Movie review - Beach Party #1 - "Beach Party" (1963) ***

Few moments in cinema - well, in beach cinema, anyway - match the sheer good natured fun of this one's opening scene , with Frankie and Annette driving in their car with surfboards singing the very catchy "Beach Party Tonight" (the effect is slightly ruined when they end the song by driving a car on the beach).

Shenanigans ensue: Frankie wanted to bang Annette but she didn't without a wedding ring (1963 - still holding out!) so she invited their mates. So Frankie makes her jealous with Eva Six (cue another decent song, "Don't Stop Now") and Annette makes him jealous with Robert Cummings, box office security for AIP not sure about having teens as the leads, who plays an anthropologist investigating sex habits of teens.

Add the following to the mix: Harvey Lembeck as a biker, Dorothy Malone in a thankless part as Cumming's secretary, Candy Johnson as a Perpetual Motion Dancer, John Ashley and Jody McCrea (who apparently sexually harassed some of the female cast including Malone) as Avalon's friends, Dick Dale and the Dell Tones and a cameo from Vincent Price, plus some really crappy surfing back projection.

AIP originally wanted Fabian for the lead but Fox wouldn't let him do the role so they went with Avalon - who actually was a much better match for Annette than Fabian would have been (there is something goofier about Avalon's persona - that helmet hair, I think - which suited the movies more). Apparently Cummings would be a pain on set discussing his scenes and whinging about his dialogue until Asher says "what's wrong here is that you'd like Willie Wyler as your director and I'd like Cary Grant as my star, but have you and you have me and let's just stop this fooling around and go make a movie." (Cummings carries most of the plot which at times is reminiscent of Come September i.e. middle aged guy proves to young kids he's still cool).

The kids in this one drink beer and smoke cigarettes but wouldn't do it in later films. It's all good colourful fun, with bright Dan Haller art direction, plus some decent songs: not just 'Beach Party Tonight' but 'Don't Stop Now' and 'Surfin''. I didn't even mind Annette F singing the ballad 'Treat Him Nicely' because there's funny subext about Annette wondering whether to root Frankie or not (you can imagine the things going through her brain: hand relief instead? or Greek?)