The Beach Party takes to the sky
Beach Blanket Bingo was released by American International Pictures on April 14, 1965.
Director: William Asher
Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Don Rickles, Jody McCrea, Paul Lind, Linda Evans, and Marta Kristen.
Musical Guests: The Hondells
The film starts out in freefall, with a skydiving publicity stunt meant to keep new pop star “Sugar Kane” in the public eye, and never regains altitude.
Non-singer Linda Evans (later of the Big Valley and Dynasty) plays the singer who never met a promo scheme she didn’t think was “marvey,” and pre-Lost in Space star, Marta Kristen, plays, Lorelei, the mermaid who actually has legs some of the time; and I should probably stop right there, but there’s so much more.
Frankie (who’s “small but wiry”) and Annette (who’s still the marrying kind), try skydiving and then use the instructors (played by ex-Gidget girl Deborah Walley, and ex-beach party bro John Ashley), to make each other jealous—again.
And right on cue, Von-Zipper and his middle-aged delinquents clash with the surfers and we wind it all up with a the mild-mannered bar fight, a kidnaping, and a murder mystery, followed by slam-bang, Perils of Pauline finish.
The earnest performances still lack polish, and the stories still lack credibility. Honestly, there just aren’t any words that can satisfactorily elucidate this beachy pastiche. As with all the beach party films, you just have to see it to believe it.
Featured Califormulants
The gang convenes at another rustic, Malibu beach house where all the sand-dancing takes place, but there’s only one real surf shot in the whole picture.
The surfin’/rod-rockin’ Hondells, or somebody playing the Hondells (they were a studio creation), serve as Sugar’s backup band.
The only automobiles of note are a couple of 56 Chevy convertibles, one of which gets run off a cliff—ouch!
FYI
This would be Frankie Avalon’s final appearance in a beach party film as a principal player. In the next installment, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, he would appear in only a few scenes. As I recall, he’s only allowed six minutes of screen time in the whole thing.
The house band this time out, the Hondells, weren’t really a band at all. They were a constantly fluctuating group of studio musicians, known as The Wrecking Crew, lead by surf/rod rock producer Gary Usher.
Don Rickles, a comic known for harshly, but good-naturedly, abusing his audience, is allowed to take a few swipes at Frankie and Annette.
Bonus Tracks
Here’s the not so very cleaver opening credits and title song for Beach Blanket Bingo.
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