CineTV Contest: 55 - Beach Party (1963)

When CineTV announced that this week’s contest would be favorite beach movies, I immediately gravitated to Beach Party (1963), the first in the series of beach movies from American International Pictures, and paring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon as a “teenage” couple where their romance goes awry for a number of reasons. The various beach (and other related films) featured a lot of additional musical talent, in this case Dick Dale and His Del-Tones. I have written about the beach movies that starred Frankie, Annette, and Dick previously, first with Back to the Beach (1987), a reunion film of sorts, and Pajama Party (1962 - this one without Dick Dale). As you may have guessed, I am a long time fan of the beach movies as they are pure escapist entertainment with a lot of good music.

Beach Party is where it all started for Frankie and Annette at AIP, making quite a few films together over the years, and in many ways, Beach Party is one of the best of the AIP beach movies. It is also a bit different as it has to introduce the various characters who would appear in many of the films that followed, including Eric von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack motorcycle gang. I’m not sure if the producers knew they were going to make a series of films with the same cast/characters with many of the same crew, but that is what happened.

The plot revolves around Professor Sutwell (Bob Cummings) who is studying the Surfers for a book he is writing on, of all things, teenage sex, and notes similarities between the Surfers and various tribal cultures he has studied around the world. Mary Anne (Dorothy Malone), his assistant, does get one of the best lines in the film when she suggests that Sutwell, after he writes his book, should read it. As fate would have it, with the usual boy meets girl, boy loses girl (all about Frankie and Annette's relationship), Sutwell finds himself inadvertently entangled with Annette’s character, Dolores (note, Frankie is always Frankie in most of the AIP films). The Surfers and the Rats all take to giving Sutwell a variety of unpleasant nicknames, most revolving around his beard.

Lembeck is a bit more of a bad guy than in succeeding films, but is still a bit of a failure at being a bad guy, or maybe he is just darn good at being a bumbling failure of a bad guy. Any rate, Lembeck as von Zipper and his Rat Pack provide a mix of conflict and comedy relief throughout the film.

The beach movies were also known for having cameo appearances by a variety of actors who mainly starred in horror films. In this first film, there is a background character, Big Daddy, hanging out at a club, also called Big Daddy’s, but referred to as Cappy’s (Cappy is played by Morey Amsterdam) that the surfers go to, with the teens all waiting for Big Daddy to wake up and give them The Word. I will refrain from mentioning who plays Big Daddy, but he is very well known, and it is a real Thrill(er) to see his identity revealed at the end of the film.

Musically, Beach Party includes several hits by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones, which is only appropriate as Dick Dale was known as The King of the Surf Guitar, being one of the original movers and shakers of the California/Surf sound. Frankie and Annette also sing a few songs, one as a duet as the film opens, and additional songs solo. I have to say that I think the best song in the film is Frankie Avalon singing “Don’t Stop Now”. That song really rocks. The seen in which Frankie performs that song, has Frankie dancing with a number of young ladies in Big Daddy’s place, including Candy Johnson (who appears in a number of other AIP Beach movies). After watching the film this time around, I went over to Spotify and added “Don’t Stop Now” on to my playlist.

As a kid I grew up watching these movies on a small television set when they came on the TV, and they have always stayed with me as being a lot of fun to watch, and I continue to enjoy them, now with my Bonnie Bride and, occasionally, with my daughter, Little Miss (although she skipped out on us to watch Penn and Teller this time around). For me, they scream of going to the beach, even though as a kid, I had never been to a beach (my mom was a single parent during much of my childhood, so vacations were non-existent, until she remarried, then, as a teenager, summer vacation in Santa Cruz). And, despite von Zipper’s shortcomings, he was a favorite character of mine (and of my daughter's) in these movies.

As a special note, this post was written while listening to a lot of surf music, both modern and classic, including songs from Dick Dale.

Be sure to head over to the CineTV blog at - @cinetv/cinetv-contest-55-favorite-movie-with-a-beach - to learn more about this weel's contest and about the community.

Thanks for stopping by.

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