Movie review - "The Sweet Ride" (1968) **

 Interesting. Odd. 20th Century Fox's attempt to jump on the beach craze came out late, was serious, had a middle aged star (Tony Franciosa) and adult plots but had some young talent, notably Jacqueline Bisset (inexperienced but gorgeous), Michael Sarrazin (pretty but blank with nothing to play), Bob Denver. Franciosa ensures someone can act. It's super serious despite the presence of Denver and being produced by Joe Pasternak. There's a bike gang but it's serious.

Tom Mankiewicz wrote the script which is full of zingers, not many funny.  It's not a comedy it's a drama with zingers. I think they were going for a big screen Peyton Place with some beach tropes.

Harvey Hart tilts the camera and a few other things. I wasn't sure if Sarrazin assaulted Bisset, who I think was into masochistic sex or something. There's these random characters like Bisset's producer (she's an actress) and Denver's girfriend Michele Carey and a biker guy and a cop. 

Movie is confusing. It's called a programmer but what's its genre?  

Movie review - "Where the Boys Are" (1960) **** (rewatching)

 This just works. Location photography, lovely cast, splendid camraderie - the four girls are friends, but they befriend other girls, find boys, the boys become mates.

Dolores Hart has perhaps her best role - spirited, smart, liberated, attracted to George Hamilton. Hamilton brings some second tier star power. Jim Hutton v affable, Paula Prentiss hugely likable, as is Connie Francis who isn't asked to do too much - she gets Frank Gorshin who is engaging, though I'm sure Francis wanted someone better looking. The sexual assault done on Yvette Mimieux is very well handled. The film shows aspects of its time but has aged far better than other movies from this era. 

Movie review - "It's a Bikini World" (1967) **1/2 (rewatching)

 Fun. Bright. Fantastic music. Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley ideally cast. Others are too. Not enough story. Needed a few more subplots. Stephanie Rothman has nothing to be ashamed of.

Movie review - "One Way Wahine" (1965) *1/2

 More obscure beach party movie despite starring Joy Harmon, Anthony Eisley and Edgar Bergen. Harmon has this weird red tan and seems to be mentally off. Combieds some bech stuff with a robbery plot. Filmed on location but it stil looks cheap and studio bound. I am a soft marker on beach films but the indeptness of this got me down. Bergen's role is very small.

Movie review - "Winter a Go Go" (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

 The stars of Swinging Summer go to work for Columbia - photography looks great, neat ski action, sluggish story (they start a ski lodge). It as a TV vibe - goons try to wreck business - interspersed with musical numbers. Racist comic cook. The leads get married. Had trouble telling people apart.

Movie review - "A Swingin' Summer" (1965) ** (re-watching)

 A "lake paty" movie - the beach party set at Lake Arrowhead, Surprisingly heavy and serious - lots of talk about needing money, pressure, and a big brawl that is very seriously done involving James Stacy. More fun is William Wellman being pursued by Raquel Welch, a nerd determined to have a boyfriend for the summer.

Jerry Lewis' son performs in this. Michael Blodgett dances. The lake is pretty. Quinn O'Hara has to be too serious.

Movie review - "It's a Bikini World" (1967) ** (rewatching)

 Deborah Walley is a cutie. Warm, gorgeous, plucky. Tommy Kirk is fine - better as the nerd. There's not enough story. Needs at least two more plots. Great photography and music.

Movie review - "Ski Fever" (1966) **

 European version of beach party/ski movies. Shot in Europe with Curt Siodmak as director! Martin Milner is a dull hero. Claudia Martin is pretty as an American at a ski lodge. There's some lecherous Europeans. The girl who had dream sequences were funny. Nice ski shots. Some songs. A pool scene.

Movie review - "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965) *** (re-watching)

 The last really strong AIP Beach Party movie - energetic, confident. Weird moments like that moody ballad Frankie Avalon sings and the Deborah Walley fake rape plot. Odd that John Ashley is Frankie's rival.

The romance between mermaid Sylvia Kristel and Jody McCrea (who is the lead as much as anyone) is charming because both. are dumb - but then he gets with Linda Evans? Confusing that both are blondes. Unsatisfactory.

Linda Evans gorgeous and sweet. The double act of Bobbi Shaw and Buster Keaton is funny. Fun silent era chase and climax. This was peak Mac Sennett period at AIP.

Don Rickles' night club act isn't funny. Paul Lynde is funny.

Movie review - "Out of Sight" (1966) *

 There's no reason why a mash up of Beach Party movies and spy films couldn't have worked. AIP could've pulled it off - they mixed it with haunted house films and sci fi. This is just a bad movie. Jonathan Daly is hard work as a spy's butler who becomes a spy.  He' s a drag. Maybe he was famous at the time. But Frankie Avalon in this role would've been so much better.

There's some terrific music - versions of "Baby Please Don't Go" and "It's Not Unusual". I did really like the three female assassins

But on the whole this is a dull movie.

Movie review - "Beach Ball" (1965) *** (re-watching)

 Roger Corman financed cheapie. Stephanie Rothman worked on it. A decent script - a little more stakes-y than AIP which tended to be more of a grab bag.

It's cute. Edd Byrnes is sleazy. Chris Noel is fun as are the other girls. Aron Kincaid is amiable. Terrific music including the Supremes.

Movie review - "Ski Party" (1965) *** (rewatching)

 Gene Corman was brought in to produce this and he in turn brought a fresh infusion of talent - Alan Rafkin director, Robert Kaufman writer, Aaron Kincaid actor, Robert Q Lewis actor.

It doesn't quite work, a little bit too much of a rip off of Some Like It Hot, but full of energy, fun moments. Terrific music - Lesley Gore, James Brown, etc. Skiing on location (moving to the beach at the end is a jolt). Bobbi Shaw is very winning and likeable - more than Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig to be honest. Annette Funicello is fun as a student kissing teacher - it's a shame she couldn't have come along.

Bright and fun.

Movie review - "Muscle Beach Party" (1964) ** (re-watching)

 Odd Beach Party movie - no Harvey Lembeck, lots of soulful philophising from Frankie Avalon who dreams of surfing forever, Luciana Paluzzi instantly falls for a bodybuilder then instantly falls for Avalon, which is unsatisfactory, then offers him a singing contract, and this offends the friend group because... why? He wants to be a pop star? And Avalon is offended because Paluzzi wants to pick up the tab because...? The film doesn't make sense.

The muscle boys are at least visually different, Don Rickles has fun, Candy Johnson dances, Donna Loren sings, Little Stevie Wonder sings, Dick Dale plays music and surfs, Peter Lorres does a cameo, Buddy Hackett is Paluzzi's helper, fun opening credits, some decent tunes. Avalon smokes after a night surf.

But it's too serious and gloomy.

Movie review - “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini” (1966) ** (rewatching)

I’m glad the Beach Party series ended on this and not How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. This isn’t a good movie, not really, but it’s full of fun stuff. So was How to Stuff, but that film had a hollow core as there was no decent central romance. This one has, however tentatively, Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley.

It also has a script heavily influenced by Pajama Party - like that this is a mash up, in this case beach party and haunted house stories. Patsy Kelly plays, basically, Else Lanchester, Aron Kincaid plays the nephew role essayed by Jody McCrea, Bobbi Shaw is back with Benny Rubin stepping in for Buster Keaton. Quinn O’Hara is fun as the short sighted femme fatale, constantly trying to seduce statues, Francis X Bushman plays an old butler, Basil Rathbone has a decent sized role as a villain, Piccola Pupa is this random singer stepping in for Donna Loren, Nancy Sinatra is the second female lead. Kirk and Kincaid spend a lot of time being spooked, Walley doesn’t have that much to do, Harvey Lembeck and co are on hand.

The device of Boris Karloff and Susan Hart was added after the original cut - it suits the jokey nature of the film. Bobby Fuller Four is in this.

The whole notion of a busload of teens travelling to a house and breaking out into impromptu dance numbers with a band playing a long is just so silly it’s very endearing.

As finales to series go, this was fine.

Movie review - "Pajama Party" (1964) *** (re watching)

 Fun dance numbers. Plot is silly. Anntte Funicello gets to dance. But her character falls in love very quickly - she's so flippant. Jody McCrea isn't in to her so she goes with Tommy Kirk but then he is attacked by Bobbi Shaw and she huffs, he says sorry, finds out she's a martian, and huffs again.

The veterans are very well used - Jesse White is fun as is Elsa Lanchester, it's great to see Buster Keaton yucking it up with Bobbi Shaw, Dororhy Lamour has a terrific number. The numbers are good except the dim love ballad with Funicello and Tommy Kirk.

Annette suits Frankie better but she and Kirk are fine and he's charming as usual. Teri Garr is a dancer - all those AIP starlets and the true star was there. Susan Hart gets a lot of screen time but she just shimmies. She struggles with her few lines. Donna Loren sings. They may as well have shown Avalon's face we know it's him. He's funny as is Don Rickles.

This is fun. A mash up of sci fi and beach party - the first mash ups. Goldfoot and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini were closer like that.

Top Ten Beach Party Movies

 Going off the description in Tom Lisanti...

1) Gidget (1959) - feminist (ish), fun, great star turn

2) Where the Boys Are (1960).- light but also serious in a good way

3) Bikini Beach (1964) - Beach Party started it but this is the most pure

4) Ride the Wild Surf (1964) - angst! But also a more serious exploration ofbeach life

5) Beach Ball (1965) - fun, terrific music

6) Girl Happy (1965) - Elvis does beach party, great fun

7) Pajama Party (1964) - underrated musical, bright and poppy, heaps of fun

8) Beach Party (1963) - kicked off the series, often overlooked, but great

9) Ski Party (1965) - a bit smarmy but great snow, and tunes, and the Avalon-Hickman combo works

10) Blue Hawaii (1961) - aww, Elvis... look not really beachy but beach-ish and gorgeous

Movie review - "It's a Bikini World" (1967) ** (re-watching)

 One of the last of the beach party cycle - shot in 1965 it wasn't released until 1967. It benefits from star power - Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley are given a lot more to do than in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.

The film is a fairly shameless rip off of Beach Party  - Bob Pickett wears his hat like Jody McCrea's Deadhead, Sig Haig's Big Daddy is like Morey Amsterdam.

Yet all through are attempts to make a good movie - the opening credits using live footage and cartoons plus a great guitar riff, whoever signed the artists (The Toys, The Animals).

My view of this hasn't changed. Nice stars, Breezy tone. Not enough story. Feels padded, with scenes of people walking around, and sports contest. Very likeable cast.

Movie review - "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1967) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Saw this again just for fun - it was fun. I mean it's not very good, but it has its charms - the colour, Quinn O'Hara as a bespectacled femme fetale, Basil Rathbone with one foot in a grave, ditto Boris Karloff. Apparently Louis Heyward had to "rescue" the movie with the framing device - I think the movie holds as is, the framing device doesn't help but it does give a part to Susan Hart and Karloff.

It's an old dark house story with paintings with eyes, trap doors, revolving book cases. There's even a buzz saw finale. Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley don't have much to do. Aaron Kincaid is as busy,being seduced by O'Hara and running arond.

Harvey Lembeck is on hand and that Buster Keaton replacement. Its sheer oddness and good spirits help this get by - I mean, it's got the Bobby Fuller Four, Nancy Sinatra, some random Italian singer, a bus of partiers, an old house.

Movie review - "For Those Who Think Young" (1964) **

 Half the film is stock beach party stuff - rich James Darren chases after poor (ish) Pamela Tiffin. Darren is a sleazy red flag which is stock for this sort of plot, but Tiffin is lively and pretty, and there's stuff on the beach. And I enjoyed Bob Denver as a beatnik and Nancy Sinatra as his girlfriend (Dean Martin's daughter Claudia is in this too). That's all fine.

But the other half of the film is, amazingly, a vehicle for some unfunny comic Woody Woodbury, who is loosely connected to the other story by being Tiffin's uncle but has his own plot about being a duo with Paul Lynde, then Woodbury does a nightclub act that is apparently hilarious - we get lots and lots of it on screen - and the Dean wants to shut down the nightclub.

Ellen Burstyn, then under a different name, is fun as a woman who tries to shut down the club and falls for Woodbury. George Raft cameos as a cop during a final raid.

But this movie is dumb. Annoying. Woodbury gets too much screen time. It's all resolved with an unconvincing deux ex machina - the Dean used to be a bootlegger. I mean, WTF.

Made by Frank Sinatra's producing company!

Movie review - "Don't Make Waves" (1967) ***

 A bit of a mess - I wasn't sure what the point was but it is colourful and has some of my favourite sixties actors: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. There's always something happening it is bright and silly. You can see why it didn't make money. You can also see why it's always on TV.

Nice theme song. It took a pointlessly long time for Curtis' character to be established - he was too passive. Guy should have been a mover and shaker.

Robert Webber's tycoon should have been more of a threat. I did like Joanna Barnes has his wife. David Draper is very sweet as Tate's body building love. I wish more time had been spent showing a bond between Cardinal and Curtis but he spends all his time chasing Tate which is understandable but also makes for the ending seem rushed.

There's mudslides and parachting. It focuses a lot on middle aged people. I liked Jim Backus playing himself.