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.

The Nine Lives of John Ashley

John Ashley's never been a particularly well known name, even among film buffs. He's best remembered by aficionados of AIP car flicks, beach party musicals and/or Philippine mad doctor movies. Which is a shame because he had one of the most fascinating show biz careers in the second half of the twentieth century, one that encompasses four decades, two continents, several professions, a few classic movies and heaps of cult favorites. Stephen Vagg looks at the nine lives of John Ashley.

1) Wrestling Star

Ashley was born in Kansas City in 1934, to an unwed couple who gave him up for adoption. He never knew his biological parents, being raised by a gynecologist, Dr Roger Atchley, and his wife Lucille in Tulsa, Oklahoma. John Atchley, as he was originally known, became a champion wrestler at high school and earned a wrestling scholarship to Oklahoma State University.

He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-fifties intending to study at UCLA. Fraternity connections led to an introduction to John Wayne's press agent, which led to an introduction to John Wayne, which led to an introduction to William Castle, which led to Ashley being cast as a guest star on the TV series Men of Annapolis as... a wrestler. This got him an agent. If it hadn't been for wrestling there's a chance we might never have heard of John Ashley - for that was his new stage name.

2) AIP Star

Not long the Men of Annapolis appearance, Ashley accompanied a lady friend to an audition for a film being made by American International Pictures; while he was waiting, writer-producer Lou Rusoff asked Ashley if he wanted to read for a part as well. The young man agreed, and wound up doing an Elvis Presley impersonation; AIP were delighted: they was looking for a handsome Elvis type to play the villain in a juvenile-delinquents-and-hot-rods movie, Dragstrip Girl (1957). Ashley got the part (his girl missed out) and in January 1957 signed a four picture contract with AIP.

Dragstrip Girl is great fifties teensploitation fun, with Ashley a terrific delinquent, full of scowls and swagger; he'd never had an acting lesson but he has a natural presence and easily steals the movie from the "good guy", Steve Terell (though in fairness, Ashley has the better part). AIP liked the idea of developing their own in-house talent, and all the film's leads - Ashley, Terrell and Fay Spain - were placed under multi-picture contracts. However this arrangement was non exclusive, enabling Ashley to make his second movie outside the studio: Zero Hour! (1957), a mid-budget airplane thriller at Paramount, in which Ashley had a small role.

Dragstrip Girl was well received, so AIP promptly remade it as Motorcycle Gang, with motorcycles instead of cars but the same writer (Rusoff), producer (Alex Gordon), director (Edward Cahn), stars (Ashley, Tyrell) and plot: Ashley was again the villain and again gave the best performance. The movie has become an icon of its time - director John Carpenter once listed it among his guilty pleasures - and is a little sharper than Dragstrip Girl.

AIP soon lost enthusiasm for Spain and Terrell but really liked Ashley, who was turning into their own in-house Elvis - he even had a Presley-style stint in the national guard around this time, though Ashley's service only went for six months. AIP got him released early so he could play second lead in  a WW2 film, supporting Mike Connors in Suicide Battalion (1958) (the studio's war movies aren't very well remembered compared to their teen pics but they made a fair few). Ashley has his first sympathetic role and is almost inevitably less effective than in his villainous parts, though he does get to romance a local girl and die gloriously. The movie, shot on a studio backlot, was set in the Philippines, a country that was to become strongly associated with Ashley in the future.

Ashley's fourth AIP feature gave him his first heroic lead - Hot Rod Gang (1958), a more light hearted kids-and-cars movie, with Ashley playing a rich teen who loves singing rock n roll and driving fast, but has to pretend to be "good" in order to inherit a pile of money. A whole bunch of shenanigans ensue - Ashley puts on glasses and pretends to be intellectual to impress his doddery old aunts, he sings, he slaps on a beard and impersonates a beatnik so he can sing in public (he even does a press interview and becomes famous). Writer Rusoff throws in a good girl with the hots for Ashley (Jody Fair), some car thieves, a snobby lawyer, a trashy blonde, a brawl or two, and Gene Vincent as himself. To be honest Ashley's limitations are exposed a little in this film - I don't think he was a great comic actor - but it is entertaining and good-hearted.

Ashley went on to star in two movies that are often assumed to be from AIP even though they were made elsewhere: Frankenstein's Daughter  (1958) and High School Caesar (1960). In the former, his first sci-fi horror movie, he gives a solid leading man performance as a teen whose girlfriend turns into a monster at night; it's not particularly memorable work but is grounded and realistic, and serves as a useful counter-balance to the extreme nature of the story. In the latter, a juvenile delinquent melodrama, Ashley is excellent as a poor little rich kid who tyrannizes his high school; it's a real star vehicle for him - he gets to be mean, charismatic and cry into his pillow - and it's easily one of his best performances; unfortunately, the movie (released by Roger Corman's Filmgroup Productions) came at the tail end of the juvenile delinquent cycle, and was not that successful.

James H Nicholson, vice president of AIP, was a fan of Ashley's and felt the actor could become a genuine star - according to author Tom Lisanti, it helped that Nicholson's two daughters were admirers of Ashley.  Indeed, the studio considered him a big enough "name" to insist he make a cameo as himself, performing a song, in AIP's How to Make a Murder (1958) (he was by now also a singing star, which we'll discuss more below).

However Ashley clashed with Nicholson's partner, Sam Z. Arkoff, when the actor wanted to do an episode of Matinee Theatre on a date that clashed with an AIP production. It led to a fight and Ashley elected not to renew his contract with the studio. For any other young actor this might have been a disastrous career move, but Ashley already had another career up and running by this stage...

3) Singing Star

In the late fifties there was a lot of cross over between singing and acting among teen idols - Elvis, Tommy Sands, Pat Boone and Fabian wound up acting, while Tab Hunter, Jeff Chandler and James Darren tried singing. Not long after Dragstrip Girl, Ashley was signed to Dot Records and had a brief career as a pop star. He wasn't huge - there were no top ten hits, for instance - but he did okay... for instance, Ashley claims his single 'Pickin' on the Wrong Chicken' sold a couple of hundred thousand copies. He would often perform with Eddie Cochrane and Gene Vincent, who were on the same label.

The singing dovetailed neatly into Ashley's acting career - he sang in Zero Hour!, How to Make a Murder, and Hot Rod Gang as well as episodes of shows like The Millionaire and Ashley's own series, Straightaway (see below). An compilation album of some of his songs was released in 2001 and it's worth seeking out if you like late fifties rock music; Ashley can put over a tune and some of the numbers are quite catchy.

Every actor's career has its ups and downs, and the more versatile you can be, the more options you have. While Ashley never became as big a pop star as, say, James Darren, the singing helped keep his profile high, brought in extra income, and ensured he didn't slide into the obscurity of, say, a Steve Terrell.

4) Television Star

Ashley guest starred on TV series from the beginning of his career, but it was not until he left left AIP that he really focused on the small screen. Westerns were hugely popular at the time, and Ashley could ride a horse, so he was often cast as juvenile delinquent types on shows like Frontier Doctor, The Deputy, Death Valley Days and Wagon Train; as mentioned, he also played a singer on The Millionaire.

The ABC network, who specialised in adventure series with handsome young leading men (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, etc) cast Ashley in the co-lead role of a TV series, Straightaway (1961-62). He and Brian Kelly played partners in the Straightaway Garage, where they designed, built, and serviced racing cars; Kelly was the designer while Ashley was a mechanic who occasionally sang. Although the concept was unusual it wasn't particularly strong (how many stories are going to be generated in a garage for racing cars?) and it isn't that well remembered a show... but it did run for 26 episodes and had guest stars like Diana Dors and Gloria Swanson. The credits are here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwaFNjR1unk.

When Straightaway was cancelled, Ashley's career was at an awkward stage - he had not established himself as a movie star, and his singing career remained in minor gear. He maintained a profile in the fan magazines through his marriage to a fellow second-tier teen idol, Deborah Walley, star of Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) (I'm not saying that's why he married her, but it was a consequence). He also had a role in Hud (1963) with Paul Newman, directed by Martin Ritt, playing Hermy, a town bully this turned out to be a genuinely superb film, the first one Ashley had been associated with... but although Ashley was billed sixth his part was eviscerated in the cutting room and he is barely in the final movie; it had little impact on his career.

Fortunately, AIP came calling again...

5) Beach Party Star

Ashley was invited back to his old studio to play Frankie Avalon's best friend in the musical comedy Beach Party (1963), which was so popular it created an entire sub-genre. He was the only actor from AIP's juvenile delinquent period who they used in the Beach Party movies - Tom Lisanti puts this down to Nicholson's affection for Ashley and the fact he was not taller than Frankie Avalon  (actors who overshadowed Avalon tended not to be asked back apart from Jody McCrea). The fact Ashley could sing and still had a bit of profile due to Straighway and being Mr Deborah Walley may also have had something to do with it.

It was only a supporting role but Ashley was liked enough to be asked back for several more in what became a series: Muscle Beach Party (1963), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), as well a role in AIP's Beach Party-style service comedy Sergeant Deadhead (1965). The only ones he missed out on were Pajama Party (1964) and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966).

With one exception, Ashley doesn't do much in the films other than play Frankie's friend - his character's name is usually "Johnny" though in Beach Party it was "Ken" and Sergeant Deadhead it was "Filroy". He generally just hangs around, doing a little bit of exposition and the occasional line of dialogue,  having minimal impact on the storyline.  The one role where he had something to do was Beach Blanket Bingo where he plays "Steve", a non-friend of Avalon who clashes with him over Deborah Walley (the only time they acted together, incidentally) - but even then he doesn't get much screen time. Although the films were musicals the only one Ashley got to sing lead vocals on was How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. He couldn't surf and had to be doubled in those scenes. When Avalon wasn't available to play the male lead, AIP brought in Tommy Kirk or Dwayne Hickman, rather than promoting Ashley. 

Having said that Ashley does bring something to the series. Firstly, he and Avalon genuinely seem to be friends  - they look the same age (though Ashley was six years older), have similar height and hair, and a convey a true camaraderie which is part of the series' charm. The films weren't all about songs, sex and surfing, they were also about friendship, and you really notice the entries where the lead male isn't good friends with Ashley; indeed in Beach Blanket Bingo it's downright stressful to see him and Avalon as strangers.

Secondly, Ashley is the one person in the beach party movies to play it straight, which helps provide sort of verisimilitude; all the other regulars - Frankie, Annette Funicello, Jody McCrea, Harvey Lembeck, Candy Johnson, etc - tend to ham it up, doing double takes to camera, running around frantically, overacting and so on but Ashley hits his marks and says his lines sincerely without any antics, which actually serves to center the storylines. For instance, when he (briefly) kicks Frankie out of the group in Muscle Beach Party, it actually feels real. The only film where Ashley went "wacky" is Sergeant Deadhead where he put on glasses and plays a geeky soldier; it's disconcerting (it feels as though the role was originally written for Jody McCrea), and helps sink what is already a poor movie.

Around the time of Beach Party Ashley was (coincidentally?) offered more comic guest star roles on television series such as Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction.  He also guested on Dr Kildare and Wild Wild West, played a supporting part in a low budget "B" at Allied Artists, Young Dillinger (1965), then had a lead role in a "C" science fiction flick, Larry Buchanan's The Eye Creatures (1965) - again doing solid leading man work, grounding an outlandish premise, though by now he was far too old to play a teenager.

Ashley's second stint at AIP resulted in six movies - seven if you count The Eye Creatures, which was made for a subsidiary - before they let him go. In 1966 the studio signed a multi-picture deal with another Elvis-like actor-singer, Fabian, and many of the roles he played for AIP would have suited Ashley - for instance the stock car racer in Fireball 500 (1966) alongside Beach Party alumni Avalon, Funicello and Lembeck - but Fabian simply had a fair higher profile.

Ashley supported singer Marty Robbins in a cheap stock car film, Hell on Wheels (1967), which features a large amount of musical numbers but none from Ashley. He auditioned unsuccessfully for the Gary Lockwood part in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and wound up cast in the movie as a clerk... but the part is cut out of most versions.  (Having said that, it's still pretty cool to be in 2001, even if on the cutting room floor.)

Ashley's acting and singing career were clearly on the downhill slide... but once again he had an ace up his sleeve. He had gone into exhibition.

6) Motion Picture Theatre Owner

Ashley was no dummy with his cash - he studied economics at college - and he invested in theatres back home in Oklahoma in partnership with a man called Earl Snyder. Together they ran a business called Snyder/Ashley Enterprises until Snyder's death in a car accident, which prompted Ashley to move to Oklahoma in 1968 to take over operations himself.

The business grew slowly but steadily and by the mid seventies he had interests in forty theatres . For a lot of people this would have been an ideal note on which to finish their career - exhibition, while still risky, was a far more stable way to earn money than singing and acting. However Ashley's career had a few more twists and turns to go...

7) Philippine Movie Star

In the sixties,  movie producers in the Philippines occasionally hired a quasi-American name actor in order to give films some chance of distribution in the US - actors like George Montgomery, Kent Smith and Jock Mahoney. Ashley received an offer to appear in an Eddie Romero horror movie for Hemisphere Pictures called Brides of Blood (1968) and he took it - in part because his marriage to Walley had ended and he wanted to get out of the country. (She was having an affair with Elvis on the set of Spinout (1966), which in its own way was kind of cool - if you're going to be cuckolded by anyone, why not Elvis?)

The shoot went for three times longer than anticipated but Ashley didn't mind: he enjoyed life in the Philippines and got along well with Romero. He also played a small part in another film for Romero, the World War Two flick, Manila Open City (1968), starring James Shigeta, but the movie that changed his life was Brides of Blood.

Ashley's role in Brides is a straight up leading man part, and as in Frankenstein's Daughter and The Eye Creatures he's solid and professional rather than outstanding, but he brings a believability that is vital in a movie with such an outlandish plot: a mysterious beast is killing women on the island; the beast turns out to be created by radioactive explosions; the killer beasts are hot for women; a woman's lust for sex leads her to be punished by being torn apart by a monster; Ashley saves the day.

The picture was surprisingly popular in the US, helped by an energetic advertising campaign - and the fact it starred a vaguely familiar American like Ashley would not have hurt. Ashley's theatre connections meant he was friendly with some distributors in the mid-west who, impressed by the movie's production values at low cost, offered to help finance another Philippines horror story. He returned to star in The Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969), again for Romero. Ashley's actually a little awkward in this film, but it had even more violence and another strong campaign, and did did well enough for a sequel: Beast of Blood (1970). After over a decade of leading roles, Ashley had established himself as a genuine box office draw, albeit in a very specific genre.

8) Philippine Movie Producer

Romero then suggested that he and Ashley try financing these movies themselves. It was a risky move but the films were not expensive, they were coming off three hits and Ashley had his own theatres as a safety net. He and Romero formed their own company, Four Associates.

Their debut feature was Beast of the Yellow Night (1971),  which was one of the first movies released by Roger Corman's New World Pictures.  Ashley stars and has one of his best roles as an escaped convict who sells his soul to the devil (Victor Diaz) in exchange for the chance to live. He possesses the body of a man married to a beautiful woman, then turns into a creature that runs around killing people (meaning Ashley has to wear a lot of creature make up).

The film is a lot of fun, and Ashley's performance is good - he's not playing a stock leading man character this time, but a tormented killer redeemed by love for his new wife. It was a financial success and launched Ashley as a producer, while confirming his status as a draw in horror movies.

Over the next four years he would produce around two films a year in the Philippines. Most of the time he would also appear as an actor, but on some occasions he worked solely behind the camera. His efforts were integral to the Philippines film boom of the early seventies, captured in the documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010) and earned Ashley a special award for his contribution to the industry from the Filipino Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ashley starred in and produced The Twilight People (1972) (a variation of The Island of Dr Moreau), The Woman Hunt (1972) (a variation of The Most Dangerous Game), Beyond Atlantis (1973) (a variation of Treasure of the Sierra Madre), Savage Sisters (1974), and Sudden Death (1977); he also appeared in but did not produce Black Mamba (1974). Ashley played a relatively stock leading man in Twilight People, Beyond Atlantis and Black Mamba but had a more challenging part in Woman Hunt, where he's a mercenary who helps kidnap the women then changes his mind. He had support roles in Savage Sisters and Sudden Death; he's especially fun in the former as a mustachioed, cigar-smoking conman type figure, doing push ups in leopard print underwear and bedding the three leads, indicating Ashley might have enjoyed a decent career as a character actor in later years had he so chosen.

The Twilight People and The Woman Hunt were very popular but Ashley's two biggest Philippine hits were the productions in which he did not appear: Jack Hill's classic The Big Doll House (1971), which kicked off the seventies women in prison cycle and made a star of Pam Grier, and Black Mama White Mama (1973) (a variation on The Defiant Ones).  Both films were driven by female characters, a hugely effective formula in the exploitation field; indeed, The Woman Hunt and Savage Sisters might have performed better if they'd focused more on their female leads instead of giving time to Ashley.

Ashley worked with the leading American exploitation companies of the time: Beast of the Yellow Night, Big Doll House and Woman Hunt were released by New World; Twilight People and Beyond Atlantis by Dimension; and Black Mama White Mama and Savage Sisters by Ashley's old employer, AIP (now run solely by Sam Arkoff after Nicholson left the company).

By the mid seventies Ashley was losing enthusiasm for producing in the Philippines. Box office receipts on Beyond Atlantis and Savage Sisters were disappointing, costs were rising and Sudden Death struggled to find decent distribution in the US. (Black Mamba was never released theatrically in Ashley's lifetime.) Eventually he decided to wind up his operations... but not before helping Francis Ford Coppola make Apocalypse Now (1979)  as an associate producer.

It was natural Coppola would approach someone with Ashley's experience to help in the Philippines. As has been well documented, it was an extremely difficult shoot - so difficult Ashley that claims after a year of working on the movie, he sent himself a fake telegram saying he had to go home to Oklahoma, so he could show it to Coppola and quit. The resulting movie, however, was a masterpiece, perhaps the greatest Ashley was ever associated with.

9) US Producer

When Ashley returned to the US he decided to sell his movie theatres and took a year off. He seems to have lost his enthusiasm for acting by this stage - he had only appeared in one American film during the past decade - a mediocre Western, Smoke in the Wind (1975), which was little seen and is remembered if at all for being the last movie of Walter Brennan. "Acting was something I fell into," he later admitted. "I enjoyed it, It was fun. But I have to be honest with you, I was never terribly devoted to it.... To get up at six am and drive out to Indian Dunes and get hit with a face full of sea air, then slam on makeup... I don't miss it."

However he had fallen in love with producing. "Producing is so rewarding, so all-encompassing," he said. "To be involved in the production of something, it's the whole thing. From the script and casting, which I really enjoy, then the physical production and the post production, which is the most fun. Hiring composers, scoring, the dubbing, mixing... I find all these elements more enjoyable than acting."

Ashley decided to move to Los Angeles, where he produced some TV films for Robert Conrad, a fellow sixties teen idol and an old friend (they had acted together several times): Coach of the Year (1980) and Will: The Story of G. Gordon Liddy (1982).

This led to an offer to work for Stephen J Cannell, one of the leading writer-producers on television at the time, resulting in Ashley producing some TV series, The Quest (1982), which only had a short run, and The A Team (1983-87), which became a spectacular hit and (over time) an icon of eighties popular culture. Ashley provided the narration for the opening credits and made an occasional cameo in the show, which is probably the most commercially successful project he was ever associated with.

He never recaptured the success of The A Team but kept busy producing until the end of his life, notably on series in collaboration with Frank Lupo; his credits included  Werewolf (1987), Something is Out There (1988), Hardball (1989), Gladiator School (1990), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1993) and some seasons of Walker Texas Ranger.

Fred Olen Ray, an admirer of Ashley's who became a close friend, lured the producer out of acting retirement for a small part in the comedy Invisible Mom (1996). Ashley was producing a feature film, Scar City when a heart attack killed him in 1997. He was only 62 years old but he had packed in a hell of a lot during that time.

Conclusion

In many ways John Ashley was extremely lucky. He was raised by a well-off family in a first world nation, and was blessed by nature with beauty and a decent enough singing voice; he had a "look" that Hollywood was interested in at the time (i.e. a quasi-Elvis appearance), and he was fortunate to make relationships in the Philippines right before the film boom there.

But other people have also been given these sort of opportunities and failed to take advantage of them the way Ashley did. He worked hard, was smart and not afraid to try different things, whether it was acting, singing, exhibition, or producing. He wasn't a hugely talented performer but he made the most of what gifts he had. He was clever enough to go into business with more experienced partners he could learn from - Earl Snyder for exhibition, Eddie Romero for film production, Frank Lupo and Stephen Cannell for producing television - and what's more he did it in territories he knew well (the Philippines, Oklahoma, Los Angeles), instead of unfamiliar environments.  He was incredibly important to the Philippine film boom of the seventies - it were his contacts in distribution that led to a second Mad Doctor film there, then it was his experience in the country which encouraged Roger Corman to shoot The Big Doll House there.

Ashley was rewarded with a career that not only made him rich and semi-famous, but left him with a CV that includes three genuine classics (Hud, 2001, Apocalypse Now), one of the most iconic TV series of all time (The A Team), and key movies in some beloved cult genres (delinquents-and-cars AIP films, Philippine horror movies, the Beach Party series).

A hell of a career.

A hell of a life.

References

• Lamont, John (1990). "The John Ashley Interview Part 1 1956-1965". Trash Compactor (Volume 2 No. 5 ed.). pp. 20–26.
•  Lamont, John (1992). "The John Ashley Interview Part 2". Trash Compactor (Volume 2 No. 6 ed.) pp 2-7.
• Lisanti, Tom, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland 2005
• Ray, Fred Olen (1991). The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors. McFarland.
• Weaver, Tom; Brunas, John (1985). "From B Movies to the A Team". Fangoria.

The Cinema of Tommy Kirk

From 1959 to 1965, a Tommy Kirk film appeared in the annual list of the top twenty most popular films in North America every year. It was an astonishing run of commercial successes - The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), The Absent Minded Professor (1961), Bon Voyage (1962), Son of Flubber (1963), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) and The Monkey's Uncle (1965).  In particular, it was Kirk's appeal that propelled the last two films, originally shot for television, to stunning grosses. Yet within a few years he was washed up, basically forgotten.  His story remains one of the least known falls from graces in Hollywood history.

I've long been interested in the career of Tommy Kirk. I would read about Disney as a teen film buff, see that he was in all these hit movies and note he sort of... vanished. He didn't die or retire; he didn't have a famous "tragic child star" end like, say, Bobby Driscoll; he just seemed to become an un-person. There were good (if also horrible) reasons for this, as we shall find out, but his career achievements should definitely be better known and more celebrated.

Kirk was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1941, his family moving to Los Angeles shortly afterwards. Kirk's elder brother Joe wanted to be an actor, and in 1954 attended an audition for Eugene O'Neil's "Ah Wilderness" at the famous Pasadena Playhouse; Tommy decided to tag along. Joe lost his part to Bobby Driscoll, who had just left Disney and was beginning his descent into unemployment, drug addiction and death, but there was another small role available;Tommy auditioned on a whim and wound up cast. He was seen in the production by an agent, and a career was launched.

Tommy Kirk was in heavy demand as an actor almost immediately. Watching his early performances it's easy to see why - he was wide-eyed, gangly, keen and immensely likeable... the very picture of Eisenhower Era American youth, unaffected and natural, surprisingly non-annoying, extremely easy to cast as someone's kid brother, or son, or neighbour. He appeared in countless episodes of TV shows as well as the short feature Down Liberty Road (1956).

It was almost inevitable in a way that the Disney organisation would come calling, and they did, casting Kirk as one of the leads of The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure (1956). This was a serialised adaptation of the famous mystery stories, broadcast in nineteen separate 15-minute installments during episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club; Kirk played Joe Hardy alongside Tim Considine as his brother Frank. Watching the serial today it's a very much an item of its time, but Kirk's performance is a wonder - relaxed, energetic, a complete natural; he's not as conventionally good looking as Considine but he seems more at home on screen. He was the perfect Disney star.

The studio knew it too - they hired Kirk and former Mouseketeer Judy Harriet to attend both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating conventions in 1956 for newsreel specials that later appeared on The Mickey Mouse Show. Kirk never became a mousketeer but he hosted short travelogues and voiced over segments; he and Considine also reprised their roles in The Mystery of Ghost Farm (1957).

Disney then gave Kirk the lead role in Old Yeller (1957), based on Frank Gipson's classic tale of a boy who learns to love a stray mongrel dog... then has to kill him when the dog contracts rabies. While Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker were top billed, it's Kirk's movie all the way - the film is about his character's journey to maturity, having to look after the farm while pa is away, dealing with an annoying brother, as well as the turmoil of Old Yeller.  He does a marvellous job and the film was a big success. It's probably Kirk's best remembered film, achieving some sort of cultural immortality when Billy Murray's character in Stripes (1981) makes everyone admit they cried when Old Yeller got shot. Kevin Corcoran played Kirk's whiny little brother and Disney liked that combination so much the two would be teamed several more times in the future (unfortunately - his performances date less well).

A decade or two earlier Kirk might have been launched as a  star on the basis of Old Yeller alone, but in late 1950s Hollywood the only studio consistently making family films was Disney. Still, he kept busy guesting on television, then Disney called again with The Shaggy Dog (1959), written by Bill Walsh. This is known as a Fred MacMurray movie and MacMurray is top billed but like Old Yeller it's actually Kirk's film - he's the character who turns into a dog and who drives most of the action (the film seems devised so that MacMurray does a little work as possible - he sits down in most scenes and only appears in a few sets). Corcoran, Considine and Annette Funicello also featured.  

The Shaggy Dog was the definition of a "sleeper hit" - Walt Disney had pitched the idea for television and been rejected; annoyed, he shot it as a feature on the backlot in black and white and it grossed a fortune, becoming Disney's most profitable film ever. The movie kicked off a whole bunch of comedies with a slight fantastical element that powered Disney film division for the next two decades. Much of the credit went to MacMurray; a lot of the credit should have gone to Kirk, whose easy-going boy next door charm made him the ideal American teen.

Disney decided to offer Kirk a long term contract and put him in their expensive adventure film, Swiss Family Robinson (1960), directed by Ken Annakin. He, James MacArthur and Corcoran play the very American children of John Mills and Dorothy McGuire who get shipwrecked on a tropical island. While Mills gets top billing, it's Kirk and MacArthur who power the second act, in their love triangle with Janet Munro. Kirk also has the juiciest part, as the one member of the family who wants badly to get off the island. The film was a huge hit, became a deserved classic, and is the movie Kirk remains most proud of today.

Disney reteamed him with Fred MacMurray in The Absent Minder Professor (1961), written by Walsh and directed by Stevenson. Unlike The Shaggy Dog this film genuinely did belong to MacMurray; Kirk's part was relatively small, playing the jock son of Keenan Wynn. The film - surprisingly sly and subversive - was very popular.

Disney kept Kirk busy, putting him in support parts the musical Babes in Toyland (1962), as the geeky assistant of Edd Wynn, and the satirical comedy Moon Pilot (1962). Both these films were box office disappointments and would have been better had Kirk been given more to do - or, come to think of it, played the male lead, instead of Tommy Sands and Tom Tryon respectively. Male actors who excel in light comedy were exceedingly rare, then as now, as Disney was coming to appreciate.

Kirk and Funicello appeared in two TV movies made for Disney's TV show that were released theatrically outside America, both shot in Europe: The Horsemasters (1961), and Escapade in Florence (1962). The Horesemasters, a horse riding drama, was really a vehicle for Janet Munro but Escapade in Florence (1962) very much puts Kirk front and center, and he is charming as an American abroad getting into hijinks with art thieves.  

He was one of the family in Bon Voyage (1962), a comedy written by Walsh about an American family going abroad; MacMurray was dad, Jane Wyman was mom, and Kirk, Corcoran and Deborah Walley played the kids. Kirk has fun as the eldest son, constantly trying to pick up women. It's interesting to contrast his performance with that of Michael Callan, who plays the man chasing Deborah Walley in the same film - when Kirk tries to seduce its hapless and inoffensive but Callan gives off a dangerous, wife-beating vibe. There was a safeness to Kirk that made him immensely appealing to Disney audiences.

Disney put him in  two sequels, Son of Flubber (1963) a follow up to The Absent Minded Professor, playing a bigger role, but still very much second fiddle to Fred MacMurray, and Savage Sam (1963), a sequel to Old Yeller, again with Corcoran. Neither were as good as the originals in quality - both felt pointless, especially Savage Sam, though Kirk's work was professional.

The studio then gave him another vehicle, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), written by Walsh and directed by Stevenson; Kirk played a college student inventor alongside Funicello. This was originally made for TV but Disney decided to release it theatrically in the US  - whereupon the film surprised everyone by being one of the biggest hits of the year, making over $4 million. There was no Fred MacMurray to share the praise this time - Disney knew they had one of the most popular male actors in the country under contract.

Then something happened.
 Kirk was gay. He had an affair with a teenager he met at the local pool; the boy's mother complained to Disney, who fired Kirk. Money counted, but the brand name of Disney counted more.

Still, the news did not make the press and Kirk was snapped up by American International Pictures, who focused on films for the teen audience. They gave him the lead in the fourth Beach Party movie, Pajama Party (1964), reuniting him with Funicello. It's a colourful, lively musical, directed by Don Weis like a comic book, in which Kirk plays a martian who comes to earth; Kirk even sings a duet with Funicello. One of the best of the Beach Party series, it was a box office success and proved the movies did not need Frankie Avalon.

AIP signed Kirk for a follow up with Funicello, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), and Gene Corman wanted him for another teen movie, Beach Ball (1965). Most notably, Disney called him back to make a Merlin Jones sequel, The Monkey's Uncle (1965). Following that he was going to co star with John Wayne and Dean Martin in a Western, The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) -a film that would give him exposure to a new kind of mass audience; it would also be the first feature he would make for a major Hollywood studio outside Disney (Paramount). Kirk, it seemed, had dodged a bullet.

Then something happened again.

On Christmas Eve 1964 Kirk was arrested for suspicion of possession of marijuana at a house in Hollywood... and this did make the newspapers. The district attorney's office subsequently refused to file a complaint against him on the marijuana charge but the city attorney's office filed an illegal drugs charge because police officers found a vial of barbiturates in Kirk's car. This charge was dismissed by a judge in early January 1965 when Kirk's attorney established that the barbiturates had been prescribed by a physician.

A drug arrest scandal was survivable in Hollywood, even back then, especially if it suited your image - Robert Mitchum's imprisonment for marijuana possession in 1948 arguably helped his career. But it was trickier if you were meant to be the all American boy. Kirk was replaced on Wild Bikini by Dwayne Hickman, on Beach Ball by Edd Byrnes and on Katie Elder by Michael Anderson Jnr.

When the noise died down, Kirk found he could still get work, especially since The Money's Uncle (1965), released after the drug bust, proved to be another hit. AIP brought him back into the fold for The Weird World of Dr Goldfoot (1965) on TV and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), with Walley and Weis. Bert I. Gordon gave him the lead in Village of the Giants (1965) alongside Beau Bridges, and he got leads in movies that tail ended the beach party cycle, like Catalina Caper (1967) and It's a Bikini World (1967) with Walley.

Maybe Kirk could have turned it around.  There was demand in Hollywood for bright young leading men all through the late sixties and seventies - Kirk could have taken roles played by Beau Bridges, say, or even Dean Jones - every Dean Jones part at Disney (eg The Love Bug) feels as though it was originally written for Tommy Kirk. The Dexter Reiley college films with Kurt Russell (The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes, etc) could have starred Kirk. Even if Disney hadn't taken him back he could have reinvented himself as a counter-culture figure, like Dean Stockwell, or a character actor like Roddy McDowell. He could have segued into television, like Tim Considine, or become an executive, like Kevin Corcoran.

But that drug arrest? It wasn't a one off mistake. By the mid 60s Kirk had developed a serious drug problem which was badly affecting his life. It didn't help that in a period in his career when he needed to take stock - do some theatre, say, or hold out and audition for a supporting role in a really good movie - he kept taking gigs as leading men in low budget pictures. He made two films in Texas for the legendary Larry Buchanan, Mars Needs Women (1967) and It's Alive (1969), did the insane LSD comedy Unkissed Bride (1966) and made a little-seen car racing film, Track of Thunder. By the time of It's Alive Kirk was looking physically unwell on screen. He did two films for Duke Kelly, Ride the Whirlwind (1971) - a weird biker-slash-My Lai drama, and My Name is Legend (1975), a Western that was never released, and the legendary-in-its-own-way Al Adamson horror film, Blood of Ghastly Horror (1971). He spent all his money, and became near unemployable.

The story does have a happy ending. By the mid 70s Kirk managed to kick drugs, avoiding a Bobby Driscoll style finale to his life. He set up his own carpet cleaning business and made a living out of that for twenty years, enabling him retire. He received occasional acting offers, notably from Fred Olen Ray who had a soft spot for actors from yesteryear. He began to appear regularly on the convention circuit, and outlived contemporaries such as Funicello, Walley and Corcoran.

I met Tommy Kirk at an autograph show a year ago. He was reflective, polite, philosophical, clearly well read - he quoted Wordsworth and Coleridge. He spoke with great affection and admiration for Bill Walsh, Robert Stevenson and Fred MacMurray, wasn't overly fond of the beach party movies he starred in, and expressed no desire to get back into acting.

I think Tommy Kirk was a screen natural who found the perfect studio for his skills at Disney - but he did it at at time when he had things to figure out about himself. It took him a decade to figure them out, but he did. Maybe he didn't fulfill his cinematic potential but his CV still has a plenty of great performances on it.

Movie review - "Lord Love a Duck" (1966) **1/2

Tuesday Weld's two biggest cult films from the 60s, Lord Love a Duck and Pretty Poison both have her as a gorgeous teen sociopath with a troublesome mother who is adored by a psycho played by an older actor who was gay in real life. Here Roddy McDowall impersonates a high school student, hung up on Weld.

Is McDowall the oldest actor to play a high school student? Probably not. But he really seems old. So does Tuesday to be honest.

This film goes for it - it's helter skelter and mocks a lot of people. It's uncomfortable to watch in places - Weld flirts sexually with her father, there's talk of bras, it has a leering 60s feel. It's a bit smart ass and the theme song is played too much.

The cast is strong including Ruth Gordon. I wasn't wild about this, though I'm aware people love it. Weld is fun.