How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

This was the last of American-International's beach musicals that starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello (although they'd try to continue for a few films without these two). Frankie and Annette are barely together even in the film--Frankie is more of a cameo than a major character in the plot.

Intriguingly, this musical is filled with "book numbers"--where the characters sing when they should be talking. Usually, the beach party movies just had people asking Frankie or Annette to sing at a party or at a nightclub. So, that's a change. The problem is that the songs aren't anything to write home about.

Further, the film betrays why the beach movies were losing their popularity: the surfing fad was being supplanted by a renewed interest in motorcycle culture. Only a year or two later, American-International would be making films like "The Wild Angels." This is a problem for a series where the stock antagonist, Eric Von Zipper, is a parody of Marlon Brando's biker hood in "The Wild One" (1954). The film shows a renewed interest in cycles--Annette's romantic interest, Harvey Lembeck, is an avid motorcyclist. The film tries to deal with this by transforming Von Zipper from a biker into the stereotypical 60s junior executive (a la "How to Succeed in Business"). But, you can see the structure starting to fall apart here.

There are fun moments though--particularly the opening credits (clay animation done by Art Cloakey, the creator of Gumby), and the wacky motorcycle race at the end of the film. Lastly, there's a fun cameo at the very end of the film by producer William Asher's wife...

I purchased the DVD version of this movie and would like to inform other 'Beach Party' movie lovers that MGM has done a great job on the video and sound. I have in the past had to suffer through very low quality VHS copies of the Beach Party movies, where I wound up throwing away the tape and putting a VHS tape that I recorded off TV into the box. That won't be the case here! (even if I could record a DVD) As for the movie ... Well, it is my least favorite of the Frankie and Annette Beach Party movies ... And I think I'm in the majority there. But if you love the Beach Party genre of movies you have to have this one too and you don't need me to tell you about it.

<standing salute to MGM>

Fairly desperate "Beach Party" entry (the sixth in the series!) has Annette Funicello contemplating a new boyfriend while Frankie Avalon is overseas. Enter...Dwayne Hickman? Frankie actually has a rather large cameo role for not receiving a livelier billing, and there's a cute ending, but these kids are starting to look more mature and their hijinks are starting to get musty. Annette sings two solo numbers and a duet, and she's perky and attractive despite being covered up to conceal her real-life pregnancy. The rest is mediocre, particularly leading man Hickman (eternally bland) and supporting player Mickey Rooney (game but charmless). ** from ****

This is the final film to feature Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello as Frankie and Dee Dee, and it is also the worst. Avalon had grown weary of playing an over-aged teen-ager and wanted to do something more with his career and at the same time Annette Funicello had recently married and was starting a family. In fact, Ms. Funicello was very pregnant at the time the film was released. Also, Avalon was in the middle of filming Sgt. Deadhead and couldn't appear in the entire film. The solution, bring in Dwayne Hickman as Rick, an advertising executive, to keep Dee Dee busy while Frankie was off on military duty. This was a big mistake. These best thing about the "Beach Party" films was the chemistry between Avalon and Funicello and this film falls flat on its face because the two are on screen together for only a minute (not counting the duet they sang via split screen). After this film was completed, the two retired from the genre, Avalon to attempt more serious roles and Funicello to raise her family. However, Samuel Z. Arkoff tried to keep the series rolling a couple of more years before he finally gave up the ghost, and not the one in the invisible bikini.

The second to last Beach Party movie. In this one Frankie Avalon is separated from Annette Funicello by being in the Naval Reserve. While on an island he gets a witch doctor (Buster Keaton!) to see if Annette is being faithful to him. Keaton sends a pelican (???) to spy on Annette. Meanwhile handsome, attractive Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) is hitting on her. Then there's Mickey Rooney looking for the boy next door and girl next door for an ad campaign.

Even for a beach party movie this is pretty desperate. Funicello looks way too old to be hanging out at the beach (and her pregnancy is clearly visible); the dialogue is more inane than usual; the songs are (to be nice) terrible; the jokes are stubbornly unfunny; Hickman is as bland as they come (even worse than Chris O'Donnell); Harvey Lembeck returns as the incredibly unfunny Eric von Zipper; the "comical" motorcycle race at the end is incredibly stupid; and it's kind of sad seeing Keaton and Rooney reduced to this. Still, this is kind of fun in a silly sort of way. It's not even remotely good but I kept watching. The Claymation opening is fun and I did laugh out loud at the "Bewitched" joke at the end. Also this is perfect for young kids. So it's not good but it's harmless. It's certainly better than the next (and last) beach party movie "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"!