scm-84771 You would have had to have grown up with these incredibility corny movies to find them even mildly interesting. I did. But the one take-away was when the native girl says to Frankie " here on the island, we have a saying 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". Now, did I hear that correctly? Sure enough, next scene, 'Cassandra" says the exact same line at the beach party. Now did Stephen Stills really get this line from Billy Preston for his first solo hit single? "Love the One You're With" Or did he watch this movie five years earlier and forget where he first heard this line?

Uriah43 In this 6th (but not last) movie of the beach series, "Frankie" (Frankie Avalon) has enlisted in the Navy Reserves and is stationed in the South Pacific on the island of "Guna Guna". Although his assignment is only temporary he has still managed to attract a lovely "Native Girl" (Irene Tsu) to keep him occupied. Although he sees nothing wrong in his fooling around he suddenly becomes worried that his girlfriend "Dee Dee" (Annette Funicello) might possibly find another boyfriend too. So to allay his concerns he pays a visit to a witch doctor named "Bwana" (Buster Keaton) to get him to concoct a spell to keep Dee Dee faithful. Bwana then creates a woman named "Cassandra" (Beverly Adams) who no man can resist and teleports her to the beach where Dee Dee hangs out. He also casts another spell which allows him to see through the eyes of a pelican and has it follow Dee Dee wherever she goes. Unfortunately, Bwana mixed up his ingredients when making the spell and because of that things begin to go a little haywire. Now as far as this particular film is concerned I personally believe that it is one of the better beach movies produced. It had a couple of interesting songs, fairly decent acting and some pretty good humor throughout. I especially liked the scenes involving "Eric Von Zipper" (Harvey Limbeck) and his motorcycle gang. Likewise, having two beautiful actresses like Beverly Adams and Irene Tsu certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I rate this movie as slightly above average. On a side note, I should probably mention that even though this is the last movie to have either Frankie Avalon or Annette Funicello, American International Pictures (AIP) filmed one last beach movie titled "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" prior to halting production. How unfortunate.

preppy-3 The second to last Beach Party movie. In this one Frankie Avalon is separated from Annette Funicello by being in the Naval Reserve. While on an island he gets a witch doctor (Buster Keaton!) to see if Annette is being faithful to him. Keaton sends a pelican (???) to spy on Annette. Meanwhile handsome, attractive Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) is hitting on her. Then there's Mickey Rooney looking for the boy next door and girl next door for an ad campaign.Even for a beach party movie this is pretty desperate. Funicello looks way too old to be hanging out at the beach (and her pregnancy is clearly visible); the dialogue is more inane than usual; the songs are (to be nice) terrible; the jokes are stubbornly unfunny; Hickman is as bland as they come (even worse than Chris O'Donnell); Harvey Lembeck returns as the incredibly unfunny Eric von Zipper; the "comical" motorcycle race at the end is incredibly stupid; and it's kind of sad seeing Keaton and Rooney reduced to this. Still, this is kind of fun in a silly sort of way. It's not even remotely good but I kept watching. The Claymation opening is fun and I did laugh out loud at the "Bewitched" joke at the end. Also this is perfect for young kids. So it's not good but it's harmless. It's certainly better than the next (and last) beach party movie "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"!

Skragg Like Jackie19, it's nearly my least favorite of the beach movies, but luckily, that isn't much of an insult. Along with all the regular actors, there are the great guest actors. Buster Keaton's witch doctor (along with Bobbi Shaw's native girl) may not be the most enlightened image of a Polynesian, but he manages to be very funny in the part. (I'm sure plenty of people see these movies as a big, embarrassing step down for people like him, but I see no good reason why.) And of course, Irene Tsu as the girl who tries to tempt Frankie. Then, there's Len Lesser, who's just about as great a comical villain in this one as Timothy Carey is in Beach Blanket Bingo. And of course, Mickey Rooney. Someone mentioned the "touching her boob" bit that he gets away with, but one of his scenes also has a fairly funny gay joke. Rooney asks one of the surfers (someone in that scene alone) if he's seen the exciting girl that so much of the film is about, the one that all the boys are crazy about, and the character says in a lisping voice, "Certainly not!"