Catalina Caper (1967)

A group of swingin' teens take time out from having fun in the sun to try to foil a group of crooks searching for a stolen scroll.

Director:

Lee Sholem

Writers:

Clyde Ware (screenplay), Sam Pierce (original story)

Stars:

Tommy Kirk, Del Moore, Peter Duryea

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tommy Kirk	...	Don Pringle
Del Moore	...	Arthur Duval
Peter Duryea	...	Tad Duval
Robert Donner	...	Fingers O'Toole
Ulla Strömstedt	...	Katrina Corelli
Jim Begg	...	Larry
Sue Casey	...	Anne Duval
Lyle Waggoner	...	Angelo
Michael Blodgett	...	Bob Draper (as Mike Blodgett)
Bonnie Lomann	...	Redhead
Britt Nilsson	...	Brunette
Donna Russell	...	Blonde
James Almanzar	...	Sid
Lee Deane	...	Lakopolous
Venita Wolf	...	Tina Moss

Storyline

A beach movie. A scroll is stolen from an art gallery and taken to Catalina Island, where the thieves plan to use it to swindle Lakopolous, a Greek art collector. They plan to show him the real scroll, then deliver a fake. Lakopolous, however, turns out not to be rock-stupid, and tries to steal the scroll himself. Meanwhile, the thieves' son figures out what his folks are up to and cooks up an improbable scheme that will allow him to steal the scroll back and return it. During this, the whole troupe are under surveillance from a mysterious guy who keeps pulling prat falls. All of which is *completely incidental* to the story of the love interest between Don and Katrina, the blonde guy who always has women flocking to him for no perceptible reason, and the "spontaneous" music and dance numbers.

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Plot Keywords:

teen | beach | bikini | yanked off bikini top | caper | 

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Taglines:

Wild adventure... international intrigue!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Mystery

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Details

Official Sites:

Crown International Pictures

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Never Steal Anything Wet

Filming Locations:

Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Executive Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Don walks up with his friends, Charlie has three girls hanging off of him who are all dancing, yet in the following shot they are all, very suddenly, dead still.

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Quotes

Don: I've never seen so many trying to cover so much with so little.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Being from Another Planet (1992)

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Soundtracks

"Never Steal Anything Wet"
Written by Jerry Long
Performed by Mary Wells over the opening and end credits

User Reviews

I wanted to push them all into a bonfire.

Catalina Caper is relatively painful. The plot, if you can call it that, involves a group of kids hanging around the beach for some summer fun. A piece of artwork (aka "the scroll") is stolen by this guy who looks like Drew Carey for his boss Duval, who talks like Al Capone. He tries to keep said scroll from this other crime boss Lakapolous. The kids get involved in the case, so that's where all the exciting action takes place. Don Pringle is the main hero of the story. He spends most of his time chasing after this weird dark haired girl. Oh and then there's this other guy in a suit running around trying to expose Duval and he gets into all these slapstick situations that are really, really dumb.

In between the little tidbits of story, you get little music breaks. This includes an appearance by Little Richard! You also get to see some...guys sitting around singing and then this other chick singing a song called "Book of Love". Yeah...not much else to say about that. Not only to you get to hear their great songs, you get to watch all the kids dance too! The way they move looks really painful at times. Makes you just want to jump right into the movie and dislocate a hip with them! They danced like fools in the 60's. Mindless zombie beach goers.

This movie is best viewed in the MST3K version, lots of great jokes there. Joel & the 'bots do a beautiful job of tearing this one apart. See it for a lot of good laughs. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a rockin' scuba party to get to. I feel a dance number comin' on!