Long overdue (says I, anyway) overview of one of my favourite genres, the beach party films of the 1960s. I developed a fondness for these creations from watching them on Saturday afternoon television, particularly the AIP films, with their bright colours and corny jokes. They also had a real family feeling with actors appearing again and again (not to mention similar plots, music and behind the scenes key creatives).
The book is excellently done, very well researched (and equitable, too - lesser known entires like Catalina Caper and Out of Sight still get thorough exploration), with plenty of interviews and astute points. Lisanti perhaps goes on a bit too long about all the flesh ogling you can do in the films - he reviews the perving you can do for each film, just like you would the music; he is a modern guy, appraising both the male and female flesh, though a few comments (such as his preference for the camp Winter A Go-Go) lead one to think he is more interested in looking at the boys. There is heaps of wonderful trivia such as
- Roger Corman's involvement in the genre (something of which I was totally unaware, and I'm a big Corman buff) - the maestro funded Beach Ball and The Girls on the Beach, but kept it top secret because of his contract at the time with Columbia.
- The number of obscure stars of these films who went on to have successful other careers: John Ashley who co-produced The A Team and Walker Texas Ranger, Michael Blogdett (of Catalina Caper) who wrote Turner and Hooch.
- Bobby Vinton was desperate to be a movie star and tried to get the lead in Beach Party before winding up in Surf Party.
- Aaron Kincaid, who provided the intro, is probably given too much attention - he was in a number of these films but always seem to be the second lead. It's not hard to see why he didn't have much of a career, despite his blonde good looks - have a squizz at this scene from Ski Party where Lesley Gore sings "Sunshine, Lollipops"... whereas Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman are fully into it, Kincaid just sort of dopily sits there. (To be fair Kincaid says he felt the leads in that film bascially ignored him making filming less than pleasant.)
- William Asher of the Beach Party movies played favourites with support players big time and if you fell out of his good books you were lucky to get any screen time.
- John Ashley was a particular favourite of James Nicholson's at AIPs and he was the one always pushing for him to feature in AIP films.
- Gail Gerber, star of Beach Ball, went on to become life partner of writer Terry Southern.
The book is excellently done, very well researched (and equitable, too - lesser known entires like Catalina Caper and Out of Sight still get thorough exploration), with plenty of interviews and astute points. Lisanti perhaps goes on a bit too long about all the flesh ogling you can do in the films - he reviews the perving you can do for each film, just like you would the music; he is a modern guy, appraising both the male and female flesh, though a few comments (such as his preference for the camp Winter A Go-Go) lead one to think he is more interested in looking at the boys. There is heaps of wonderful trivia such as
- Roger Corman's involvement in the genre (something of which I was totally unaware, and I'm a big Corman buff) - the maestro funded Beach Ball and The Girls on the Beach, but kept it top secret because of his contract at the time with Columbia.
- The number of obscure stars of these films who went on to have successful other careers: John Ashley who co-produced The A Team and Walker Texas Ranger, Michael Blogdett (of Catalina Caper) who wrote Turner and Hooch.
- Bobby Vinton was desperate to be a movie star and tried to get the lead in Beach Party before winding up in Surf Party.
- Aaron Kincaid, who provided the intro, is probably given too much attention - he was in a number of these films but always seem to be the second lead. It's not hard to see why he didn't have much of a career, despite his blonde good looks - have a squizz at this scene from Ski Party where Lesley Gore sings "Sunshine, Lollipops"... whereas Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman are fully into it, Kincaid just sort of dopily sits there. (To be fair Kincaid says he felt the leads in that film bascially ignored him making filming less than pleasant.)
- William Asher of the Beach Party movies played favourites with support players big time and if you fell out of his good books you were lucky to get any screen time.
- John Ashley was a particular favourite of James Nicholson's at AIPs and he was the one always pushing for him to feature in AIP films.
- Gail Gerber, star of Beach Ball, went on to become life partner of writer Terry Southern.
- The female cast in The Girls on the Beach ostracised Anna Capri and Lana Wood (the latter very much va-va-voom at the age of 18).
- Raquel Welch was a major bitch on the set of A Swinging Summer who insisted on wearing her signature bikini... even though she wasn't a star yet.
- Wild on the Beach uses actors in the leads who are Frankie and Annette lookalikes.
- James Stacy, who formed a buddy team with William Wellman Jnr on A Swinging Summer and Winter a-Go-Go, was thought destined for major stardom - but he lost an arm and a leg in a motorcyle accent and later went to prison for molesting an eleven year old girl.
Great fun.
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