1h 38min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 14 April 1965 | Color, ws
Director: William Asher
Stars: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, Linda Evans, Timothy Carey, Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, Michael Nader, Buster Keaton.
Jack Baker ... choreographer
Watched online, ok print.
9 songs in the Soundtracks.
LE plays new singer ("star" in synopsis; her singing is dubbed) pulls publicity stunt to get noticed: DW skydives for her and they switch in the water, then the surfers "save" her. PL is her manager/press agent.
HL spies LE from afar, and names her is idol (he is his own ideal), and sort of pursues her (it takes a long time for him to get there).
FA & AF decide they want to learn to skydive. FA objects to AF's diving, but she asserts her rights, and since DW is an instructor, she has support. DR runs the skydiving operation, and finally gives a taste of his stand-up style when he MC's some party.
We get less surfing footage than usual, but multiple people need ocean rescues, so we meet Lorelei the mermaid. She only reveals herself to the Jody McCrea character, and manages to grow legs for a night so he can take her to meet his friends.
TC is a pool hustler (I think he was in a prior Beach or Pajama film), and when HL kidnaps LE, TC is at the hideout. After a while of playing pool, TC decides to take LE to his abandoned sawmill, where he wants to play Perils of Pauline with her, tying her to a log and feeding the log to a saw. When FA and crew raid HL's hideout, HL reveals TC's sawmill, and the gang completes the rescue of LE.
Buster Keaton is on hand again, but I didn't catch why. He's partnered with the blonde bombshell from his last appearance, who appears to have learned some English, but wears the same fur-trimmed bikini. (I didn't check if it was the same actress.) Conspicuously absent, especially from the long end credits sequence, is fringe-costumed Candy Johnson. Neither she nor the fringes are there.
Unfortunately, these movies were released on dvd a while back, so I can probably expect to find all of them online. Ghh.
AIP, dir. Asher; 5
