Very disappointed :(
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
View MoreThe 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"!
View MoreLike Jackie19, it's nearly my least favorite of the beach movies, but luckily, that isn't much of an insult. Along with all the regular actors, there are the great guest actors. Buster Keaton's witch doctor (along with Bobbi Shaw's native girl) may not be the most enlightened image of a Polynesian, but he manages to be very funny in the part. (I'm sure plenty of people see these movies as a big, embarrassing step down for people like him, but I see no good reason why.) And of course, Irene Tsu as the girl who tries to tempt Frankie. Then, there's Len Lesser, who's just about as great a comical villain in this one as Timothy Carey is in Beach Blanket Bingo. And of course, Mickey Rooney. Someone mentioned the "touching her boob" bit that he gets away with, but one of his scenes also has a fairly funny gay joke. Rooney asks one of the surfers (someone in that scene alone) if he's seen the exciting girl that so much of the film is about, the one that all the boys are crazy about, and the character says in a lisping voice, "Certainly not!"
View MoreMickey Rooney joins the beach scene for this outing as a businessman promoting his product through a cross-country race. For a beach party movie, there's very little surfing going on here, and Frankie appears in studio sequences where he's stuck on a South Seas island (surrounded by gorgeous babes). he's worried about Annette being faithful, so he enlists a witch doctor (Keaton), who sends a sea-bird to watch her, in exchange for "torpedo juice" which he drinks to great comical effect. Lembeck and the rest of the crew appear, but Harvey in particular has not been as well-written as usual in this one, and his bit is starting to feel really worn out (jumped the shark, in the modern vernacular). Hickman is strictly 2nd rate as a temporary replacement for Frankie (maybe he was busy in "Sgt. Deadhead" or "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine). Donlevy is the head of the company hiring racers.
View MoreI 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>
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