It’s a Bikini World opened. One of the last of the 60s Hollywood beach movies, it starred Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Bobby “Boris” Pickett, and Suzie Kaye. It is noted for being directed by a woman, Stephanie Rothman, and features an interesting premise, a great lineup of musical talent, and a spirited cast but the extremely low budget production values hamper the movie. There’s a new beach babe (Walley) on the shore and when she rebukes the advances of the local Casanova (Kirk) he masquerades as his nerdy brother to get even with her. Meanwhile he competes against her as his real persona in a serious of athletic competitions. It was very novel then to feature in a film aimed at teenagers a determined independent-thinking heroine. This was years before the Women’s Liberation movement and this Feminist slant shows that Stephanie Rothman was a director and screenwriter ahead of her time.

Deborah Walley who by the mid-sixties matured into a shapely young woman plays the determined Delilah with spunk and vigor while Tommy Kirk makes for a good conceited foe in their battle-of-the-sexes.  However, Kirk’s Casanova persona surrounded by bikini-clad beach babes quickly turns laughable every time he takes off his shirt.  He is by far one of the skinniest runts on the beach, especially compared with blonde hunk Jim Begg, and should have been mandated to pump some iron at the gym before filming began. Bob Pickett plays the Jody McCrea/Deadhead best friend role with a big grin and a droll touch. Bikini-clad Suzie Kaye now sporting blonde hair delivers some amusing lines with flair.

As with most of the later beach movies the musical acts make this worth while viewing. The groups all perform their own hit records. Standing out are Eric Burdon with The Animals in their post-Alan Price lineup doing “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” which became an anthem for Vietnam War protestors, and garage rock band The Castaways, looking all of sixteen, singing their lone hit, “Liar, Liar.” The Gentrys, sounding like Paul Revere and the Raiders, sing “Spread It on Thick,” which should have been a big hit but it never cracked the Top 40.

Interviewed for my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies, the late Bobby Pickett and late Suzie Kaye recalled what it was like working for a female director a rarity during the sixties.

Pickett: “Stephanie was very pleasant, easy to get along with and very smart. She was just a pleasure to work with. Everybody towed the line with her. She wore riding pants a lot and looked like a female Cecil B. DeMille. Stephanie took bikini beach movies to a higher level with Deborah Walley’s character trying to best her male antagonist in a series of events.”

Kaye: “It was nice being directed by a woman. I felt more comfortable. I was awe struck because to me it was magical to have a female director. The film was still exploitation but Rothman did it in a more wholesome form—I didn’t do anything embarrassing. She would let the scene play.”

the sleeper hit biker movie Run, Angel, Run! opened. After selling his story about his former biker gang to a magazine for $10,000, burly William Smith hits the highway with his motorcycle mama Valerie Starrett in tow and his biker gang in hot pursuit. In an interesting footnote, Starrett was the co-author of the screenplay and it was directed by her ex-husband actor-turned-director Jack Starrett. The low budget movie, from a new company called Fanfare founded by producer Joe Solomon, shocked Hollywood when it grossed close to $13 million in 1969.

Speaking in length about making Run, Angel, Run! in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies, Valerie Starrett attributed the film’s success to her estranged husband Jack Starrett:

“Jack was quite amazing and had to be innovative working with such a low budget. Everything was one take and then he’d say, ‘Move on, move on.’ It was shot so cheaply that though there are references to the Russian River of Northern California it was all shot in Malibu Canyon. Those endless shots of us on the Pacific Coast Highway were all in Malibu. The actual filming was extremely painful and I hated all of it. It is one thing to envision a rape and another to be the active person in it. [Actor and friend] Gene Cornelius is bursting through a window and it was so laughable to me. That scene was hard to do. There was another scene at the railroad station—which was actually a great action piece—where as I am running I accidentally fell and banged up my knee. For most of the rest of the filming I was in excruciating pain…” You can read more in my book.

Haunted House of Horror aka Horror House opened in the U.S.  This British thriller starred Beach Party cast-off Frankie Avalon and Jill Haworth fresh off her 2 1/2 year run on Broadway as Sally Bowles in the iconic musical Cabaret.

Mini-skirted Jill and perennial teenager Frankie are part of a bunch of young swingers who hold a séance in a supposedly haunted house. One of them turns up murdered and the survivors begin suspecting each other. When Scotland Yard begins snooping, the teens return to the scene of the crime to flush out the killer. 

Commenting on making this in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, the late Haworth exclaimed:

“My agents at ICM thought this would be a good career move. It wasn’t!  Frankie didn’t want to do this film either but he was under contract to the studio [AIP]. But we just made the best of the situation and had a fabulous time working together. He has a great sense of humor. And you needed one doing this film. They housed us with the crew in this old, supposedly haunted hotel in Southport, England. The conditions were horrible. There weren’t any private bathrooms and you even had to take your own toilet paper to use the john! Frankie and I just kept laughing. Sometimes you need to laugh to get through unpleasant things.”

the Frankie Avalon & Annette Funicello iconic fun-in-the-sun frolic Beach Blanket Bingo and the hit Elvis Presley spring break musical Girl Happy opened.

In the immortal words of Eric Von Zipper, Beach Blanket Bingo is “nifty.” It is the best, the zaniest, the quirkiest, and most fondly remembered of the Frankie and Annette epics. Admittedly, the busy story centering around Annette’s Dee Dee proving to Frankie that girls can skydive while trying to keep him away from an amorous instructor (Deborah Walley), Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen from TV’s Lost in Space), and a beautiful singer (Linda Evans subbing for Nancy Sinatra who dropped out of the film) kidnapped by Erik Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his biker gang is far-fetched. But it contains some very funny moments mostly delivered by Buster Keaton and his va-va-voom foil Bobbi Shaw, Don Rickles as Big Drop, and Paul Lynde as an acid-tongued press agent whose verbal sparring with Avalon is one of the movie’s highlights. All your AIP favorite stars are here (including John Ashley, Donna Loren, Mike Nader, Salli Sachse, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, Ed Garner, Luree Holmes, Johnny Fain, Linda Opie, Alberta Nelson, Myrna Ross, Andy Romano, etc.) enhancing the action.

Another big plus for Beach Blanket Bingo is the music score. The songs are some of the best from the series beginning with the title song—the grandest opening number of all the beach-party movies. The up tempo tune is sung in such a light and bouncy manner by Frankie and Annette that you can’t but help want to jump to your feet and dance along.  They also do well with their second duet, the popular “I Think, You Think.” Pretty Donna Loren turns up early to expertly belt out the heart wrenching “It Only Hurts When I Cry.” Jackie Ward delivers the Linda Evans lip-synced songs in fine style but it is The Hondells who standout with “The Cycle Set.”

Recalling the shoot, Jody McCrea said in my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies, “The scenes with Marta Kristen were actually filmed in the ocean. Marta nearly turned blue one day because the second unit guy took a lot longer than he should have to set up the shot. We all had to pretend how warm it was and it really wasn’t. Since I surfed during the winter because the waves were bigger it didn’t bother me as much.”

Bobbi Shaw was a bit disappointed with her role on this and remarked in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies, “Buster and I were part of Beach Blanket Bingo from the beginning, but I really feel that they did not use us the way they should have. Look at his genius talent and they just had us running around.”

Frankie and Annette and the beach party gang had stiff competition at the box office from Elvis and Girl Happy. Produced by Joe Pasternak for MGM and directed by Boris Sagal, Girl Happy was a combination of the studio’s Where the Boys Are and AIP’s Beach Party setting in on the shores of Fort Lauderdale during spring break. Since this was a film about the college crowd, MGM surrounded Elvis and leading lady Shelley Fabares with a talented bunch of good looking young people offering wonderful support.

Elvis played Rusty Wells leader singer of a successful combo (consisting of Gary Crosby, Joby Baker, and Jimmy Hawkins) drawing sell-out crowds at a night spot owned by tough-talking Mr. Frank (Harold J. Stone) in snowy Chicago. He renews their contract for another six weeks shuttling their plans to head to balmy Florida. Overhearing their boss arguing with his daughter Valerie (Fabares) about going on spring break with her college friends (Chris Noel and Lyn Edgington) to Fort Lauderdale, Rusty offers to be her secret chaperone. Soon he and the boys are off to the Sunshine State. Thinking Valerie has hooked up with a bookworm named Brentwood (Peter Brooks) Rusty concentrates on sexy Deena (Mary Ann Mobley) while the guys find their own bikini babes (Pamela Curran, Gail Gerber, and Rusty Allen). But Valerie rejects Brentwood and is attracted to Italian playboy Romano (Fabrizio Mioni) so every time Rusty and his boys get cozy with their gals, Valerie winds up in some sort of predicament and they have to rush to her rescue. Rusty then decides to romance her to keep her away from Romano and in the interim falls for the coed. However, she discovers he is being paid to watch over her. Hurt, she winds up drunk performing a striptease in a nightclub. After being broken out of jail by a contrite Rusty, she forgives him and they wind up happily ever after…maybe.

Recalling the movie in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies Shelley Fabares remarked,

“I was a fan of his [Elvis] but I was not a rabid fan. I remember—and always will remember—the first day that I met him on the set. We were getting ready to rehearse our first scene and all of a sudden he was walking across the soundstage and I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my God.  It’s Elvis Presley!’ You’re always nervous when starting a film but until I saw him that’s when I really got nervous…”

Gidget rode the tide into movie theaters for its theatrical opening. Based on the surfing adventures of the real Gidget, Kathy Kohner, the popular movie and the first (and still one of the best) Hollywood surf movie starred Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren with support from Doug McClure, Joby Baker, Yvonne Craig, and Jo Morrow.

Gidget’s story of a teenage tomboy who doesn’t fit in with her female friends and who just wants to surf with the guys is extremely entertaining.  It makes a sincere effort to capture the surfer culture of the time albeit toned down for movie audiences.  The film has lots of exciting surfing footage, beautiful Malibu scenery, and a wonderful cast headed by the sweet Sandra Dee as the “girl-midget” nicknamed Gidget and the perfectly cast Cliff Robertson as the manly surf bum Kahoona. James Darren as the college-bound Moondoggie trying to ape the Kahoona but deeep down just a typical suburnan kid at heart is a fine contrast.

As hoped for from the first official Hollywood surf movie there is lots of surfing action, excellently photographed, featuring some of Malibu’s real life surfers such as Mickey Dora and Johnny Fain.  However, a major drawback is the main stars’ lack of athletic ability. The only hindrance about Sandra Dee is that she looks like she can barely hold a surfboard let alone surf on one. The constant filming of her and James Darren in a tank on the studio lot or in front of the blue screen pretending to be riding the waves is a detriment to this movie especially to fans reared on Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush. Unfortunately, using the blue screen would become standard practice in most surf movies to follow during the sixties.

Despite the minor flaws, Gidget exudes a wonderful Southern California fun-in-the-sun feeling, and aided by the attractive cast, remains a memorable first look at the cult of surfing and the throngs who are attracted to it. Read more about it in my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini opened starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, Nancy Sinatra, Quinn O’Hara, Harvey Lembeck, Bobbi Shaw, Piccola Pupa, Claudia Martin, and Susan Hart. Plus the regular cast of beach boys and girls including Ed Garner, Christopher Riordan, Salli Sachse, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, and Luree Holmes.

Financially the least successful of the Beach Party movies, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini put the nail in the coffin for the genre at AIP.  After six movies, seven if counting Ski Party, the beach films was getting tired. AIP tried to pump life into it by shifting the locale to a creepy mansion and mixing aspects of the beach-party formula with the horror genre and populating it with fresh faces. Three heirs (Kirk, Walley, and Patsy Kelly) to a fortune gather at Hiram Stokely’s mansion for the reading of his will unaware that his crooked lawyer (Basil Rathbone) with the help of his near-sighted but knockout of a daughter (O’Hara) and a bunch of bungling circus performers (Shaw, Jesse White, Benny Rubin replacing the ill Buster Keaton, and a gorilla) plans to off them so he can steal the inheritance. His nevarious plot goes awry due to the interference of a beautiful ghost in an invisible bikini (Hart) who is sent down by Hiram (Boris Karloff) to make sure the money winds up in the rightful hands. There’s nary a beach or a surfboard in sight, which greatly hurts the movie. Instead all the action takes place at a spooky old estate with a fair number of scenes around an in-ground swimming pool with boys in bathing trunks and girls in bikinis twisting to the sounds of The Bobby Fuller Four and Nancy Sinatra. The less said about that Italian “singing sensation” Piccola Pupa the better.

Commenting on the shoot, are a number of its stars from my books Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies; Hollywood Surf & Beach Movies: and Drive-In Dream Girls.

Bobbi Shaw on Harvey Lembeck:

“Harvey was amazing and always a joy. You could tell he just loved what he did waking up in the morning and showing up on the set. We always had fun. After we finished making the beach party movies, Harvey started a comedy group and asked me to join. I didn’t, but he was always sweet and friendly. His wonderful son Michael directed Friends for many years and we are buddies.”

Quinn O’Hara on Basil Rathbone:

“When I first met him I was so afraid I’d say, ‘Rasil Bathbone’ that I actually did! He was a charming man. I heard that during his heyday in Hollywood he and his wife would throw the most magnificent parties. I was just so happy to play his daughter.”

Susan Hart on playing the ghost in the invisible bikini while wearing a blonde wig:

“One day they sprayed the wig and turned on the big lights for a scene. The make-up girl came over to powder me and she turned her head away as she did it. Then the guy who measures the distance for the lights came near me and let out a, ‘whoa!’ I thought, ‘My gosh, what is the matter?’ The director [Don Weis] started to come over and he wouldn’t get close to me. I started to get upset. Finally, somebody came over and asked me, ‘What’s the matter?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know but something is wrong because everybody who comes over to me looks at me funny, turns around and walks away. Please what is it? Do I smell or something?’ Turns out that the damn sheep oil got so hot that I started stinking like a sheep. I couldn’t smell it because not only did I have it on all that time but they had those big fans blowing as well.”

Ed Garner on Aron Kincaid:

“Aron Kincaid is a fabulous guy. He was the most dedicated, serious guy I ever worked with who wanted to become a movie star. He actually lived, breathed, and ate show business. I was amazed. He couldn’t believe that I couldn’t give a hoot about it.”

Aron Kincaid on Quinn O’Hara:

“I adored Quinn O’Hara. I had known her for a few years prior to this. She was a wonderful girl and an actual beauty queen—Miss Scotland. She had been at Universal when I was there. I had always said that once they put her in color everything would change. She looked great in black and white but nothing like she did in person.”

Double Trouble one of the worst Elvis Presley movies opened with one of his least inspiring leading ladies, Annette Day making her film debut. The movie tried to cash in on swinging mod London and the popularity of spy movies of the time. Despite being set in Europe, this being another quickie production, the entire movie was shot on MGM’s massive soundstages.

In the movie, Presley is worldwide singing sensation Guy Lambert who meets mysterious teenage heiress Jill Conway (Day) while performing in a London discothèque surrounded by hip swaying go-go girls. Underage Jill becomes infatuated with the singer much to the chagrin of her uncle and guardian Gerald Waverly (John Williams) who sends her away to Belgium to keep the pair apart but to also stop Guy from discovering that he was trying to steal his niece’s inheritance. While searching for her, Guy gets involved with spies, jewel thieves, and foreign intrigue. Inexplicably Guy chooses the teenage twit over sophisticated playgirl Claire Dunham (Yvonne Romain) by fade-out, which ends with the pair’s wedding a rarity for an Elvis movie.

This was Christopher Riordan’s sixth movie with the King and commenting on Annette Day in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies, he said, “You could tell this little girl who looked like some librarian was nervous and didn’t know what she was doing or where she was going. I remember the director was having a lot of trouble with Day. Elvis was very sweet and patient. He’d whisper in her ear, ‘We’re going to turn here and then look for your mark.’ Despite his kindness, I felt here was no chemistry between them. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Why do they keep doing this to Elvis—saddling him with weak leading ladies.’ Elvis was very sensual and had a lot of chemistry going for him. There were several actresses that he played opposite where I thought he did very well such as Marlyn Mason in The Trouble with Girls. They are wonderful together and just sizzled.”

Double Trouble had an interesting premise but was sunk by a confusing script and the inexperienced Annette Day. When an Elvis film is not populated with a strong young supporting cast as here, he needs a strong leading lady. Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas is a perfect example. Her talent and chemistry with Elvis elevated that movie despite the missing cadre of friends surrounding them and a very weak story. Double Trouble needed an “Ann-Margret” as well. You would have thought with all the talented young British actresses around at the time including Hayley Mills, Suzy Kendall, and Judy Geeson they could have found someone who at least knew their way around a soundstage. Obviously, they were doing the movie on the cheap and hoped the newcomer would deliver. Alas, Day did not.

It Happened at the World’s Fair opened starring Elvis Presley, Joan O’Brien, Gary Lockwood, and Yvonne Craig.  This is a glossy musical comedy shot on location at the Seattle World’s Fair. Presley played Mike Edwards a pilot-for-hire who, after jilting a luscious small town girl (Craig) whose father chases him off with a shotgun, heads to the Fair with his gambling-loving partner Danny Edwards (Lockwood) to get work so they can earn enough money to reclaim their airplane that has been repossessed. There Mike becomes involved with a precocious seven-year-old Chinese girl Sue-Lin (Vicky Tiu) left in the boys’ care by her farmer father and a pretty nurse named Diane Warren (O’Brien) who he’d rather spend time with though she plays hard to get.

Joan O’Brien recalled working with the King in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema:

“The first day of filming was a madhouse. When I arrived at the World’s Fair, I saw Elvis whom I had never met before over the heads of all these people. You talk about crowds! It was unbelievable. People everywhere! After we finished the first morning’s sequences they had an electric car for Elvis and me to use. They had to set up barricades and use hundreds of policemen to hold back the crowds just to get us out of there. We then went for lunch to some building that had this huge empty exhibition hall. They dropped us off, locked the door, and posted more policemen outside.”

Though Elvis did serenade Joan throughout the film, she found these scenes to be “tedious and hard because he had all the action and I felt awkward. It was very difficult for me—I don’t know about other actresses—to be aware of the camera, pay attention to him, and try to look all dreamy-eyed and in love. I felt like I had egg on my face most of the time.”

Frankie and Johnny opened starring Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, Sue Ane Langdon (who previously worked with Elvis in Roustabout), Anthony Eisley, and Nancy Kovack. A bit different than the typical Elvis film, Frankie and Johnny was based loosely on the classic folk song.  Set on a Mississippi gambling-showboat circa 1865, it featured Elvis as Johnny a singer and gambler who loves Frankie (Douglas) but she refuses to marry him until he gives up gambling. Together they perform on a showboat owned by Clint Braden (Eisley). Johnny tries to give up gambling but a fortune teller reveals that a beautiful redhead will soon enter his life and change his luck.  Things get complicated when the redhead turns out to be Nellie Bly (Kovack) the former lover of Braden. Frankie becomes jealous of Nellie who is only using Johnny to get Braden to marry her and Braden becomes jealous of Johnny. Amidst this complicated quadrangle, Langdon livens up the proceedings as Mitzie, Frankie’s ditzy lovelorn showgirl friend.

“I truly enjoyed my part of Mitzi in Frankie and Johnny,” says Langdon. “I had a great time with that role. I didn’t notice any change with Elvis. He seemed pretty much the same—still a very nice guy.  Donna Douglas was of interest to him at that time and he was spending a lot of time with her.  I just hung out with the guys on the set like I did on Roustabout.  Whenever you were with Elvis for the most part you were with his entourage.  Those guys were always around but they were all very nice.  I really had a great time working with Elvis but I don’t think he was that comfortable appearing in movies.  He was much more relaxed as a singer on stage…”

Read more of my interview with cover girl Sue Ane Langdon in my book Drive-In Dream Girls.

Harper opened. This hard-boiled detective yarn starred Paul Newman as a gumshoe hired by the icy paralyzed Lauren Bacall to investigate the disappearance of her hated wealthy husband and the father of her stepdaughter Pamela Tiffin. There are a lot of red herrings in this mystery played by the likes of Arthur Hill, Robert Webber, Julie Harris, Robert Wagner, Strother Martin, and Shelley Winters. As the sex-starved heiress Miranda, Tiffin almost steals the film with her seductive dance in a bikini atop a diving board. As the hated daughter and stepmother Elaine, Tiffin and Bacall have a number of great catty moments, which were superbly acted. After hearing that Miranda has been rejected by private pilot(Wagner), Elaine maliciously quips to Miranda, “I should think you’d be accustomed to not being loved by now.”  Miranda responds, “I love your wrinkles.  I revel in them.” When an unmoved Elaine learns that her husband has been murdered, she calls out to Miranda in a singsong voice, “Miranda!  Mommy has something to tell you!”

Pamela described Paul Newman as being “attractive, professional, and a car lover.” She added, “I was veryimpressed with Lauren Bacall but she was very tense and stand-offish. Since Paul Newman likes to rehearse, we gathered around a long table and ran lines for a week, if not more. Everyone was there except Lauren Bacall because she wanted to be the big movie star. I couldn’t be angry at her or feel slighted because I thought she was fascinating!”

Read more in my McFarland and Co. book Pamela Tiffin: Hollywood to Rome, 1961 – 1974.