User reviews

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).

"Beach Blanket Bingo" is full of quirky touches (like Annette's face turning green while doing a free-fall out of an airplane or a kidnapped Linda Evans about to be buzz-sawed in half a la "The Perils of Pauline"). It's a colorful entry in the "Beach Party" serial, though oddly missing an exciting musical group (The Hondells in favor of Stevie Wonder or Dick Dale). Also missing is dancing-wonder Candy Johnson, and Annette sings two duets with Frankie Avalon but no solo number (it was cut). The comedy routine by Don Rickles is agonizing and falls flat, but Paul Lynde has some funny one-liners. This series was starting to show its age by now, and the teens are looking a bit long in the tooth (John Ashley no longer plays Frankie's friend, here he's a sky-diving instructor). The mermaid subplot featuring a ravishingly sweet Marta Kristen wowing Jody McCrea is the best part of the picture (it tops anything in "Splash"), but there's enough music and slapstick to keep the rest bubbling along. **1/2 from ****

The gang at the beach led by Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello get themselves innocently involved in a publicity stunt staged by Paul Lynde. Lynde hires Deborah Walley who is a professional skydiver to fall from the air and then has his client, singer Linda Evans in the same outfit be rescued by one of the beach kids. Which of course turns out to be Avalon.

The budding relationship between Evans and Avalon of course arouses the jealousy in Annette. Their pal Jody McCrea who plays Deadhead and as you can imagine not the sharpest knife in the drawer or riding the waves gets a romance with Mermaid Marta Kristen in this one.

Beach Blanket Bingo is not all that bad. Frankie Avalon was a teen idol who could actually sing as his career which is still going shows. The songs aren't bad for the type usually featured in these films.

But what makes Beach Blanket Bingo a treat is seeing such fine performers as Paul Lynde, Buster Keaton, Timothy Carey, and most of all Harvey Lembeck in his usual role of Erich Von Zipper leader of the most inept motorcycle gang around until John Quade took that title in Every Which Way But Loose. When Lembeck decides that Evans ought to be the gang pinup girl it's the beach kids versus the motorcycle crew.

And Frankie and Annette make a lovely couple once again.

All of the seven, count 'em, seven beach movies are really silly and poorly acted. However, they are great fun to watch. This is the best of the lot, featuring a pre-"Big Valley" and "Dynasty" Linda Evans as pop princess Sugar Cane. Paul Lynde is a scream here, with his trademark slow burn. Watch him as he insults Eric Von Zipper, who's too stupid to realize it. Don Rickles is also good during a scene where he takes the mike and rips into the kids. There is so much zaniness going on here, much more than the movies that came before or after it in this series.

1st watched 7/30/2006 - 3 out of 10(Dir-William Asher): Silly harmless fluff of a movie with sweethearts Frankie(Frankie Avalon) & Didi(Annette Funicello) and their goofy adventures on the beach with their pals & gals. After the silly title song, the movie starts out being about a new singer promoting an album to the beach-nuts with a faked freefall from an airplane. The do-anything promoter is played by Paul Lynde with his usual sleezeball-style and the singer is a young Linda Evans. Everyone including the before-mentioned couple now wants to skydive and they hook-up with Don Rickles as the head of the skydiving company. Rickles is even able to throw in a mini-standup routine where he puts down everyone in the audience, as is his usual shtick. In a sidestory, the character Bonehead encounters a mermaid which brings a little variety and fun to the storyline. I hate to say it, but that's about it for this movie in a nutshell. A few songs are thrown-in(some better than others), plenty of booty-shaking, and a silent episode with Buster Keaton(playing a kind of Benny Hill-like character) adds to the light-hearted fare. If this is all that you're looking for in a movie, then this one is the perfect movie for you!! Otherwise, stay away.

Fun in the sun doesn't get much better than this! After years of watching, I could never grow tired of Annette and Frankie doing their little girl-friend/boy-friend thing while frequently interrupted by infectious surf music.

The actors deserve our respect for not only agreeing to work for peanuts, but also for filming during the chilly days of November so the film could be released the following spring, all so the American public could enjoy watching these kids' seemingly happy summer vacations. This was never meant to be a serious project to impress the Motion Picture Academy, just plain Summer fun with great 60s California Sound, just prior to the sudden impact of "Flower Power", Mama's & Papas, etc.

"Beach Blanket Bingo" also features the talented singer Donna Loren in a bit part as herself. Beach Blanket Bingo is the name of the game!

I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid. I always sort of preferred a picture that preceded this one in the series with Bob Cummings as, I think, a Sociologist studying surfers in their natural habitat. Anyway, I recently ran into this one on cable. Fairly early on Eric Von Zipper and The Rats do their number (I don't recall the title) in which - not once, but twice - Von Zipper's lyric says "I am my ideal!" (This develops in the scene that follows into the running gag (or is it a leitmotif?) of Von Zipper calling Kandy Kane his 'idol' - referenced in earlier comments.) Then, in the very next scene, as Von Zipper and the Rats enter the nightclub, he says "Stand aside everyone, I take large steps!" My jaw dropped a bit. Both of these are direct quotes from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, which had opened a little over a year earlier on Broadway! Late in Act One Miles Gloriosus, a Roman Soldier (Ron Holgate) announces his entrance by shouting, from offstage: "Stand aside everyone, I take large steps!", which cues the music for his song, which includes the lyric "I am my ideal!" Is William Asher paying homage to Sondheim and Burt Shevelove (who wrote the book for FORUM)? Is it an inside joke? Or is it just plain old-fashioned plagiarism? Anyone?

Another interesting (to me, at least) question: Is this where William Asher first saw/met Paul Lynde? Were the seeds for Uncle Arthur (Who would appear a couple of years later on BEWITCHED) planted in the sand of BEACH BLANKET BINGO??

Having previously seen Bikini Beach and found it very silly, I partly dreaded wondering if Beach Blanket Bingo was going to be the exact same way. While there are plenty of similarities, there were some differences that I appreciated like seeing Annette actually deciding to go skydiving with Frankie instead of trying to talk him out of it like she tried to in BB when it was about drag racing and also that Frankie, while initially not wanting Dee Dee (Annette's character) to do such a dangerous stunt, liked her even more when she did. Also, Jody McCrea's Bonehead-who was too stupid for my tastes in BB-is quite touching here with his romance with the mermaid Lorelei (Marta Kristen). I especially found funny the way he measured her body for a dress and the way she said, "Do it again!" There's also some amusing physical bits from Buster Keaton, some witty lines from Paul Lynde, another nice song from Donna Loren, a couple of good duets from Frankie and Annette, a pretty good solo from Frankie (though I wonder why Annette didn't have one this time around), and a charming number from Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper with his rat gang. Lembeck himself is hit-or-miss with his shtick though Timothy Carey provides some hilarity as occasional nemeses, South Dakota Slim. Then there's Linda Evans as singer Sugar Kane (did writer/director William Asher intentionally steal that name from Marilyn Monroe's character in Some Like it Hot?). Her innocent sexiness comes through in each of her scenes especially when she gets "kidnapped" by Von Zipper and says "Marvey" when he teaches her to play pool (Puss and Boots also provide some amusement when they make fun of her). And her mouthing the singing of Robin Ward sure fooled me! That said, Beach Blanket Bingo is only slightly better than Bikini Beach as once again, Don Rickles seems wasted here even when he's allowed to do a brief insult act in front of Frankie and the gang. Deborah Walley faking a rape was also pretty tastless here. And the speeded-up chase at the end is only slightly more amusing here due to Keaton and some water gags done on Lembeck. And I wish the Bonehead/Lorelei romance had ended like Splash but I guess that wasn't to be since Bonehead would appear in another sequel. All that said, I enjoyed Beach Blanket Bingo a little more than Bikini Beach and seeing Buster and dancer Bobbi Shaw at the end with some other girls doing their moves marked a very cute way to end this silly A.I.P. beach movie musical...

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello get involved with skydiving on the beach - after "Bullets" Paul Lynde uses the sport to promote "Sugar Kane" Linda Evans. Frankie and Annette get into the sport, with Don Rickles' "Big Drop"; and, they try out skydivers Deborah Walley and John Ashley, too. Harvey Lembeck's "Eric Von Zipper" falls for "Sugar". "Bonehead" Jody McCrae meets and falls in love with Mermaid Marta Kirsten. Buster Keaton chases a bikini-clad young woman around.

The music is lightly pleasant - especially when sounding like Brian Wilson's Beach Boys, as in "Cycle Set", for example. Mermaid Kirsten's was the storyline I found the most enchanting. Kirsten the Mermaid was on "Lost in Space" as Judy Robinson. Michael Nader could have had a bigger part. As far as the low points, it's difficult to pick one - there are so many weak elements of "Beach Blanket Bingo" - possibly, it's Eric Von Zipper's solo song.

** Beach Blanket Bingo (4/14/65) William Asher ~ Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Paul Lynde, Marta Kirsten

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. The people who put this one together really knew what they were doing. Even if you are not a beach movie fan, you will be entertained by all this legendary film has to offer. I would suggest renting it, or perhaps buying it if the price is right. My final rating for this movie is 7 out of 10, and it really deserves it!

Something odd has happened over the years. As I get older, I see crap that appeared in the 60s and 70s gain "classic" status. Now, people talk about the wonderful shows and movies of this bygone era (such as I dream of Jeanie, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, etc.) and I think I must have lost my mind! I mean, even in the time they were being produced, these TV shows were seen as, at best, meaningless fluff. Movies, it seems, have also undergone this revisionism. Rotten old duds are now seen as "great fun" or "classics". I HATE the word "classic"--it no longer has any meaning as it seems to apply to ANYTHING as long as it is old--by that standard, Plan 9 From Outer Space is a classic!.

So why did I pick this particular movie to review? There surely are MANY grossly overrated pictures but this one gets the nod because I just opened by Leonard Maltin guide and found he gave this movie 3 stars. That's like hanging a velvet Elvis painting in the Louvre!! Come on folks--don't be fooled. This is American-International Pictures AND Annette Funicello AND Frankie Avalon! There can't be a greater recipe for dreck than this!

It is truly one of the best movies out there, no doubt! The music is great, it's HILARIOUSLY funny, it's perfect for the entire family to enjoy, and the characters are wonderful!!! Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon make such a cute couple; Donna Loren once again nails it at her wonderful singing; Paul Lynde and Don Rickles are funny as always; Jody McCrea and Marta Kristen's mermaid-human relationship is beautiful; John Ashley and Deborah Walley's skydiving bag is out of sight; Harvey Lembeck does the hilarious Von Zipper antics once again; and what a great almost-final acting job for Buster Keaton before he died (even though it wasn't a big role)! If you're looking for a lot of fun, romance, comedy, drama, adventure, and more...this is the movie for you! It has everything!!! Look out Hot-Doggers and Beach Bunnies...this movie's a knockout!!!

In this 5th film of the beach series which stars Frankie Avalon (as "Frankie") and Annette Funicello ("Dee Dee) a slick promoter named "Bullets" (Paul Lynde) has his new singer "Sugar Kane" (Linda Evans) pretend to skydive into the ocean so that a photo-op of a surfer saving her can boost her popularity. Naturally, it's Frankie who saves her and her gratitude towards him causes Dee Dee to become a little jealous. Not long afterward it's "Bonehead" (Jody McCrea) who almost drowns and is rescued-by a mermaid named "Lorelei" (Marta Kristen). Throw in the motorcycle gang led by "Eric Von Zipper" (Harvey Lembeck) and a skydiving couple who try to make each other jealous by using Frankie and Dee Dee and the end result is one of the better beach movies of this particular series. Admittedly, some of the scenes are a bit corny but it features a couple of good songs and plenty of lovely young ladies in bikinis. I especially liked Linda Evans who looked incredible. Be that as it may, this was a fun movie for the most part and I rate it as slightly better than average.

Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) and their lively friends continue to frolic on the beach and, in this instalment of the vapid but popular 'Beach Party' movies, take up sky-diving. By this, the 5th film in the series, the story-lines were getting petty formulaic (once again characters try to arouse jealousy in their 'true loves' by feigning a romantic interest in someone else). The humour, primarily provided by 'Bonehead' (Joel McCrea), Eric von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck), Don Rickles (in his 4th 'Beach' outing) and Buster Keaton is generally silly and the generic '60s pop songs unmemorable (although it's always great to see Dick Dale perform). There is an odd bit of meta-humour when Rickles steps out of this 'Big Drop' character for a couple of minutes and hits the cast with his trademark 'insult comedy' stand-up shtick. The best part of the film (IMO) is the strange subplot about Bonehead meeting a mermaid ('Lost in Space's Marta Kristen). Considering the characters involved and the general vibe of the film, this offbeat romance is almost touching. No one watching a '60s beach movie would expect much more than this film offers - from the perspective of 60 years in the future, these goofy, sexually charged yet innocent, teen-romance-comedies may more interesting than entertaining to a lot of viewers but they can still be a fun way to burn off 90 minutes of couch time.

I must agree with others who say this is not only the ultimate beach flick but also the essential 1960s teen-scene movie.

Even though the plot is nitwit (intentionally, after all), the cast is wonderfully silly. And what a cast it is: Frankie and Annette establish that this is a genuine teen-beach romp, Harvey Lembeck is a riot as the Marlon Brando wannabe who worships Marlo Branden, Don Rickles and Paul Lynde provide two different forms of wicked insult humor, Buster Keaton gives us his unique dead-pan slapstick, and we even have a pretty little wet mermaid for Bonehead (definitely Freudian).

Musical numbers, faked surfing and parachuting shots, sand, salty air -- it's a true treasure of a seemingly "innocent" time gone by even though the film was made after America lost its innocence and was getting wrapped up in what would become the Viet Nam disaster. But forget all that. Take a trip into the never-never land of the beach and get yourself a good tan, moondoggie!

The Beach Party movies are fondly remembered, but probably by people who haven't actually sat down to watch one in a long time.

There are a number of these in the series, all essentially the same and all interchangeable. Sure, there are ghost ones and Snow Party ones, but all of them basically concern a group of attractive, but virginal teenagers who romp about on the beach, never doing more than talking about sex even though it's pretty clear that they're meant to be irresistable in their bikinis and board shorts.

There's a biker gang who are meant to be a parody of Brando in "The Wild One", but who are played for sub-Three Stooges slapstick.

The boys go surfing and the girls watch the boys go surfing and everyone says things like "real gone" and "cool cats" and dance like things possessed. There's lots of lingering shots of the girls and the boys linger about flexing their muscles and making sexist jokes.

There's stunt casting - Buster Keaton turns up in this, looking a long way from The General - and songs are song that are so empty that you'll forget them while they're being performed.

It's all very innocent and light and perfect for the people who find the gritty drama of "Kissin' Cousins" or "Viva Las Vegas" a bit raw.

Cornball comedy your bag? Plenty of it here as Von Zipper and his gang of fools kidnap a girl singer that Eric falls for. Meanwhile, Bonehead is falling for a mermaid, while Frankie and Annette are staying jealous of each other, as usual. Lots of singing and shaking out of the 30 year old "teens" keeps the action going, while Paul Lynde makes faces and gags it up. A dumber film would be hard to find, but I still found myself laughing at this really, really stupid picture. Eric Von Zipper made it well worth seeing, as did Lynde, one of my all time favorite comics.

BEACH BLANKET BINGO is woeful from beginning to end! This idiotic junk has the beach party gang involved in skydiving AND kidnapping with neither plot-thread even remotely bearable. The opening musical number features a typical non-song lip-synched by Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, both of whom had to be sick to death of these movies by 1965. Avalon is particularly annoying bickering with Paul Lynde, who plays the proverbial adult "square." The final chase scene, shot in fast motion as if the filmmakers wanted to stop this nonsense as quickly as possible, is moronic. With the usual assortment of Z-grade talent: Harvey Lembeck, Deborah Walley, Jody McCrae and, in one of his last and most thankless appearances, Buster Keaton.

Elwood Von Zipper is the most amazing character ever created for a beach movie. Part Brando & part Nerdo, creating this guy for a beach movie creates a natural void in the sand dunes. Throw in Frankie & Annette & you have mostly meaningless fluff.

What makes this rank above some of the other of its genre is that William Asher & the Bewitched production company did it on summer vacation. So this is what they did on summer vacation from twitching? While it is not as meaningful as other summer vacation movies made by TV production teams, it has a lot of good music from the era & a meaningless plot to go by.

Show this to the kiddies now, & it looks like art next to the Teenage Ninja Turtles movie, but this was supposed to be for teens, where the turtles are for well, turtles. Actually Elwood could be who Henry Winkler molded the Fonze after on Happy Days. Thank goodness they weren't putting Cunninghams Hardware store on this beach.

With Linda Evans, Deborah Walley & Marta Kristen in bikinis, Annette is just an extra body in this one

Frankie, Dee Dee (Frankie Avalon & Annette Funicello) and their gang encounter an up-and-coming singer (Linda Evans) and her sly promoter (Paul Lynde), which inspires them to try their hand at skydiving. Don Rickles plays the school's manager with Deborah Walley on hand as one of the instructors. Meanwhile Harvey Lembeck leads the "menacing" black-clad motorcycle gang.

"Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965) is the fifth beach party film by American International Pictures that released a whopping twelve such movies in less than four years from 1963-1967. I've only seen one other, "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" (1965) featuring Vincent Price, and didn't like it. This one's more entertaining if you're in the mood for some innocuous 60's beach-oriented fun that's silly with a capital 'S.'

The best parts are Lynde's droll humor, the touching subplot featuring Bonehead and a mermaid (Jody McCrea & Marta Kristen), the scenic Malibu locations and the attractive female cast, highlighted by Bobbie Shaw Chance as the lass in a fur bikini and Donna Michelle as 'Animal.'

For the real deal in SoCal beach flicks, check out the original "Gidget," released in 1959 (I'm not talking about the two sequels or the TV series with Sally Field). "Gidget" is worthy of its iconic status as the first beach flick with surprising mindfood and no goofiness. No kidding.

The film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot in Malibu at Surfrider Beach, Paradise Cove and Leo Carrillo State Beach.

GRADE: B-

Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) are the perfect beach-loving couple until a publicity skydiving stunt comes between them. There are the Rat Pack bikers and so much more. The strangest pair has to be a mermaid and Buster Keaton. The best aspect of this film has to be the title and the title song. The alliteration is iconic and fits perfectly the light-weight non-sense of this movie. The difficulty lies in all the non-sense. It's chaos. At some point, I lose the ability to care about the plot or the story or the characters. Even a non-sense movie needs some sense.

I've hesitated to make any comments about this one of the beach movies. It's like commenting on Citizen Kane or 2001 - too daunting. First of all, along with the COMPLETELY regular cast, it's one of the ones with Don Rickles. People have said that he just doesn't come across well in anything that's SCRIPTED for him, but that's far from completely true. Just watch for the little moment with him, after Frankie does his skydiving - it's a "classic" Don Rickles moment. And Paul Lynde could always be funny, with or without a script (most recently, fans of Roger the alien on "American Dad" are interested in him). One of his best lines is when Earl Wilson - who looks like the most straight-laced person in the world - wants to visit the surfers' hangout a second time. Lynde says, "Which girl is it, Earl?" And then there are Jody MacCrea (sp.) and Marta Kristen in the "Lorelei" subplot. Anyone who's seen brooding movies like "Night Tide" might like this mainly COMICAL mermaid story (not that it's the first or last one, of course). And of course, Timothy Carey as South Dakota Slim, who steals Sugar Kane from Erich Von Zipper, after Von Zipper went to the trouble of kidnapping her himself! Anyway, these are just SOME of the things going for it. The only thing missing from this beach movie is the cameo - I've always wondered why that is.

These beach movies were not popular with teenagers at the time of their release, but with the passage of time older adults can enjoy this campy, airbrushed, sanitized sandy version of 1965. Annette and Frankie were never big teen idols or hitmakers, both scoring hits in the 1950s and then fading from sight, but they both had larger than life personalities that adults enjoyed as the years went by. Frankie and Annette were a joke to rock and rollers and the radio charts, and the singers promoted in the beach series all failed to spark any interest. William Asher, producer of the series, was best known as Elizabeth Montgomery's husband and helped create the classic TV series "Bewitched". His hand was steadier with the TV series than it was with the beach movies, but this entry is one of the best.

Annette and Frankie are cute in their all-WASPish, all heterosexual, all white, artificial beach world that never existed. This was not the real 1965 -- even at the beach -- but that's what movies are intended to do: take us out of reality and into imagination, where we can enjoy 90 minutes of life -- the way it might have been.

I think that we can all agree that the beach movies from the mid '60s were at the bottom of the cinematic barrel ("Catalina Caper" even got shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). "Beach Blanket Bingo" is an eye roll-inducing piece of swill about a gaggle of sexually inactive teenagers trying to protect a mermaid from a biker gang. How tragic that they wasted a potentially hilarious plot on something so stupid. If nothing else, couldn't they have waited a few years so that they could have thrown in some sex?! I mean, THEY HAD A MERMAID AND THEY COULDN'T DO IT WITH HER?!!!!!!!!! WHY?!!!!!!!!!! And isn't it more chic to portray biker gangs as cool? Anyway, the fact that Buster Keaton appears in this just goes to show how far he had gotten reduced. I don't doubt that the two people from "Bewitched" (director William Asher and co-star Paul Lynde) probably prefer to be associated with that show and not with this. It's no accident that Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello never became A-list stars (unless you count his appearance in "Grease"). Nowadays, I think that we only know her because she has multiple sclerosis, the same thing that afflicted Richard Pryor. "MST3K" really should have shown this flick; Mike, Servo and Crow could have made some great comments.