Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires ... See full summary »

Director:

William Asher

Writers:

William Asher, Leo Townsend

Stars:

Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Frankie Avalon	...	Frankie
Annette Funicello	...	Dee Dee
Deborah Walley	...	Bonnie Graham
Harvey Lembeck	...	Eric Von Zipper
John Ashley	...	Steve Gordon
Jody McCrea	...	Bonehead
Donna Loren	...	Donna
Marta Kristen	...	Lorelei
Linda Evans	...	Sugar Kane
Timothy Carey	...	South Dakota Slim
Don Rickles	...	Big Drop
Paul Lynde	...	Bullets
Donna Michelle	...	Animal
Michael Nader	...	Butch (as Mike Nader)
Patti Chandler	...	Patti

Storyline

In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.

---

Plot Keywords:

mermaid | publicity stunt | publicity | motorcycle | beach party | 

---

Taglines:

It's the game that separates the girls and the boys...into groups of two!

---

Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

MGM Studios [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 April 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Folias na Praia

Filming Locations:

Leo Carrillo State Beach - 35000 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alta Vista Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robin Ward (real name Jackie Ward) did the singing for Linda Evans. Ward's female background vocals heard in the film are by The Blossoms.

---

Goofs

When Bonehead sees Lorelei on the beach with her legs, in the front view shots her hands are behind her back and in the back view shots her hands are down at her sides.

---

Quotes

Bonehead: Lorelei, do you know about the Birds and the Bees?
Lorelei: No.
Bonehead: Well, I better get out of here or you're going to find out.

---

Connections

References Beach Party (1963)

---

Soundtracks

"These Are the Good Times"
(uncredited)
Music and Arrangements by Jerry Styner
Lyrics by Guy Hemric
Sung by Frankie Avalon

User Reviews

BEACH BLANKET BINGO (William Asher, 1965) ***

The fifth entry in the "Beach Party" series is universally acknowledged as the best of the lot. Having watched three such films in quick succession, I have to agree: it's not that those concerned made a concentrated effort at creating something more accomplished than before, but just that all the various elements (while others were dropped or altered) seemed to be more evenly balanced here to produce a generally more satisfying result. Incidentally, not only is the script wittier than usual – but even the songs are kinda pleasant this time around…

Plotwise, we still get Frankie (Avalon) and Annette (Funicello) bickering – but, rather than because one of them is being 'preyed' upon by an interloper, both of them are in this case (and, coming via members of a skydiving troupe who're supposed to instruct the "Beach" gang in just that type of sport, creates a few welcome sparks of high-flying tension). As always, the manager of the exciting but potentially dangerous 'entertainment' is played by Don Rickles – whose character name, or moniker, has gone from Jack Fanny in MUSCLE BEACH PARTY to "Big Drag" in BIKINI BEACH (both 1964) to "Big Drop" in this one! Annette's fling, then, is John Ashley (usually seen as a surfer!) while Frankie's is spunky Deborah Walley (whom I recently watched in the Elvis Presley vehicle SPINOUT [1966]) – since Ashley and Walley were married to one another at the time, I guess this is why they made the former a rival to Frankie instead of a pal for this particular entry!

Another important change in the nonsensically-titled BEACH BLANKET BINGO (by the way, exuberant dancing blonde Candy Johnson – easily the most resistible element in the two earlier films from the series that I watched, is nowhere to be seen in this one!) concerns the character played by Jody McCrea: while his nickname has unaccountably gone from "Deadhead" to "Bonehead", he's now given two separate romances (which means that his former grating comic relief persona has been considerably diluted). The first involves singing starlet Linda Evans (miles removed from her signature role in the 1980s TV series DYNASTY!), ostensibly engaged in a skydiving stunt to promote her current record but actually doubled by Walley, and the other with real mermaid Marta Kristen, who's really the one that saved McCrea from drowning but the feat is once again attributed to the naïve but spoilt Evans by her conniving and sardonic manager Paul Lynde! While we do get an appearance from another screen giant here – comic genius Buster Keaton, then going through a much-deserved renaissance – this is rightly credited at the very start instead of relegated to the end credits, since it's a relatively bigger role than either of Peter Lorre's or Boris Karloff's cameos (one in each of the previous "Beach Party" films I'd checked out). Even so, his character could have been better integrated into the plot – since, playing Rickles' girl-chasing assistant, he's not given anything particularly inspired to do: it's fitting, for instance, that Keaton be involved in the speeded-up chase towards the end (by now a typical component of the series intended to mimic the style of Silent comedies)…but the same can't be said of his cavorting with a trio of anonymous-looking girls during the final credit roll!

Two welcome presences (actually both returns from previous entries in the series, though allowed greater stature than before) are those of Harvey Lembeck as Eric von Zipper – self-pitying leader of the motorcycle gang "The Rat Pack"(!), who idolizes Evans to the point of kidnapping her – and Timothy Carey as the nasty "South Dakota Slim" (though, regrettably, without his werewolf companion from BIKINI BEACH: it's strange how this actor brings such intensity to his portrayals that he seems to be permanently on acid or something…and this goes for mainstream fare as well, such as CRIME-WAVE [1954], which I watched just a few days prior to this one). By the way, both these actors are involved in the film's two biggest belly-laughs: engaged in a billiards game at a pool-hall – already featured in BIKINI BEACH, its walls are adorned by portraits of notorious dictators! – and, with Lembeck taking forever to make his next move, Carey acidly quips that he's shaved twice since von Zipper's last shot!; the latter, then, enters a trendy nightclub by smashing through the front door on his motorcycle (as is Lembeck's fashion) – only to land, in this particular case, head first in an aquarium! Besides, the element of surrealism which surprisingly entered the series with BIKINI BEACH is also present here in the form of the fanciful mermaid subplot as well as von Zipper's ghastly yet amusing fate during the climax at a sawmill (which, again, evokes the cliff-hanging serials from the Silent era).