Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

Beach Blanket Bingo: Directed by William Asher. With Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck. 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.

“u0026quot;Beach Blanket Bingou0026quot; is full of quirky touches (like Annetteu0026#39;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 u0026quot;The Perils of Paulineu0026quot;). Itu0026#39;s a colorful entry in the u0026quot;Beach Partyu0026quot; 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 Frankieu0026#39;s friend, here heu0026#39;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 u0026quot;Splashu0026quot;), but thereu0026#39;s enough music and slapstick to keep the rest bubbling along. **1/2 from ****”