Bikini Beach (1964)

Simply A Masterpiece

A different way of telling a story

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Evil Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Keenan Wynn of "The Mechanic") does not want teenage surfers cavorting around on the beach near his retirement home for oldsters and sets out to write a smear campaign against them until high school teacher Vivian Clements (Martha Hyer of Some Came Running") comes to their rescue. Honeywagon complains that the girls run around half naked with boys in bathing suits and no chaperons in sight. Furthermore, Honeywagon plans to make them look bad with his talented chimpanzee Clyde (Janos Prohanska of "Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You"), who can not only ride a surf board but also serves as a chauffeur for his wealthy but prudish boss. Incidentally, before his tragic death in 1972, Prohanska made a career out of dressing up in an obviously ersatz simian outfit on "Gilligan's Island," "Star Trek," and other shows. The wholesome teens in question are Frankie (Frankie Avalon of "The Alamo") and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello of "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones") and their gang, including Deadhead (Jody McCrea of "Gunsight Ridge")who are out of school for the summer. Meanwhile, a new arrival on the beach is the fabulous British rocker Potato Bug (Frankie Avalon in a dual role) and he turns Dee Dee on so she flirts with him. Of course, Frankie turns green-eyed and tries to figure out a way to get his gal back."Bikini Beach" was the third entry in the BEACH movies that co-starred Frankie and Annette. No "Beach Party" movie would be complete with their nemesis, the infamous Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck of "Stalag 17") and his black-leather clad motorcycle gang the Rats and the Mice trying to thwart the antics of our heroes and heroines. The Potato Bug challenges Frankie to a drag race and Von Zipper and his cretins set out to sabotage the race. None of this sets too well with the raceway owner Big Drag (Don Rickles of "Kelly's Heroes") who dabbles in art. Basically, the plots for these sand, sun, and surf sagas revolved around Frankie and Dee Dee making each other jealous and their lame-brained pal Deadhead making a fool out of himself in his hillbilly hat. Believe it or not, it took three scribes to scrawl this hilarious nonsense. One of them was William Asher who directed over 100 episode of the classic Lucille Ball television comedy "I Love Lucy." The bikini-clad babes are visual eye-candy and there is a cameo appearance by a famous horror movie star at the end.Mind you, "Bikini Beach" has all the depth of a bed pan, but the antics are so silly and stupid that you may wet yourself laughing. Perennial villain Timothy Carey of "One-Eyed Jacks" makes another appearance as pool hustler South Dakota Slim and Stevie Wonder does a sing-on as Little Stevie Wonder. Ironically enough, the Beatles were supposed to appear in "Bikini Beach," but they hit it so big that their fee skyrocketed and Asher replaced them with a character that spoofed them. Indeed, "Bikini Beach" is an acquired taste like all the 1960 era teenage "Beach" party movies from American International Pictures. Incredibly, the Frankie & Annette beach party movies were a spin-off of the "Gidget" movies with the parents taken out of the mix. Despite the prominence of surfing in most of these movies, only Clyde the Ape surfs in this movie. Clearly, the name of the Keenan Wynn character was an movie inside joke because a honeywagon in Hollywood parlance is a toilet trailer.

This sequel to MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964) is only slightly better: much of the teen cast returns, as well as Don Rickles (but, having now forsaken muscle-men for drag-strip racing) and even Stevie Wonder. We do get a number of new faces – eminent publisher Keenan Wynn (with a practiced simian in tow, he's intent on demonstrating that the youth of today have regressed to pretty much its primitive state!) and schoolteacher Martha Hyer constituting more or less the normal people (they start out as opponents but gradually come to understand and love one another), Harvey Lembeck as the overage leader of a motorcycle gang called Eric Von Zipper (actually, this character had already featured in BEACH PARTY [1963]: here, he's prone to falling victim, by his own hand, of Peter Lorre's paralysis-by-touch technique seen at the end of the previous film) and Timothy Carey (appearing very briefly as a pool-playing eccentric who has a werewolf, fitted with a leather jacket, for a sidekick!).There's even a second role for Frankie Avalon – doubling as a legendary mop-top and gap-toothed (essentially a cross between The Beatles and Terry-Thomas!) British singer/racer…and, then, there's that great final gag involving Boris Karloff (seen a couple of times from behind throughout but only revealed at the very end as an art dealer interested in Rickles' abstract collection, quipping that he ought to tell his pal Vincent Price – noted for his taste in fine art and at the time also contracted to AIP – about it!). It's these quasi-surreal elements – including the monkey driving Wynn's car (to the recurring consternation of two traffic cops) as well as a dragster, and even doing a bit of surf…but extending to the final credits as blonde-with-powerful-hips Candy Johnson is joined in her wild dance by an aged member of Wynn's old folks' home! – which render the film that much more enjoyable than its predecessor. Otherwise, we get a lot of the same shtick as before – though the beach scenes themselves are thankfully downplayed here; the climax, then, involves a Keystone Kops-type chase which culminates in yet another gratuitous bit of brawling slapstick (this time occurring at Rickles' pseudo-beatnik joint).Again, the songs are far from classics but, all in all, the film retains some interest (not least in the contribution of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, production designer Daniel Haller and composer Les Baxter – all of them synonymous with Roger Corman's contemporaneous horror films based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe!) in particular for characterizing the transition between two trends in youth-oriented pictures i.e. the Juvenile Delinquent films of the 1950s and the Counter-Culture efforts (advocating drug use and Free Love) that would prevail soon after

There's one thing it took me forever to notice about this series. In the early movies, they smoke and drink (beer, at least). In this one, "Big Drag" makes a point of saying that he doesn't sell liquor or cigarettes to the surfers. This might be before the phrase "role model" really took off, but maybe they were trying to get on the good side of parents. It might not be mentioned here, but "Clyde" the chimpanzee is played by Janos Prohaska, an actor who specialized in playing apes and monsters (he wore the same suit in a famous Outer Limits episode). One of Don Rickles best moments is when Keenan Wynnn is lecturing him - you really have to watch the frown on his face, because even for Rickles, it's hilarious. And Harvey Lembeck had some of his best moments of the series, when he becomes "strange bedfellows" with Wynn's character, then feels betrayed when Wynn sides with Martha Hyer - "It's a regular Delilah and Simpson!" I don't think anyone here has mentioned the cameo at the end, which, as usual, was by a horror actor. The man whose face is never shown (in other scenes) walks in during the fight between the surfers and the motorcycle gang, and it turns out to be Boris Karloff. He says a few lines, looks around at the fighting and says, "Monsters."

We red-blooded males who followed Annette Funicello's career from the time she was a nubile Mousketeer will be especially enamored of "Bikini Beach," a superior entry in the, admittedly, mediocre "Beach Party" series. For once, Annette gets to play smart, sexy and slightly dangerous, possessing more than a passing interest in sex. Gone, thank goodness, is her usual "Doris Day with mild PMS" persona. I have a strong suspicion this is closer to the "real" Annette, here. I certainly hope so. Even Annette's singing is very good. I wish AIP would've sprung for the bucks to give "Bikini" better choreography. Annette, a trained dancer would have impressed even more. Annette's swimsuit is even more revealing than usual, about as close to a bikini as "Papa Disney" would allow her to wear.While the script, as usual, plays as if it were cribbed from the back of a cereal box, the gentle ribbing of British rock stars, modern art and drag racing are a welcome change from the usual "Beach Party" dross. Martha Hyer is along and provides some classy, mature-sexy glamor. "Bikini" even has a cameo by a very young Stevie Wonder. While Frankie Avalon won't win any acting awards, his alter-ego, "Potato Bug" is certainly a less annoying character than Mike Meyers' execrable "Austin Powers". Even Don Rickles is along, playing a character named "Big Drag," a gentle pun on Don "Big Daddy" Garlits, a well-known drag racer and auto customizer of the era. Too bad, Rickles doesn't get to cut lose with his usual wise guy humor. Guess AIP was too cheap to spring for that.While no work of art, "Bikini Beach" is more than just watchable. It's actually, at times, enjoyable. I give "Bikini Beach" a weak "6".