimo" poolside in the film's best sequence). Not terribly witty or lively; most of the kids on display are artificially frantic and 'nutty', waving their arms about. The movie desperately needs more music and more special effects. It relies too much on the talk-heavy plot, which is its weakest link. ** from ****

Obviously one shouldn't take this film very seriously at all if one plans on enjoying it in the slightest. If you can loosen up quite a bit, this film does have some fun silly bits. Plus can any film with both Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone possibly be all bad? I don't feel so...both fine actors try hard to keep their dignity in this Scooby Doo-like (without Scooby Doo) Beach Party entry.