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A must have for your surfing movie collection, a piece of cinematic kitsch as well.

The surfing scenes (a montage of various places, apparently in SoCal) are all too brief, but worthwhile.

The fake-surfing and stunt-surfing are a hoot and leave you wanting more.

Precious scenes of Malibu and Santa Monica pre-building explosion.

And of course, Eric Von Zipper. Personally, I think Bob Cummings is adorable, and there's such a cheapie, near-porn subtext to much of the film, everyone gets to camp it up a bit.

Okay, leave your brain behind. After all, this is the first installment of moviedom's biggest celebration of mindless fluff. Okay, no one's expecting Oscar bait from a title like Beach Party, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Between the sunny swimsuit foreplay and California's sand, sea, and surf, it's the peak of pre-Vietnam hedonism. And a heckuva lot of fun it is for those unashamed to say so. Annette and Frankie, Frankie and Annette, he loves her, she loves him. But first they have to find each other amid all the other shaking' and wigglin' going on.

And, oh yes, there's one-finger warrior Bob Cummings to carry the acting load, along with a perfectly groomed Dorothy Malone to keep him company. Add a goofy Jody MacCrea and a fractured Harvey Lembeck, and there're chuckles aplenty. Then there's perpetual motion Candy Johnson. Hook her up to a power plant and she'll light up LA. And catch those sunsets over the glorious Pacific. Hard to believe there was ever a carefree time like this for teens. But then, isn't this what the Hollywood Dream Machine is for. Here, it's hitting on all eight, and happily so.

(It seems not fair to rate this ad for Surfin' USA on the usual scale. But on the Fluff Meter it rates a '10'.)

Okay, I'm a sucker for ALL the old "Beach Party" movies, starring Frankie and Annette. How 'bout that? They're like Fred and Ginger, Hope and Crosby and William Powell and Myrna Loy: They're icons! This movie, the ORIGINAL "Beach Party," is the BEST of the lot if you're asking me. Besides Frankie and Annette, Bob Cummings and Oscar winner ("Written on the Wind") Dorothy Malone, also star. I can't believe that someone on this thread actually described the WONDERFUL Bob Cummings as "offensive." Apparently, this person NEVER saw this actor on his old "Love that Bob" TV sitcom from the '50's. I did. A more lighthearted and fun actor I've never seen; decidedly NOT "offensive."

THIS movie is just like the old Beach Boys song, "Fun, Fun, Fun." NOTHING to take seriously. Pure fluff, just like the old Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies from a more innocent time. Not too much in the way of plot (hot-blooded and red-blooded American girls and boys, sand, surfing, rock 'n' roll, a little harmless sex (c'mon, this IS 1963!), a couple of middle-agers (Bob and Dorothy) and the most tame, inept and funny "outlaw" motorcycle gang you've EVER seen! Also, a GREAT supporting cast: Morey Amsterdam, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Eva Six and EVEN Vincent Price!

Look, upon reaching puberty, Annette Funicello was my very first "crush." I'm 55, now, and I STILL love her! This movie didn't re-define the American cinema, but there are FAR worse ways to kill 101 minutes!

Before there was Baywatch we had the Beach Party movies and this one was the one that started it all.

Robert Cummings must have seen Lover Come Back where Rock Hudson had a full growth of beard and Doris Day mistook for a scientist. Cummings must have liked the look as a scientist because he uses it here in portraying an anthropologist studying teenage mating habits.

Where better than Malibu and who better for study than Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and their friends?

The same innocence of the years before November of 1963 is there, this film's not quite as surreal as the later successors. It's like The Road to Singapore which established the formula for those Crosby/Hope films, but hadn't descended yet into the zaniness that characterized the later ones.

It all works out quite nicely and it was nice Dorothy Malone was around for Bob Cummings although the poor woman had very little to do in this film. My favorite in these film is Harvey Lembeck as Erich Von Zipper, the motorcycle gang leader. He's a Marlon Brando wannabe.

Beach Party does kind of take me back to my teen years.

This is a fun little film. Bob Cummings stars as a professor who has taken a beach house so that he can observe the sexual habits of the healthy young kids around him.

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello--in her first feature other than her Disney films-- are young lovers looking for some fun at the beach.

Annette feels that Frankie is taking advantage of her, so she flurts with the professor to make Frankie jealous.

Also starring is Dorothy Malone in a worthless part that does little to enhance her career. (She is excellent in other films.)

This film is the beginning of the beach movie cycle that AIP made over the next few years. All in all, this film is good clean light comedy entertainment that gives us a look at Hollywoods' view of the early '60's on the California beaches.

The supporting charactors are fun, and Eric Von Zipper is a hoot in his Brando-like role as the leather-clad bad guy without a brain.

Vincent Price is seen as Big Daddy in a quick cameo with references to his then recent film (For AIP) The Pit And The Pendulum.

This film, and its spawns, are all worth a look at least once.