Gogo, a Martian teenager, is sent to Earth to prepare the way for an invasion. The first Earthling he meets, one Aunt Wendy, is a rich widow who runs a dress shop catering to teenagers.
1h 22min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 11 November 1964 | Color, WS
Director: Don Weis
Stars: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Elsa Lanchester, Harvey Lembeck, Jesse White, Buster Keaton.
David Winters ... choreographer
Watched online, ok print.
7 songs in the Soundtracks.
Although it's not one of the Beach movies, many of the cast (and their characters) overlap with those 1st 3. Frankie Avalon and Don Rickles appear in as the administrators on Mars, although FA's identity isn't revealed until the end. We also get Dorothy Lamour singing a song at the fashion show as its host. We even get Candy Johnson doing her dance, but apparently the fringe costumes belong to the Beach producers.
EL and BK add plenty of their personas to the film, which is how this gets a plus.
Otherwise we have the usual plot ingredients: AF seeks romance, JW with BK, another man and a European blonde want EL's cash stored in her house, the Martians are coming, HL wants the teens gone because their footprints mess up his beach. The pajama party is JW's method for getting EL out of her house with lots of teens to chaperone, but the park her on the roof and brawl anyway. I think some of the brawler were Martians, but I didn't pay very close attention. (Martians look like earthlings.)
It's no wonder that no one wanted to attend musical films, given the films like Elvis's bad stuff, and this vein.
distr. AIP, dir. Weis; 5+
