Commando Bikini

When I saw this in the cable listings, I thought, 'OMG, Tab Hunter AND Frankie Avalon in the same *serious* war movie?!' I just had to watch it. I was going to give it a few minutes till I read BrunoCat's amusing review and decided to slog through the whole thing. A mini-time capsule of a sad era in Hollywood, when actors' kids and slack-jawed pretty boys kept talented actors out of work. The double-digit IQ fairly oozes from poor Michael Dante's pores. This is the time when Sinatra's ultra cool Vegas persona was in full swing, and an attempt is made to fit Frankie into this mold. Fuhgedaboudit! Only the divine Bobby Darin could do that, and he out-cooled Sinatra most of the time. I still miss him! Another historical aspect is the view of women: the sexy/gorgeous ones are for sex, the wholesome/pretty ones for love, and the non-white ones can be sort of loved but mostly coerced, as their true purpose is to sacrifice for the white lover's success. Sadly this is still a frequent theme; "El Mariachi" (1992) comes to mind. Anyway, I agree with BrunoCat: this is something you've never seen before and should watch just for the experience!

I agree pretty much with what everyone else wrote, so I won't reiterate the confusion, sadness and astonishment this movie subjected me to but I'm certainly relieved that other people seem to share my impression of the movie.

But I am curious if anyone else agrees with me that the voice-over narration at the end (while the girls in bikinis are prancing around) sounds like a young William Shatner?

Another thing that has me a little confused is why the Underwater Demolition Team ("UDT") that Tab Hunter's character was in charge of was a USMC unit, as opposed to a Navy UDT (precursor to SEALs, which didn't come around until the 1960s).

As if the really fake submarine deck scenes and awful dialog wasn't bad enough, we then have to contend with the Eva Six character falling in love with Tab Hunter, right after he HITS HER. I guess that's what defined male/female relationships in 60's cinema. "Beat me up and I will immediately fall for you." Thankfully, she dies before the end of the movie, so we don't have to imagine them going back to the States to continue this ugliness as a married couple.

Jim Backus looked so bad in this movie that I had to infer that he was preparing for his role in "Gilligan's Island." His delivery was stilted, slow and terrible - as though he had to be prompted from off-camera before each line. The whole production must have consisted of scenes wrapped after the first take.

It was raining outside and I thought I would watch a movie on one of the cable stations. Not really reading the storyline I saw this movie called 'Operation Bikini'. Hey, a war movie about submarines- thats interesting, think I will watch. WHAT THE .........

This movie was down right terrible. I understood the plot but had no idea what was happening on the TV screen. It felt more like it should have been a bad script from 'McHale's Navy' than a WW2 action movie.

I will not even progress to the bad acting but what about the casting. Why in God's name is Jim Backus in this movie? Why would anyone want Frankie Avalon singing in a picture about World War? I step out of the room a minute and upon returning thought a commercial was on. But it was Frankie Avalon singing in color with the rest of the movie in black and white. I never understood that dreamy scene.

At one point in the film they were trying to show that many Japeneese were giving chase to the American. They showed a patch of dirt and all you see is feet running. They used that clip over and over again but never showed any people. Now that was cheap.

The only thing good about the movie was the ending. Not only because the film was ending but they had girls frolicking on a beach in bikini's. Oh yes, that was in color also.

Just poor overall.

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!