Sergeant Dead Head

Many of AIPs main players are there including writers, direction etc. However, the script is very weak. There is very little of the classic AIP interplays or humor at work here. It feels flat and barely has any redeeming features. However, Fred Clark is good as the general and he's pretty funny. And great to see all those other character actors from those times. But something is missing here, it just has a weird vapid meandering vibe to it. Literally any previous AIP generated beach movie or knock offs such. 'Fireball 500' are much better. This film has its moments but really, if you're wanting to delve into the AIP library, this is not the place to start. Like I said, for completists only.

It's cool to see the 'beach party' gang play different roles, and to see the great Buster Keaton in his 4th and final appearance in one of the AIP studios comedies. Another reviewer on here said Gale Gordon was on sabbatical from 'The Beverly Hillbillies'--WRONG! Gale Gordon was Mr. Mooney on 'The Lucy Show' at this time. Raymond Bailey was Mr. Drysdale on 'The Beverly Hillbillies', not Gale Gordon. (Bailey isn't in this movie, by the way.) I think that's who they were thinking of.

But...this has to be the WORST of the Nicholson/Arkoff produced AIP musical comedies of the 1960's.

I pretty much have all of the 'beach party' films on DVD, so I know what I'm talking about.

YIKES! It is cool to see character actors like Eve Arden, Fred Clark, Harvey Lembeck, Cesar Romero, Pat Buttram and Gale Gordon, but this is such a bad movie! The other AIP movies aren't the best either, but this one is truly bad in comparison. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? It's available on DVD if you look hard enough online. Message me for the site where I found it if you really want to see/own this movie.

Accidentally fired into space, Sergeant Deadhead (Frankie Avalon) returns to Earth with strange personality changes. This upsets the brass, who hoped to make him a press hero.

"Sergeant Deadhead" isn't as funny as the better Avalon beach movies, nor the spy spoof "Doctor Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine."

Part of the problem is the movie's dated theme: the space race, during the era animals were being sent up in rockets (actually, it was made after that, but we'll have to stretch a point).

The cast is first rate. The top brass of the service include Fred Clark, Cesar Romero, Gale Gordon and Reginald Gardiner. Also on hand are Eve Arden, Buster Keaton and Pat Butram as the president. A great comedy cast.

Unfortunately, a comic is only as good as his material. The aim, apparently, was to turn Avalon into a sort of Jerry Lewis. As if we needed two of them.

With so many old pros in the cast, you'd think one might've risked his contract to stand up and say the material isn't working. It has a few laughs, but no more than you'd squeeze out of a so-so Carol Burnett sketch. Not good for a comedy running an hour and a half.

Too bad. I hate to see a talented cast go to waste.

American-International decided to put Frankie Avalon in the Air Force for this latter day installment in the "Beach Party" series. There are quite a number of differences between this and the typical "Beach" movie. First of all, there is no beach what so ever. Secondly, Frankie Avalon plays opposite Deborah Walley instead of Annette Funicello. This had happened before in "Ski Party", but Annette makes a cameo appearance in that one. Here, she is nowhere to be found. Thirdly, the number of veteran character stars has increased. We get Cesar Romero, Eve Arden, Fred Clark, Reginald Gardiner, Pat Buttram, and, best of all, Gale Gordon in one of his few big screen roles. Buster Keaton is here, but he is given less to do than in previous AIP flicks. Harvey Lembeck is cast in his usual bumbling tough guy role, but he does not play Eric von Zipper. I wish he had! John Ashley is cast against type as a nerdy airman and he plays the role well. We get six new songs by Jerry Styner and Guy Hemric thrown into the slapstick mix. But there is a big difference in the songs. Except for Donna Loren's guest spot, these songs are written in traditional musical comedy style as opposed to California Beach Pop. Frankie Avalon had developed into a good comedian and he holds his own with the more seasoned comedy players in the film. His role(s) could have been played at the time by Jerry Lewis or Soupy Sales, but Avalon shows that he can be as funny as those master comics. Avalon shows that he can be effective as both a mousy guy and a confident braggart. Having veteran director Norman Taurog guiding the film adds to the sheen and he is able to keep everything looking good, despite the low budget. This may not be the best film in the series, but it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Major klutz leads his post though all kinds of calamities and misunderstandings that involve pratfalls, mistaken identities and a rocket trip with a monkey mixed in with a few songs.

This is the kind of movie you have to rate on a sliding scale. First of all consider the title, if that doesn't give you a clue about the level of entertainment you can expect you didn't read it right. Second consider that it comes from AIP a studio whose major output was innocent simple-minded films mostly in the beach party vein. This one doesn't exceed any of those expectations but it does have a veteran supporting cast all do their patented shtick each adding a little pleasure into the film. True Avalon and Deborah Walley are merely bland in the leads but the script doesn't require anything more from them and they fill those roles attractively.

If you're looking for a sweet throwback time passer this will fit the bill if you want anything weighty look elsewhere.