Movie review - Beach Party #7 - "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966) **

A long way from being the best movie in the world but it has its charm, chiefly due to the cast and the fact that this was the last Beach Party movie. There's no beach in sight, it takes place at a haunted house - but there is a pool, and a bus load of kids complete with band (the Bobby Fuller Four) rock up and use it. The two nominal leads, Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley, don't have very large parts. It's more of an esemble film - Kirk shares the lead male duties with Aron Kincaid, who is fine (not as comfortable in front of the camera as Kirk), who AIP had under contract.

The story has an odd structure - the first half is part-Scooby Doo (unseen forces try to kill people) part Beach Party (a few songs); the second half is all Scooby Doo consisting of one scare gag after another, and ending with a good old fashioned buzz saw.

The perks of the film include the beautiful-but-can't-act Susan Hart in the title role (er... if she has all these powers why doesn't she just kill off the baddies at the beginning), Boris Karloff as her husband (he spends the whole movie in a coffin - he was too ill to stand - one gets the feeling the script was written around things like actor availabilities and titles), Basil Rathbone in fine form, Eric Von Zipper and the gang also in fine form (indeed the great joy of the film is the sheer professionalism of the cast), Nancy Sinatra looking very fetching in a bikini, Quinn O'Hara looking similarly fetching (why did they clothe Deb Walley?), the man in a gorilla suit, a neat haunted house, and a fair amount of energy.

The film was originally meant to be called Pajama Party in a Haunted House then Slumber Party in a Haunted House then Bikini Party in a Haunted House, its title during production. Although the movie was shot in the autumn of 1965, AIP weren't happy with it. James Nicholson came up with the idea of a sexy ghost in a bikini and had the Hart-Karloff scenes shot and incorporated into the film (Hart's scenes were shot in two weeks, Karloff's in a day). It did some business but not enough to save the series.

NB - on a more sombre note, the film was marked by tragedy - a grip fell to his death during production, Bobby Fuller died soon after the film was finished, ditto Peter Sachse, Francis X Bushman, Boris Karloff, Patsy Kelly and Basil Rathbone.