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Bob Cummings (offensive in nearly every movie I've seen him in) acquits himself quite nicely here as nerdy professor studying the mating habits of today's teenagers, eventually finding himself sort-of attracted to busty-but-innocent Annette Funicello. Frankie Avalon and Annette get co-starring parts here, later carrying the torch onward to many other beach sequels; they fight a lot (as usual) and try to make each other jealous. The only thing that really separates this initial sand-&-sex romp from the others is a bit more attention to plot and dialogue, less silliness (it's surprisingly low-keyed). Annette, her hair tinted a pretty cinnamon-brown, sings a great solo number, "Treat Him Nicely"--actually, it's her mirrored reflection who gives the advice. A pleasant, colorful outing, with Harvey Lembeck very funny as Eric Von Zipper, who gets "the finger" from Cummings ("You stupids!"). A little singing, a little loving, lots of arguing, and a pie fight finale. **1/2 from ****

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 the first and some would say best(other than Beach Blanket Bingo) of the series.Annette and Frankie are on their way to a cozy weekend beach vacation,but Annette has invited the whole gang!!!Frankie is mad at her rejection of him,and they have a childish fight.Meanwhile,a professor is studying the teens and Annette uses him to get back at Frankie,while Frankie uses an over-endowed girl.Annette sings "Treat Him Nicely" and "Promise Me Anything" as well as the title song with Frankie.Fun pie-throwing things.

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.

Even people who HATE these movies, who won't even watch them as "schlock", probably have second thoughts when it comes to Eric Von Zipper and his Rat Pack. Which is easy for me to say, since I've always been attached to the things IN GENERAL (a Summer wouldn't be quite the same without them). I never knew anything of The Bob Cummings Show for the longest time, and never SAW it until last year, so I never really got the inside joke of him (of all people) playing a straight-laced character trying to be a swinger. And speaking of inside jokes, I just saw it again yesterday, and at least THOUGHT I saw one. In one scene, Frankie Avalon hands a cigarette to John Ashley, after taking kind of a long drag on it. Regardless of what kind of cigarette it's SUPPOSED to be, this at least seemed like a little reference to something else. I glanced at someone's comments about it, and they said that Dorothy Malone had a thankless part, and that might be partly true, but she had some pretty good comeback lines, including yet another private joke - "Why don't you sell the movie rights to American International? They'll buy anything." Anyway, I don't like it QUITE AS MUCH as "Beach Blanket Bingo", or even a few of the other sequels (I guess it's one of those "Godfather / Godfather Part II" situations), but I'm still really attached to it.