GONNA HAVE A SKI PARTY

I thought I’d end my Top 5 Sixties Beach Party movies with a cold treat for these hot summer days. A few films (i.e. Get Yourself a College Girl, Winter a-Go-Go, Wild Wild Winter) switched the locale from the warm California seashore to the chilly mountaintop ski slopes. The best of the crop for me was Ski Party (1965).

Frankie Avalon (Todd Armstrong/ Jane), Dwayne Hickman (Craig Gamble/ Nora), Deborah Walley (Linda Hughes), Yvonne Craig (Barbara Norris), Robert Q. Lewis (Donald Pevney), Bobbi Shaw (Nita), Aron Kincaid (Freddie Carter), The Hondells (Themselves) Steve Rogers (Gene), Patti Chandler (Janet), Mike Nader (Bobby), Salli Sachse (Indian), John Boyer (Ski Boy), Mikki Jamison (Vicki), Mickey Dora (Mickey), Bill Sampson (Arthur), Mary Hughes, Luree Holmes (Ski Girls), Sigi Engl (Ski Instructor). Uncredited: Ronnie Dayton, Jo Collins, Paul Gleason, and Annette Funicello (Prof. Roberts). Guest Stars: James Brown and the Famous Flames, and Lesley Gore.

Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman play two average college guys, who are losers when it comes to the ladies, so they masquerade as English lasses on a ski trip to discover why their chicks Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig dig suave ladies man Aron Kincaid and what they really want in a guy. Complications ensue when the pompous Kincaid falls in love with Hickman’s female incarnation. Meanwhile, when not romping around in drag, Avalon tries to make Walley jealous by flirting with Swedish bombshell Bobbi Shaw. The first half of the picture unfolds quite briskly with excellent musical numbers performed by 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 musical comedies.

Ski Party stands out from the rest of the AIP beach-party movies not only because of the change in locale but because of the superior production values. Credit must go to producer Gene Corman and his crew. The film is exquisitely filmed on location with some awesome ski shots. Alan Rafkin also does a first-rate job of directing and keeps the action moving. He brings some originality to the musical numbers as well. Having Frankie Avalon, Deborah Walley, Dwayne Hickman, and Yvonne Craig sing “Painting the Town” while on a sunlit sleigh ride helps elevate the song with the beautiful shots of the foursome traveling through the snow-covered back roads. “Lots Lots More” would just have been a standard song warbled by Frankie Avalon with twistin’ beach babes dancing beside him if it were not for Rafkin’s unusual camera angles capturing the curvy features of Walley, Patti Chandler, Mikki Jamison, and Jo Collins.

The musical performances by the guest stars are the standouts of any AIP beach movie. Here it is no exception. Lesley Gore sings the catchy “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows” on the bus ride to Sun Valley. Following the release of Ski Party, the song became a hit and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard charts. The Hondells turn up on the beach and rock on “The Gasser” and the title song. Finally, the appearance of James Brown and the Flames who come in out of the snow to perform their Top 10 record “I Got You (I Feel Good)” is truly one of the greatest musical moments in beach movie history.

Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman are well paired as the wisecracking losers-in-love Todd and Craig and are very believable and amusing as the peppery English lasses, Jane and Nora. As the objects of their devotion, Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig are only okay but they look stunning in Technicolor making it perfetly plausible to the audience why the boys would go to so much trouble to win them over. Bobbi Shaw is engaging as a sexy Swede who decides she prefers love, American style. It is nice to see AIP contract players Patti Chandler and Salli Sachse given more to do here than in the Beach Party movies. They along with Luree Holmes, Mikki Jamison, and Playboy Playmate Jo Collins look very good in their bathing suits or tight-fitting ski clothes. For beefcake watchers, there’s lean boyish-looking Mike Nader and handsome, chiseled Steve Rogers. But it is the smarmy charm of Aron Kincaid (pictured above surrounded by a bevy of beauties) as the pompous Freddie who flips for a guy in drag who steals the movie. Usually clad in dark sweaters and turtlenecks (which were a perfect contrast to his blonde hair and fair features), Kincaid is striking looking and awes every girl on screen and every girl in the audience (not to mention a boy or two).

Ski Party is avaialbel on DVD and I heartily recommend it!

BAD MOVIES WE LOVE

Tonight at 11pm Turner Classic Movies broadcasts The Oscar (1966)one of the campiest looks at conniving actors, scheming starlets, and all of Tinseltown’s backstabbers. Stephen Boyd is the cad who steps on everyone including his pal Tony Bennett, ex-stripper Jill St. John, good girl the miscast Elke Sommer and other louses as he ascends the Hollywodd ladder rung by rung until he gets a coveted Oscar nomination. Along the way he has a run-in with his female counterpart a vapid, career driven bitch played by the lovely Jean Hale (pictured)a sweet sweet lady in real life. Below are her comments about the movie contained in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Hollywood:

“I originally auditioned for the role of the stripper because the movie star part was already cast. I went in and read for it but told the producers that I wanted the other role. They said, ‘Sorry but it has already been cast.’ I pleaded with them to let me read for it and they finally relented. Before I got home they had called my agent to say the movie star role was mine.”

“I had a ball playing such a nasty character. Before this I always got parts where I had to cry and kiss the guy. It was so nice not to have to do that for this role.”

“Edith Head was an absolutely amazing woman and a creative genius. She had an office about sixty to seventy feet long. At the entrance to it there was a light panel with a great number of switches. At the other end of the room she’d have you stand on this pedestal with mirrors three quarters of the way around it. Three or four of her assistants would then take a piece of fabric and with their hands create all different looks for the evening gowns she was designing for me—from various necklines to all types of skirt styles. They would literally create the dress on you while you were standing there. Edith could see you from every angle in every type of light and would decide your finest look. I remember her telling me that my best look was a scoop neck. She designed three gowns for me and all of them had a variation on that type of neckline.”

STARLETS ON THE GO-GO

Drive-in Dream Girl Gail Gerber returns to the big screen after almost a 35 year absence playing a wheel-chair bound crazy old woman in Lucky Days. It was written by Angelica Torn (daughter of Rip Torn and Geraldine Page) who stars as a depressed woman seeking freedom from an abusive boyfriend and family during the last days of Coney Island as we know it before the developers get their hands on it. Co-starring are Luke Zarzecki, Will Patton, Rip Torn, and Anne Jackson. Click here to see the trailer.

Fantasy Femme Lana Wood as been busy lately making movies and now guest stars in a TV pilot called Divas of Novella. She plays “Zeld” in this proposed sci-fi series about 4 women convicts from an intergalatic prison colony who have to unite to stop a long dormant male society from rising to take domination over their star system. Click here for the official web site.