Below is a wonderful clip of 60′s starlet Tisha Sterling as one of a trio of psychotic sisters in the twisted film The Name of the Game Is Kill! (1968) directed by former actor Gunnar Hellstrom.  The movie has reached cult status due to the appearance of female impersonator T. C. Jones, who played the girls’ crazy father pretending to be their murdered mother.  In the film, Jack Lord (just before he landed Hawaii Five-0) played a Hungarian immigrant named Symcha Lipa who meets beautiful Susan Strasberg, the “normal” sister, while wandering the highways of Arizona.  Susan operates a family-owned gas station and invites him to stay with her and her sisters: child-like, spider-loving Sterling and masculine Collin Wilcox, plus dear old mom Jones.  All three sisters try to seduce and then kill Symcha.

The Name of the Game Is Kill! was beautifully filmed on location in Jerome, Arizona by Vilmos Zsigmond.  His remarkable cinematography and Stu Phillips’s haunting theme “Shadows” sung by The Electric Prunes are the film’s high points.  “Making this film was an extremely wild experience for me,” recalls Tisha.  “I have never seen the film in its entirety and would love to see it one day.  It was a really hard shoot because we had to work long hours in this weird little town called Jerome—it was not much more than a ghost town.  The temperature was close to 120 degrees and it was horrendous.  We also all hated Gunnar Hellstrom. He was mean and we all wanted to mutiny. Anyway, I thought I did pretty well in this movie.”

“I worked with Jack Lord prior to working with him on this movie,” continues Sterling.  “Jack was really weird but he was a terrific fellow.  He lived in the same building that I lived in.  He was a very serious guy.  He was always kind to me and looked after me like a father.  Jack was also a very good artist and had a lovely wife who took care of him.  Susan Strasberg was a Method actress so her technique would drive Jack crazy.  T. C. Jones played our father.  He was nice but also a bit weird.  Collin Wilcox, on the other hand, was wonderful!  We stayed friends for years after doing this movie.  She introduced me to a macrobiotic diet.  We lived close by to each other in Topanga Canyon.”

I am finally catching up with the movies TCM ran during its Spring Break Film Festival and was pleasantly surprised to see that they aired a pristine letterboxed print of It’s a Bikini World (1967) starring Deborah Walley and Tommy Kirk. It is too bad Ben Mankiewicz and I didn’t get to introduce this one, as I had some interesting anecdotes about it.

It’s a Bikini World 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 on the shore and when she rebukes the advances of the local Casanova, 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 in 1965 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 1965 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 out of shape even by 1967 standards, 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 and as always blonde Lori Williams (of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! fame) is dancing away on the shore and in the clubs. Sid Haig plays Daddy the hip owner of the kid’s hangout and sponsor of the competition.

Directed by a woman, Stephanie Rothman, she  keeps the pace moving briskly but lets the end competition sequences run on much too long dragging down the movie.  Everything from skateboarding to camel racing is thrown in.  Though bound by limited budget, she adds some surreal touches to the film.  Whereas the expected gaggle of bikini-clad girls are present, Rothman throws in some unexpected titillation such as guy-girl wrestling on the beach.

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.

It’s a Bikini World is an entertaining curio if you are looking for something a bit different in a beach movie. On an interesting note, AIP knowing the beach movie craze had come and gone, refused to release the movie in 1966 and it was distributed by a subsidiary company, Trans American, sneaking into drive-ins in Spring 1967.

Actress Francine York has a long career in Hollywood beginning in 1959 and never seems to want for work. She just landed a guest role on Hot in Cleveland with Betty White and did an exclusive hour long interview with Actors Reporter about her time in Hollywood where she discusses everything from working with Jerry Lewis, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, and George Peppard to her starring roles in such B-movies as Curse of the Swamp Creature to her memorable TV guest appearances on Lost in Space, Bewitched, The Name of the Game, etc.

Below is a clip with Francine as Venus de Milo brought to life by Endora on Bewitched:

Just in case you didn’t get enough of me this week on TCM, I will be on a panel discussing my favorite movie of all-time The Poseidon Adventure at a screening this Saturday April 28 at the Loews Theatre Jersey City. The distinguished panelists are moderator Stephen Whitty, film critic for the Star Ledger; Cinema Retro contributor David Savage; film historian Chris Poggiali; and film studies professor Andy Scahill. Click here for more information.

Here’s the movie lineup for the Spring Break Film Festival finale for Friday April 20 co-hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and me accompanied by my mini reviews from my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies.

8:00 P.M. Ski Party

After its success with the beach milieu, AIP was the first studio to switch the party from the sandy shores of Malibuto the ski sloops of Sun Valley with Ski Party though the movie concludes back on the beach.  It was a move that paid off nicely although as with Muscle Beach Party, Ski Party is another AIP film that fans are divided upon.  Two average college guys (Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman), who are losers when it comes to the ladies, masquerade as English lasses on a ski trip to discover why their gals (Deborah Walley, Yvonne Craig) dig suave Freddie (Aron Kincaid) and what they really want in a guy.  Complications ensue when the pompous ladies man falls in love with one of the guy’s female incarnation. The first half of the picture unfolds quite briskly with excellent musical numbers performed by Frankie Avalon, James Brown, and Lesley Gore though the second half bogs down a bit with a ludicrous ski jump contest and an overlong chase sequence, standard for these AIP romps. Even still, Ski Party has high production values, is quite funny with a standout performance from Kincaid, James Brown and the Famous Flames peforming one of their biggest hits, and is beautifully photographed on location making it well worth seeing.

Co-starring Robert Q. Lewis, Lesley Gore, Bobbi Shaw, Mike Nader, Steve Rogers, Salli Sachse, Patti Chandler, Luree Holmes, Jo Collins, Christopher Riordan.

10:00 p.m. Winter a-Go-Go

A personal favorite though most critics consider it one of the lesser beach party movies.  Unlike Ski Party and Wild Wild Winter, which incorporated beach scenes into their plots, Winter a-Go-Go heads straight for the slopes and remains there the entire time though there is an obligatory bikini scene.  Jeff (William Wellman, Jr.) inherits a ski resort and with a pack of friends (including James Stacy, Beverly Adams, Tom Nardini) heads off to turn the lodge into a success but trouble ensues when the mortgage holder hires two goons to wreck havoc so he can foreclose.  Of all the beach party films this was this is the closest to being camp with its scantily-clad dancing Winter a-Go-Go girls, to James Stacy singing “Hip Square Dance” in his pajamas to the bitchy barbs thrown out by ambiguous gay guy Roger (Bob Kanter).  Connoisseurs of all things camp should have a ball.

Co-starring Jill Donahue, Anthony Hayes, Duke Hobie, Julie Parrish, Linda Rogers, Nancy Czar, Judy Parker, Buck Holland, Nooney Rickett Four, Joni Lyman, the Reflections.

12:00 a.m. Get Yourself a College Girl

Produced by Sam Katzman, the weirdly titled Get Yourself a College Girl was originally to be called Watusi a-Go-Go to cash in on the dance craze.  But when the film was ready to be released, the Watusi had become passe.  Mary Ann Mobley plays a college coed at a staid girls school whose side job as a songwriter of love songs is exposed causing a scandal. Huh!?! She goes off skiing for Spring Break with her friends Nancy Sinatra and Chris Noel, and her teacher Joan O’Brien. There she is pursued by song publisher Chad Everett the guy who revealed her profession to the school administrators. Like a number of Katzman’s films, it is best remembered for the eclectic array of musical performers including the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, the Standells, and Astrud Gilberto.

Co-starring Fabrizio Mioni, Lori Williams, Christopher Riordan

It’s Beach Party night!

Here’s the lineup for Thursday April 19′s movies co-hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and me accompanied by my mini reviews from my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies.

8:00 pm Beach Party 

Beach Party combined the Malibu surfing scenes of Gidget with the beach going teenaged vacationers of Where the Boys Are, added a number of songs, an hilarious comedy bit from Harvey Lembeck as an inept motorcycle gang leader, and started a whole new genre.  Frankie Avalon, his girlfriend Annette Funicello, and their friends share a beach shack during spring break where their main concerns are surfin’, dancin’, and romancin’.  Unbeknownst to them, they are being spied on by an anthropologist (Bob Cummings) and his pretty assistant (Dorothy Malone) doing a research paper comparing teenage culture to that of primitive natives.  Though Beach Party is not the best of the Frankie and Annette beach capers it is enjoyable, colorful, fast-moving fun as the skies are blue, the boys are shirtless, the girls are attractive, the surfing plentiful, and the parents are nowhere in sight.  It also the most earnest attempt of all the AIP beach-party films in trying to truly ape the Southern California surfing subculture even having the kids drink beer at the local hangout.  In later films their beverage of choice is Coke.

Co-starring Jody McCrea, John Ashley, Eva Six, Valora Noland, Candy Johnson, Delores Wells, Ed Garner, Mickey Dora, Luree Holmes, Linda Rogers

10:00 p.m. Muscle Beach Party

The first sequel to Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party is one of the best though fans are divided.  It’s surfers versus bodybuilders for control of the beach while Frankie is romanced by an Italian countess (Luciana Paluzzi), which throws Dee Dee (Annette) into a tizzy.  Frankie and Annette hit their stride as the beach-loving couple, surfing is still the main sport, and the conflict between the surfers and musclemen is a nice change of pace from the surfers’ usual outlandish clashes with Eric Von Zipper’s motorcycle gang.  The movie is also very funny thanks to a surprisingly subdued Buddy Hackett as a business manager and the hysterical Don Rickles playing the leader of the body beautiful.  The serious film student may try to read between the lines regarding the film’s gender issues while the rest of the audience can just sit back in wallow in the acres of near-naked flesh on display.

Co-starring John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Dick Dale, Candy Johnson, Rock Stevens (aka Peter Lupus), Valora Noland, Delores Wells, Donna Loren, Salli Sachse, Luree Holmes, Ed Garner, Mike Nader, Alberta Nelson, Amedee Chabot

11:45 p.m. Bikini Beach

The third film of the series, Bikini Beach opens with a rousing title song sung by Frankie, Annette, and the cast but the movie quickly goes downhill from there.  Annette’s Dee Dee falls for hot rod racing British pop star the Potato Bug (Avalon amusing in a dual role) making Frankie jealous and determined to beat the Brit in a drag race.  Meanwhile an old stuffy real estate developer (Keenan Wynn) is determined to drive the surfers off the beach by proving that his chimp is more intelligent than they are.  Despite it being the highest grossing AIP beach-party film, Bikini Beach is definitely one of the lesser efforts though seeing Little Stevie Wonder perform is definitely worth a look.  The story is lame and unfunny, the surfing scenes are uninspired, and the obligatory drawn-out car chase sequence is sillier-than-usual. One of my least favorites.

Co-starring John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Meredith MacRae, Donna Loren, Salli Sachse, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, Luree Holmes, Ed Garner, Mike Nader, Johnny Fain, Linda Rogers, Alberta Nelson, Andy Romano

1:30 a.m. Beach Blanket Bingo

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 story centering around Dee Dee proving to Frankie that girls can sky dive as well as boys, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen), and a beautiful singer (Linda Evans) kidnapped by Von Zipper’s (Harvey Lembeck) biker gang is far-fetched.  But it contains some very funny lines mostly delivered by 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.  Lots of colorful beach scenes are intermingled with stock sky diving shots.  All your AIP favorite stars are here, the songs are bouncy and light, an array of guest comics provide some of the series’ funniest moments, and a bevy of beautiful blondes enhance the action.

Co-starring Deborah Walley, John Ashley, Donna Michelle, Donna Loren, Bobbi Shaw, Buster Keaton, Salli Sachse, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, Luree Holmes, Jo Collins, Ed Garner, Mike Nader, Johnny Fain, Linda Rogers, Alberta Nelson, Andy Romano

3:15 a.m. Pajama Party

The fourth movie in the Beach Party series, Pajama Party, despite Frankie Avalon’s absence, is the arguably the second best of the AIP productions after Beach Blanket Bingo.  A Martian (Tommy Kirk) is sent to Earth to pave the way for an invasion.  He mixes in with the beach crowd where he winds up tangling with a biker gang, an Indian (Bustr Keaton), a Swedish bombshell (Bobbi Shaw), and some con artists while wooing Annette.  Admittedly, the plot is lame, but Pajama Party is handsomely produced featuring the most energetic production numbers of the series thanks to choreographer David Winters.  Surfing fans should stay away though—there’s nary a surfboard in sight.

Co-starring Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Donna Loren, Susan Hart, Dorothy Lamour, Jesse White, Mary Hughes, Patti Chandler, Luree Holmes, Ed Garner, Mike Nader, Johnny Fain, Linda Rogers, Alberta Nelson, Andy Romano, Teri Garr

It’s a Gail Gerber double feature!

Here’s the lineup for Wednesday April 18′s movies co-hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and me accompanied by my mini reviews from my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies.

8:00 pm The Girls on the Beach (TCM premiere)

The Girls on the Beach is one of the better Beach Party clones enhanced by witty dialog, a pleasant, wholesome cast, and outstanding musical performances by the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore.  A gaggle of coeds (including Noreen Corcoran, Lana Wood, Gail Gerber) are trying to raise funds to save their sorority house when three surfer dudes (Martin West, Aron Kincaid, Steve Rogers) who want to score with them trick the gals into thinking that they are tight with The Beatles.  The girls then announce a fundraiser with the Fab Four as headliners much to the detriment of the guys.  When they learn that they have been duped, the coeds don longhaired wigs and impersonate The Beatles…badly.

Co-starring Linda Marshall, Anna Capri, Mary Mitchell, Linda Saunders, Peter Brooks, Christopher Riordan

9:30 pm Beach Ball

Despite the drubbing from the critics and some beach movie fans, Beach Ball is arguably the breeziest and most enjoyable of the Beach Party clones.  It is also the most blatant rip off throwing in everything from surfing, skydiving, and hot rodding to a battle-of-the-bands contest and the guys in drag to match the zaniness of the AIP beach movies.  Four college dropouts (Edd Byrnes, Robert Logan, Aron Kincaid, Don Edmonds) try to con some nerdy girls (including Chris Noel, Gail Gerber) at the student union to give them a student loan for tuition but in fact the money is needed to pay for their musical instruments.  The gals get wise to their scheme and try to trick the guys into returning to school. The film works well because it is fast-paced, nicely photographed in color, has some funny moments, lots of beach scenes, a healthy-looking cast, a bouncy score, and an excellent roster of musical performers most notably the Supremes, the Righteous Brothers, the Walker Brothers, and The Four Seasons who are interspersed throughout the movie.

Co-starring Brenda Benet, Mikki Jamison, Anna Lavelle

11:00 pm The Endless Summer

Filmmaker Barry Brown proved that you could make an entertaining movie about real surfers without shimmying bikini-clad girls or singing beach boys, and still attract the general public.  The plot is simple as two surfers (Mike Hynson, Robert August) traipse the globe following the summer season searching for the perfect wave. It serves up some of the finest surfing footage of the decade excellently photographed enhanced by an enchanting musical score, gorgeous scenery, handsome surfers, and witty narration making it the definitive surf movie of the Sixties and perhaps of all time. Once you start watching you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it.

12:45 am The Barefoot Adventure

An early Bruce Brown surf doc done in his typical tongue-in-cheek style. Beautifully transferred to digital, you would never know by watching that he had to crib the film, narration, and music from bits and pieces from his attic. He lost the original sound and had to create new narration but luckily he retained the music score by jazz great Bud Shank. Defintely worth viewing to see what the early surf docs that played mainly to Southern California surfers in high school auditoriums up and down the coast were like.

Here’s the lineup for Tuesday April 17′s movies co-hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and me accompanied by my mini reviews from my book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies.

8:00 pm Gidget

Gidget remains one of the best Hollywood surf movies of all time.  The 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 Cliff Robertson as the manly surf bum Kahoona.

C0-starring James Darren as Moondoggie, Joby Baker, Yvonne Craig, Jo Morrow, Doug McClure

9:45 p.m. Gidget Goes Hawaiian

Surfing takes a backseat to romance in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, an inferior sequel to Gidget.  The movie comes off as a puppy love story aimed at adolescent girls rather than a look into the surfing subculture like the original.  Gidget (now Deborah Walley)jets off for a family vacation in the Hawaiian Islands where she and her surfing sweetheart Moondoggie (James Darren) try to make each other jealous by getting romantically involved with, respectively, a handsome TV performer (Michael Callan) and a spoiled vixen (Vicki Trickett).  In an obvious ploy to pump up the box office by attracting adults to the movie as well as youths the older actors as parents hog way too much screen time.  However, the Hawaiian beach scenes, a few surfing sequences, and some of the attractive younger performers save it from being a total wipeout.

Co-starring Bart Patton, Don Edmonds, Carl Reiner, Peggy Cass

11:30 p.m. Ride the Wild Surf

Ride the Wild Surf stands head and shoulders above all the sixties beach-party movies.  Three California surfers (Fabian, Tab Hunter, Peter Brown) come to Hawaii to surf the huge waves of the North Shore and in the process mature and find romance.  It makes an honorable effort to portray surfers and the sport of surfing sincerely and to showcase the big waves of the North Shore of Hawaii.  There are no singing surfers or goofy motorcycle gang members in this film as it opens with a narrator explaining why young men from all over the world come to Hawaii to surf.  Then the wave action takes over never letting up making Ride the Wild Surf the best Hollywood surf movie of the sixties.  Kudos to a excellent cast, stunning photography by Joseph Biroc, and one of the all-time best pop surf songs “Ride the Wild Surf” sung by Jan and Dean over the closing credits.

Co-starring Shelley Fabares, Barbara Eden, Susan Hart, Jim Mitchum, Roger Davis

1:15 a.m. For Those Who Think Young

For Those Who Think Young was the second film to be released from the major studios aping AIP’s beach-party formula.  Despite his grandfather’s protestations, a rich playboy (James Darren) romantically pursues a proud but poor coed (sultry Pamela Tiffin) whose guardians work in a nightclub catering to the swinging college crowd with the action flitting from the shores of Malibu to the college campus.  The film is a perfect example of just how the majors didn’t understand what made the Frankie and Annette pictures so successful.  Instead of rock groups there are parents!  Rather than lots of beach scenes and surfing footage there is comedian Woody Woodbury!  Also note to producers: peppering the film with character actors from the 1930s does not a beach party make.

Co-starring Bob Denver, Tina Louise, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Lynde, Ellen Burstyn, Claudia Martin, Susan Hart, Ed Garner

3:00 a.m. It’s a Bikini World

It’s a Bikini World features an interesting premise, a great lineup of musical talent (The Animals, The Castaways, The Gentrys)and a spirited cast but the extremely low budget production values hamper the movie.  There’s a new beach babe (Deborah Walley) on the shore and when she rebukes the advances of the local Casanova (Tommy 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 in 1965 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.

Co-starring Bob Pickett, Suzie Kaye, Lori Williams

My stint on Turner Classic Movies co-introducing with Ben Mankiewicz 19 Sixties beach/surf/Elvis/snow movies begins Monday April 18.

Monday’s Lineup:

8:00 pm Where the Boys Are with Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimiuex, Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis

10:00 pm Palm Springs Weekend with Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin, Stefanie Powers, Robert Conrad

12:00 am Girl Happy with Elvis, Shelley Fabares, Mary Ann Mobley, Chris Noel, Gail Gerber, Nancy Czar, Lyn Edgington

2:00 am Blue Hawaii with Elvis, Joan Blackman, Nancy Walters, Jenny Maxwell, Darlene Tompkins, Pamela Austin

4:00 am Clambake with Elvis, Shelley Fabares, Suzie Kaye, Angelique Pettyjohn, Arlene Charles, Bill Bixby, Will Hutchins

Turner Classic Movies has nice write-ups on its website about all the movies to be shown during its Spring Break Film Festival, co-hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and me, beginning April 16, 2012 at 8 p.m. with Where the Boys Are. Check it out.