Bikini Beach (1964)

Director:

William Asher

Writers:

William Asher (writer)
Robert Dillon (writer)

Release Date:

22 July 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

It's where every torso is more so, and bare-as-you-dare is the rule!

Plot:

A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.

Plot Keywords:

Millionaire | Beach | Motorcycle | Motorcycle Gang | Chase

Cast

Frankie Avalon	...	Frankie / Potato Bug
Annette Funicello	...	Dee Dee
Martha Hyer	...	Vivian Clements
Don Rickles	...	Big Drag
Harvey Lembeck	...	Eric Von Zipper
John Ashley	...	Johnny
Jody McCrea	...	Deadhead
Candy Johnson	...	Candy
Danielle Aubry	...	Lady Bug
Meredith MacRae	...	Animal
Delores Wells	...	Sniffles
Paul Smith	...	Cop #1
James Westerfield	...	Cop #2
Donna Loren	...	Donna
Stevie Wonder	...	Himself (as Little Stevie Wonder)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Danielle Aubry's voice was dubbed by director 'William Asher (I)''s wife Elizabeth Montgomery

Quotes:

Frankie: Baby, I think we associate with a very unstable group.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Drive-in Movie Memories (2001)

Soundtrack:

Happy Feeling (Dance and Shout)

BIKINI BEACH (William Asher, 1964) **1/2

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…