It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
This week’s musical:
Bikini Beach (1964) – Musical #278
Studio:
American International Pictures
Director:
William Asher
Starring:
Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer, Keenan Wynn, Don Rickles, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Donna Loren, Danielle Aubry, Michael Nader, Boris Karloff, Ned Wynn, Janos Prohaska
Themselves: The Pyramids, The Exciters Band, Stevie Wonder (as Little Stevie Wonder)
Plot:
Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Wynn) tries to prove that the mental capacity of Amerian teenagers as devolved to that of his chimp, Clyde the Chimp (Prohaska). Schoolteacher Vivien Clements (Hyer) tries to prove Honeywagon wrong. Meanwhile, during summer vacation on the beach, boyfriend and girlfriend Frankie (Avalon) and Dee Dee (Funicello) disagree – she feels he should settle down and get a job and he wants to live fast. Frankie finds competition in a visiting English rock star, Potato Bug (also Avalon).
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, John Ashley, Don Rickles, Jody McCrea (son of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee), Dick Dale, Donna Loren, Candy Johnson, Morey Amsterdam, Stevie Wonder, Buddy Hackett, Peter Lorre, Luciana Paluzzi, Peter Lupus
Plot:
Frankie (Avalon) and Dee Dee (Funicello) head to the beach for Easter vacation with their friends to surf, dance and have fun. Once they get to the beach they meet Jack Fanny (Rickles) and his group of muscle bound body builders. When Contessa Julie (Paluzzi) can’t woo Flex (Lupus), she tries to steal Frankie from Dee Dee.
Cheesy gags, music and dancing are sprinkled throughout the plot line.
Trivia:
-Stevie Wonder was 13 when he appeared in this film and was billed as “Little Stevie Wonder.”
-“Muscle Beach Party” cost $300,000 to make and grossed $12 million, according to The Encyclopedia of Surfing by Matt Warshaw
-The second beach movie directed by William Asher, following “Beach Party” (1964). This film was followed by “Bikini Beach” (1964), “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965) and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini ” (1965), all directed by Asher.
-The only beach movie that doesn’t feature Eric Von Zipper and his gang.
-Larry Scott, the body builder who played Rock, was an actual bodybuilder and was the first Mr. Olympia.
Muscle men in “Muscle Beach Party” (Comet Over Hollywood/Screen capped by Jessica P)
-Peter Lorre died two days before “Muscle Beach Party” premiered on March 25.
-In all of the beach movies, Annette Funicello wore more conservative bathing suits. That was out of her respect to Walt Disney who asked her to keep up a clean image, Funicello said in an interview.
-Donna Loren was signed to a multi-picture deal. The heads of American International were impressed with her duet with Dick Dale, Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties by Tom Lisanti.
-During one scene, Peter Lorre and Frankie Avalon say the other looks familiar. This is a joke referencing their previous film they made together, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1961).
-Most of the beach films only took two weeks to make, according to Beyond the Stars 2: Plot Conventions in American Popular Film edited by Paul Loukides, Linda K. Fuller
Frankie and Annette “surfing” in “Muscle Beach Party” (Comet Over Hollywood/Screen capped by Jessica P.)
Highlights:
-Cartoon opening credits
-Surfing footage, especially when we are supposed to believe the stars are surfing.
-Candy Johnson’s 1960s dancing in her tasseled outfits
-Guitarist Dick Dale performing
-Cheesy humor like a cartoon cupid playing a harp beside Luciana Paluzzi as she’s looking at the bodybuilders.
Credits with Candy Johnson dancing and Stevie Wonder dancing:
Notable Songs:
-Muscle Bustle performed by Donna Loren and Dick Dale
-Happy Street performed by Stevie Wonder
-A Boy Needs a Girl sung by Annette Funicello (I noted this because it’s Annette’s only solo. It’s not her best song ever and ends abruptly, but worth noting). Reprised later by Frankie Avalon
-Muscle Beach Party sung by Dick Dale and the Del Tones
-Runnin’ Wild sung by Frankie Avalon
Jody McCrea (Joel McCrea’s son), Dick Dale, John Ashley, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in “Muscle Beach Party”
My Review:
I’m always surprised how Frankie and Annette end up together at the end of each film when she has to win him back from another girl.
So obviously none of the beach films have a serious, ground breaking plot and “Muscle Beach Party” isn’t excluded. All the silly plots also all occasionally blend together.
However, they are a great deal of fun. The outfits are great, the music is awesome and the dancing sequences on the beach are my favorite (especially if it involves Candy Johnson and Donna Loren). It’s a great snapshot of culture in the early 1960s. And Annette is one of my favorites so I can’t hate any of her films.
Compared to several of the films, I would say “Muscle Beach Party,” “Beach Party” and “Beach Blanket Bingo” are my three favorites.
So if you are looking for brainless, RIDICULOUS, hair-brained fun, check out this film…or any other beach movie.
Recently my mother told me that we had an estimated 222 movies taped off of Turner Classic Movies. Why you ask?
Every month I flip through the “Turner Classic Movie Now Playing Guide” and make a list of 20 to 50 movies to tape.
Our family owns a DVR but we use VHS tapes, because they hold more, are reusable and usually give us higher quality.
I tape so many movies so I can fulfill the many lists I have made to organize my old movie obsessions.
Here is a very brief summary of the lists I have so far: -Movie Musical list: I have currently seen 374 musicals. I started this list back in 2004 when I was in 9th grade. This includes any movie musical I have seen, new or old; anything from a Kay Kyser musical to “Chicago.” -Silent Movie list: This currently only has 40 movies. I only started really getting interested in silent films in late 2008 and just started the list in March 2010. -Screen teams: This is a list of famous screen teams such as Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, Myrna Loy and William Powell, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. I try to see all of the movies the screen teams were in together. -Movies Series: Similarly to the Screen Teams list, I am trying to see all the movies in certain film series such as Andy Hardy, Dr. Kildaire and Maisie. -Actresses Lists: I have 47 actresses that I am trying to see all of their movies. A few of these are Jean Arthur, Bette Davis and Kay Francis. So far I’ve only seen all of Judy Garland’s movies. -Actors Lists: Similar to the actress list, except with 19 actors. Lists include Van Johnson, Dana Andrews and George Brent.
Recently, I have started a rather ambitious list. It is all of the movies from 1939- a total of 514 movies and I have only seen 84.
“The Rains Came”: 20th Century Fox’s contribution to the 1939 royalty
It’s amazing to look at all of the films that came out during what is known as “Hollywood’s Greatest Year,” and I was inspired to try to see all of them.
Turner Classic Movies showed a documentary in the summer of 2009 called “1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year.” The documentary said the reason this year was profitable was the United States was slowly getting out of the depression and the film companies were able to fund bigger projects.
However, this glory only lasted one year. Two years later World War II hit, actors were drafted and America and Hollywood put their efforts toward the war on the home front and overseas. Once the war was over, the tone of America and movies changed from light and happy 1930s films to darker and angsty melodramas, according to the documentary.
In a way, this is why I want to make the list. I feel like when people hear 1939, they think of “Gone with the Wind” or “Wizard of Oz,” but there were so many other special movies that year. I want to see if the other films that you don’t hear about have that same magic. Who knows, once I finish watching all 514 movies maybe I’ll try my hand at writing a book.
Making the list took maybe three days, however I know that the watching process will take much longer. I’m worried about being able to track some of the movies and making it through low budget crime movies.
This week’s musical:
Comet Over Hollywood 