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The pinnacle of the "BEACH" sagas, BEACH BLANKET BINGO is an Altmanesque structured film with three interweaving storyline, fleshed out recurrent characters, the best theme song from any BEACH movie, and in addition to our regulars, we get Deborah (she was GIDGET after Sandra Dee) Walley as John Ashley's love interest, Marta (LOST IN SPACE) Kristen as the mermaid (YES, Mermaid!) love interest of Jody McCrea, Hollywood Columnist Earl Wilson as himself, Buster Keaton and Don Rickles back for return BEACH engagements, Paul Lynde at his absolute grandest, and then just when you think you're plate is filled to overflowing, you get the ultimate topping, a radiant Linda (DYNASTY, THE BIG VALLEY) Evans as Sugar Kane (also Marilyn Monroe's character's name in SOME LIKE IT HOT - I smell homage here), a sky-diving Top 40 songstress who tries to steal Frankie away from Annette as well as singing 2 of the most cheesily memorable songs you've ever heard. Heaven!
Mermaids, Bikers, Surfers, Pop Singers, Bad Entertainment Publicists, Annette's Bosom, Parachute Jumps, Teenage Skin, AND Paul Lynde!!!!
Asher's direction is so right on target it's scary. The film has no fat, and Asher is so in control he balances the subplots brilliantly keeping the film moving at a brisk gallop. And the film is down right funny.
And although she's not in this film, if you look carefully in PAJAMA PARTY, a very famous comedienne is one of the background dancers. Look carefully - you'll roll!!!!
And I LOVED SKI PARTY too!!!
But BEACH BLANKET BINGO is the Citizen Kane of the genre!!
Whew!

PAJAMA PARTY is excellent, and an interesting twist on the standard formula, but it's BEACH BLANKET BINGO that will forever hold my heart.

I saw both of Charles Bush's stage plays and they worked well and were genuinely funny theatre. The movie version of PSYCHO BEACH PARTY just misses every mark - badly. I attended the first day screening in NY and when the movie ended I walked out saddened.

I stayed up most of Saturday night and had a BEACH marathon. God they look great!!! I absolutely adore the films, they're just the finest in light fluff. I even own a picture disk lp of Annette singing all the BEACH movie songs - what a pathetic junkie I am!!!

And aside from the petite Miss Gore, wasn't "The Hardest Working Man In Rock 'n Roll" also sweatered and singing in SKI PARTY?

VACATION IS HERE - BEACH PARTY TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Mac!!!!!

I believe that was Teri Garr doin' the frugin' in PAJAMA PARTY.

Has anyone ever seen the non-A.I.P. beach movie IT'S A BIKINI WORLD with Tommy Kirk? This was about the last gasp for the genre, but surprisingly contained some much more popular music than the bigger-budgeted A.I.P. films, with The Animal's doing "We've Got To Get Out Of This Place" and The Castaways performing "Liar, Liar". Bobby "Boris" Pickett & Sid Haig show up in it too. It was directed by Stephanie Roth, who did some strange films like BLOOD BATH and THE VELVET VAMPIRE. As far as I know, this film has never appeared on video.

There was another, sorta-beach party film called THE CATALINA CAPER that starred Kirk again, and a very blonde, very handsome guy named Michael Blodgett who later went on to write screenplays. It was directed by Lee "Roll 'Em" Sholem and shot by Ted V. Mikels, who directed quite a few bad films of his own. If I remember right, there was musical appearance by a then down-and-out Little Richard warbling some forgettable tune.

Yes, Rick, it's the same film. I think it might even have been subjected to the MST3K treatment. Actually, I kind of enjoyed it, although maybe for the wrong reasons. Come to think of it, though, I wouldn't consider Tommy Kirk and Michael Blodgett to be wrong reasons at all....

BTW, I should have given THE CATALINA CAPER's director's name as Stephanie Rothman, not Roth.

I feel like Karloff wandering in late on BIKINI BEACH with the line "I must tell Vincent Price about this place."
As to Michael Blodgett, I don't remember the nude bit, but I saw BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS more recently and recognized him from some tv shows. He was in I think the very first (and rather scary at the time) NIGHT GALLERY episode titled "The Dead Man", with Carl Betz as a scientist who places Blodgett in a death-like state, then forgets the series of sounds required to bring him back to life. Much later, Betz remembers, and his wife, in love with the Blodgett character, hurries to the tomb to bring him back. Welllll, she should have let him be.

I also think that BEACH BLANKET BINGO is the masterpiece of the series. The mermaid subplot may well have inspired SPLASH. It was fun to see Linda Evans, but she was only lip-synching her songs, another gal actually cut the vocals.

The two later Tommy Kirk flicks already mentioned were only pale imitations of the AIP films. Aside from SKI PARTY, I'm certain that GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI never enjoyed a homevideo release. I can't believe that MGM somehow managed to avoid GHOST and BINGO.

Does anyone have an opinion about which is the weakest film of the series? I'd have to watch them all again (which I'll be doing later this month for a particular magazine--at least the ones on MGM DVD--but offhand, I'd cite MUSCLE BEACH PARTY as being the silliest and least captivating entry.