Muscle Beach Party was released by American International Pictures on March 25, 1964
Director: William Asher
Muscle Beach Party cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Luciana Paluzzi, John Ashley, and Don Rickles
Musical guests: Stevie Wonder and Donna Loren
With the surprise success of Beach Party, AIP was quick to repackage it as Muscle Beach Party and get it out to theaters within a matter of months. Usually, with that sort of haste, quality suffers, but with the bar set so low (dramatically speaking), there just wasn’t much that could be done to damage the movie’s appeal. Audiences hardly noticed it was the same movie with a few cast substitutions. Once again, free-wheeling Frankie clashes with matrimonially minded Annette only to re-unite after the (now routine) soft-paw, bar fight climax. Part of the fun of this film is watching the background performers struggle to “act natural” amidst the goings-on in this wildly un-natural beach farce. Even Frankie has to occasionally confess to the audience/camera his own sense of incredulity. Still, everyone on screen seems to be enjoying themselves, and that alone smooths over a lot of wrinkles. Everyone gets an A for effort!
Featured Califormulants
During the opening credits, Frankie, Annette, and the rest of the gang make their entrance (along a suburban stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu) in a red model-T tourer, followed by a fire engine, a woody, a T-bucket, and a flatbed Ford truck to provide a mobile performance space for Dick Dale and the Deltones. A small grouping of Malibu beach cottages can periodically be seen, which were used for the exterior shots. The surfing scenes (at least those taken at Malibu and performed by the local pros) accurately capture the early 60s longboard era.
Persons of Interest
This would be Dick Dale’s last appearance in a beach party film. The split was possibly initiated over AIP’s refusal to use some of Dale’s own songs in the score.
FYI
This would be the last beach party film in which surfing was presented as the central sporting activity. It was also the last film where Annette would lay hands upon a surfboard or dip her toes in the wet.