A low point of the Beach Party series - conversely one of the best known because of its name. It suffers from having Frankie out of the picture for most of the film but they still try to incoporate him into the plot - the male lead is Dwayne Hickman (replacing Tommy Kirk who was to play the lead but was fired because of his arrest), who is ideally cast in goofy comic roles but not so ideal as a supposed "perfect man", a playboy.
The plot involves him hitting on Annette who for most of the film veers between saying 'go away I'm taken' then going 'oh OK take me out to dinner' - she considers giving in a few times. Because Frankie's still around the edges they never get together - it means the film is hollow at its core. Mickey Rooney plays an ad man with customary energy - but the role seems written for someone younger. John Ashley and Joel McCrea are around but have little to do without Frankie - they should have made them friends with Hickman or something.
The film recycles elements of Beach Blanket Bingo including a featured beautiful girl who makes all the guys go ga-ga (Beverly Adams, quite likeable) who is chased after by Eric von Zipper, who is involved with an evil pool hall owner (Len Lesser, playing brother of the character played by Tim Carey in the previous film).
It feels tired - Annette is not in good form - since she doesn't really like Hickman there is not much for her character to do - and its distracting she's in flowing clothes because she was pregnant in real life. And she's always eating (there's a hilarious KFC product placement with her and Hickman.)
The songs are awful - with this sort of boomy sound, none of the jauntiness of other Les Baxter scores. Having said that the Kingsmen perform an energetic number and I didn't mind one or two of the tunes - just the bad ones were really bad. Brian Donlevy beems through the movie as if he's just glad to have a job, which he probably was. There are some bright spots: the opening claymation titles, Buster Keaton as a Hawaiian, Bobbi Shaw as another Hawaiian, Eric von Zipper turning respectable.
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