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 - "The Big Doll House" (1971) *** (re-watching)

 Fun. Ticks all the boxes for the genre. Vicious lesbian guard. Showers. Mud wrestling. Escape. Revolutionaries. Third world setting. All the characters are different. It's made with energy. Star turns from Pam Grier, Roberta Collins. Sid Haig fun. The movie works.  Stephanie Rothman had the film rewritten by Don Spencer - I wonder what her contribution was.

It's a shame she and Jack Hill seem to clash.

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 - "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 - "The Student Teachers" (1973) *** (re-watching)

 Liked this more the second time. Appreciated the energy, pace, politics, feminism, attractive cast. It's a bit more pervy than the others and lacks a top level star. I didn't like the two rape sequences but it gives the film a story.  Everyone is trying their best, they throw themselves into it. A healthy attitude to sex apart from the rape stuff; that is depicted as bad it's just unpleasant. Joyously silly shoot out at the end.

Stephanie Rothman apparently wrote an early draft.

Movie review - "Gas" (1970) ** (re-watching)

 Thoughts

- Corman off the leash - no point in AIP changing the ending because it's all mad

- it hates bikers and jocks - Corman doesn't like these people, they're all bad-  it's not anti youth just anti fascist youth

- it likes the free spirited young kids

- Robert Corf scores hot women including a sex scene like The Trip

- there's rape and rape jokes

- it has black characters but Corman feels uneasy with them and any miscegenation is dispensed with

- the sadness/dramatic issues inherit in the concept are ignored

- the hippy commune is sympathetically depicted

- some lines are genuinely hilarious and it looks good (lots of extras) but it's a mess

Movie review - "Blood Bath" (1966) (re-watching) **

 I previously reviewed the Track of the Vampire version of this - this one is Blood Bath, shorter at 60 minutes. You need Tim Lucas to talk through the versions.

There's an opening, stylishly shot vampire murder. That's Stephanie Rothman. Beatniks in a bar - that's Jack Hill. There's two girls chatting. One girl goes and dances on the beach, Sandra Knight (this is Rothman). Then the other girl, Marissa Mathes, meets artist William Campbell. He kills her. I think that's Hill. But also he turns into a vampire. Which is Rothman.

Basically vampire = Rothman and artist Campbell = Hill. I'm not sure how much Yugoslavian stuff remains. 

It's confusing. The two stories don't mesh (if Campbell didn't return they should have had a Campbell plus a vampire... or had a second psycho). I know why Hill is frustrated Rothman made the changes but also I think his stuff involved a little too much comedy at the beatnik store - I'm assuming that's all mostly Hill.

Still, the sheer novelty of this film is fascinating. The directors, Corman, the cast - which includes Sandra Knight (Mrs Jack Nicholson) and Jonathan Haze, who were both in The Terror (a more satisfactory patchwork quilt). You've got Sid Haig. The photography is genueinly beautiful. The ending genuinely dumb. Movies!

Movie review - "Starhops" (1978) *1/2 (re-watching)

 I wonder what Julie Corman, Stephanie Rothman and Barbara Peeters all thought of each other. Rivals? Friends?

Rothman wrote this script but it was rewritten so she took her name off it. Barbara Peeters directed. Steve Zaillian edited.

This isn't good. It has some cohesian - three girls defending their restaurant - but feels padded, with scenes of sunset and a disco. It's hard to tell the girls apart - especially as they're often wearing the one costume. One has a German accent I guess. Slabs of the action turn to a guy, who is going undercover to get dirt on the restaurant, which is annoying.

Normally in these films you get some social conscience. There's none here. Or some genuine sexiness. Again, none.

There's high spirits, I guess. Peeters made a great three girls film with Summer School Teachers. I wonder what happened here.

Top Ten Three Girl Movies

 (I'm also including ones with four girls)

1) Three on a Match

2) How to Marry a Millionaire

3) Where the Boys Are

4) The Student Nurses

5) Summer School Teachers

6) Valley of the Dolls

7) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

8) Hollywood Boulevard

9) Night Call Nurses

10) 9 to Five

Movie review - "The Working Girls" (1974) ** (re-watching)

 Full of life and pep and some interesting things, positive female stuff, nude men. But really lacks focus. It's about three girls who live together and that's it and it's all very light when it really needs some hard edged social stuff. Rothman movies work best when they mix tones, IMHO.

The girls lack connection. Glue. They needed to have done the same job or be sisters or old college friends or from the same town. It's just two flat mates and a third girl joins them and the third girl leaves. Good natured. Fun. Silly. Just a bit slap dash.

There's no camraderie. One girl steals the other one's guy straight away. Yes the girl rescues her from the beach and later the girls say "we've got your back" to Honey when she meets a mystery guy. But we don't see it. There's no uniting for the cause like the abortion sequence.

I like the gangster and strip club manager subplot. But it was undeveloped. So was the artist and the fence.

Also Honey the blonde girl was struggling to get work... but she's a maths genius. Wouldn't she get something?

At its heart the film should be Honey the blonde being wacky, the artist being sexy/socially conscious, and the stripper being gangster-escapey. There's no social relevance here. 

It's still got interesting things but it lacks focus and I'm not sure Rothman's heart was in it.

Movie review - "Group Marriage" (1973) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Cheerful sex comedy from Stephanie Rothman has the same basic problem of Terminal Island - too many characters, too much going on that doesn't tie in to a central theme - but also many of the benefits - a positive nature, plenty of forward momentum, an attractive cast.

The film is at its best in embracing of sex and colour and movement. Maybe it would have been better had it focused on just the girls. Or turned more serious. I think The Student Nurses works well because it goesdserious and while I know Rothman wanted to make a comedy a bit more seriousness like the house being trashed sequence would have worked. Or even more serious sex like when Jennings does it with Zac Taylor.

I actually like the Zach Taylor-Claudia Jennings subplot - he's upset she's representing his ex wife - because it's serious. The film could have dug into that more. Maybe met the ex wife.

The f- gay slur word is used but the two gay characters are depicted positively.

Best actors are Claudia Jennings and Solomon Sutrges. Jennings' has star factor. Aimee Eccles is cute. The women are stunning - well, Eccles more girl next door but extremely likeable (I love how she's the driving force), and Jennings and Victoria Vetri are goddesses. Zach Taylor is handsome and Sturges charismatic. The guy who plays the parole offier

There are too many subplots though. One about a prisoner who is a client of the probationary officer feels extraneous. Like if you want that make him one of the group marriage. Or could have been a she (could conflict with the lawyer then). Or actually just dropped it.Claudia Jennings could have easily handled a social welfare subplot.

Actually just thinking about the film I feel it might have been stronger had Rothman dug into the archetypes of the leads more. Aimee Eccles the funny one, Vetri the sexy free spirit, Jennings the political one. It's kind of there but could have been more. That screen time devoted to the parole officer could have been devoted to Vetri struggling with the constraints of the group, Eccles' sexual shenanigans and Jennings' political activity. Making it more of a three girl films could have given it more focus.

Movie review - "Terminal Island" (1973) **1/2 (re-watching)

 I've seen this three times now. Still have the same issues. Too many characters. They look and sound an act alike.

Would have been better had it focused just on four women on the island.  There are the four women but also all these men.

Still plenty of interesting themes. Lots going on. Plenty of action.

Book review - "Flim Flam" by Larry McMurtry

 Collection of essays on movies by McMurtry mostly from the 70s which McMurtry finds a lot to gripe about. Some interesting takes on film critics and theorists - I wasn't that wild about his thoughts on movies - he doesn't like Keith Carradine. Not really great analyst. I did like his enthusiasms and his pieces on his own films especially Picture Show and Loving Molly (he gets stuck into Sidney Lumet).  Last chapter from the 80s is about his friendship with Diane Keaton. He chats briefly about some odd films like Velvet Vampire (in a piece on Times Square) and Istanbul with Errol Flynn. Criticises his own plot for Hud.

Movie review - "The Student Nurses" (1970) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Random comments:

- so much fun with its feisty attitude and late 60s references (love ins, police brutality, drugs, Vietnam)

- lots of hot guys and gals - people are attractive

- strong male roles - blonde doctor who helps with abortion, revolutionary, dying guy - women films have storng male roles

- bad make up on dying guy and silly running around scene

- hot sex scenes on beach

- acting ability varies but people are attractive

- genuine friendship and camraderie (helping one get an abortion)

- terrific abortion sequence

- the girls make their decisions at the end: Karen Carlson likes the blonde doctor but stucks to her guns and dumps him, Elaine Giftos heads off to Vietnam, Brioni Farrell goes on the lam

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 revie - "Terminal Island" (1973) ** (re-watching)

 Fantastic central idea not really exploited to its full potential. It's set in the near future where society puts all it's convicts on an island. 

This suffers from having too many characters to follow. The Student Nurses always went back to its main four but this one is all over. There are good convicts and bad ones.

The good convicts include Ena Hartman, who looks like she's going to be the lead but then drops out (apparently she was injured during filming), Barbara Leigh the stunner from Student Nurses, Marta Kristen.

The baddies include Roger Mosely from Magnum.

There's a lot of bang bang at the end. Not very sexy despite opportunitis to do so. Just too many characters.

Movie review - "The Velvet Vampire" (1971) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Stephanie Rothman's next film after Student Nurses didn't enjoy the same success, maybe because it was too arty. It's still full of interest.

Celeste Yarnall is a vampire who entices couple Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles to her place in the desert. Yarnell is enigmatic and beautiful, everything you want in a vampire. She can walk around in the sunlight so the rules are flexible here.

There's some trippy dream sequences reminiscent of the drug scenes in Student Nurses.I liked the atmosphere and the performances of Yarnell and Blodgett. Miles lets the side down.

Silly logic issues in the last act with people following people and it doesn't make sense. Probably should've kept them in the desert.

Movie review - "The Student Nurses" (1970) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers) (re-watching)

Film that still really hasn't gotten its due, a look at four nurses at a hospital and their various adventures. They have been well cast, look different - while acting ability varies all are beautiful and have screen presence.

Karen Carlson is the blonde one, who has a fling with a doctor - she accidentally sleeps with another doctor by mistake, but it's her decision, and she gets annoyed when the doctor is annoyed by it. She has a terrific character, a sex liking woman who dislikes death. She's anti abortion and clashes with her doctor boyfriend. This conflict is strong, well motivated, and empathetically depicted.

Barbara Leigh doesn't want to wear a bra and has a fling with new age druggie Richard Rust (a snob food eater). Rust has a decent role to play - a health food nut with his hippy drug dealing point of view, this is a three dimensional part. Their relationship is very believable. The whole abortion sequence is amazing - matter of fact, powerful. Leigh has to give evidence to a shrink, the head nurse is sympathetic ("get a good one), Carlson's doctor boyfriend helps upsetting Carlson. It's amazing filmmaking still so frank.

Brioni Farrell is a Latina and she gets political, having an affair with an activist. This is more standard. Her consciousness is raised... she gets radical. The political aspects are interesting. It's just more stock.

Elaine Giftos is a sweet young thing who cares for a terminally ill patient. She has to run around a garden, they fall for each other. Again this feels a little more stock - nothing Giftos does wrong.

The running time is padded out with montages but they are of the time and place eg a music festival so it's of cultural interest.

The women are supportive of each other - Farrell and Giftos help Leigh have an abortion, which Carlson opposes but Carlson doesn't get angry at Leigh more her boyfriend. 

Very satisfactory ending - Leigh becomes a nurse, Carlson dislikes it so decides to become a receptionist, Farrell goes on the run, Giftos goes to Vietnam. Farrell is the only one with a man and even that looks like it's going to be casual.

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 - "Beach Ball" (1965) ***

Edd Byrnes must wonder what he could have done differently when Kookie in 77 Sunset Strip was the rage of teenagers throughout the nation. He popped up in Yellowstone Kelly but fought with Warners and by the time he left the show he was less of a hot property.

This gave him a leading role though it was a beach movie. However it is bright and cheerful with some excellent songs - The Righteous Brothers, the Supremes, the Hondells.

The same team made The Girls on the Beach and this is similar in many ways - the plot's about raising money, it involves four girls and four guys, there's a cop played by Dick Miller, a finale involving people in drag and the crowd don't seem to notice - but it's better because the dramatic lines are cleaner. The girls are nerds, the guys are in a band, the girls want the guys to go back to college, the guys want money for their instruments.

Byrnes and Chris Noel are a strong lead duo and Aron Kincaid good in support. Stephanie Rothman directed second unit.