A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Okay, leave your brain behind. After all, this is the first installment of moviedom's biggest celebration of mindless fluff. Okay, no one's expecting Oscar bait from a title like Beach Party, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. Between the sunny swimsuit foreplay and California's sand, sea, and surf, it's the peak of pre-Vietnam hedonism. And a heckuva lot of fun it is for those unashamed to say so. Annette and Frankie, Frankie and Annette, he loves her, she loves him. But first they have to find each other amid all the other shaking' and wigglin' going on. And, oh yes, there's one-finger warrior Bob Cummings to carry the acting load, along with a perfectly groomed Dorothy Malone to keep him company. Add a goofy Jody MacCrea and a fractured Harvey Lembeck, and there're chuckles aplenty. Then there's perpetual motion Candy Johnson. Hook her up to a power plant and she'll light up LA. And catch those sunsets over the glorious Pacific. Hard to believe there was ever a carefree time like this for teens. But then, isn't this what the Hollywood Dream Machine is for. Here, it's hitting on all eight, and happily so. (It seems not fair to rate this ad for Surfin' USA on the usual scale. But on the Fluff Meter it rates a '10'.)

This 1963 movie was a prequel of sorts to the 1964 "Bikini Beach", using many of the same characters and some continuation of story lines, like Eric Von Zipper and his RATZ motorcycle gang. But Avalon and Funicello, even though experienced actors, had not become the the "beach lovers" yet, and this is the movie that made them that. It brings back good memories for me in particular, 1963 was the year I graduated from high school and turned 18. I didn't see this movie back then, but seeing it now is a certain type of fun that can't be explained unless you too were a teenager back then.This movie really focuses on established star Robert Cummings, who was in his early 50s, as Professor Sutwell. He landed his small high-wing plane on the beach and stuck around to study this strange species, the teenage surfer crowd. His able assistant and eventual love interest is Dorothy Malone as Marianne .Frankie Avalon is Frankie and Annette Funicello is Dolores (called 'Dee-Dee' in the next movie). They are boyfriend and girlfriend, but as was custom back in the 1960s, she wanted him to ask her to get married. She was graduating from high school and wanted to be a wife. (It really was that way back then, all the girls from my 1963 graduating class that didn't go to college got married pretty quickly, and many of them have lasted through the years. It was a different time.)So most of the story is Dolores trying to make Frankie jealous so that he will ask her to marry him. She does that by taking an interest in Professor Suttwell, even with the age difference. She misinterprets his interest as a romantic interest.Another really fun blast from the past is Morey Amsterdam as Cappy who ran the local hangout. Harvey Lembeck is Eric Von Zipper and we see how Professor Suttwell first paralyzes him with "the finger" to his temple. Soon after to become obscure was Eva Six as Ava , who some described as 'a face like Marilyn Monroe's and a body like Jayne Mansfield's, which she did but I suppose she wasn't much of an actress.The movie is mostly ridiculous and slapstick, it never was intended to be high art, just fluff of entertainment for the times. And for that it hits that mark quite well.

Even people who HATE these movies, who won't even watch them as "schlock", probably have second thoughts when it comes to Eric Von Zipper and his Rat Pack. Which is easy for me to say, since I've always been attached to the things IN GENERAL (a Summer wouldn't be quite the same without them). I never knew anything of The Bob Cummings Show for the longest time, and never SAW it until last year, so I never really got the inside joke of him (of all people) playing a straight-laced character trying to be a swinger. And speaking of inside jokes, I just saw it again yesterday, and at least THOUGHT I saw one. In one scene, Frankie Avalon hands a cigarette to John Ashley, after taking kind of a long drag on it. Regardless of what kind of cigarette it's SUPPOSED to be, this at least seemed like a little reference to something else. I glanced at someone's comments about it, and they said that Dorothy Malone had a thankless part, and that might be partly true, but she had some pretty good comeback lines, including yet another private joke - "Why don't you sell the movie rights to American International? They'll buy anything." Anyway, I don't like it QUITE AS MUCH as "Beach Blanket Bingo", or even a few of the other sequels (I guess it's one of those "Godfather / Godfather Part II" situations), but I'm still really attached to it.

Okay, I'm a sucker for ALL the old "Beach Party" movies, starring Frankie and Annette. How 'bout that? They're like Fred and Ginger, Hope and Crosby and William Powell and Myrna Loy: They're icons! This movie, the ORIGINAL "Beach Party," is the BEST of the lot if you're asking me. Besides Frankie and Annette, Bob Cummings and Oscar winner ("Written on the Wind") Dorothy Malone, also star. I can't believe that someone on this thread actually described the WONDERFUL Bob Cummings as "offensive." Apparently, this person NEVER saw this actor on his old "Love that Bob" TV sitcom from the '50's. I did. A more lighthearted and fun actor I've never seen; decidedly NOT "offensive." THIS movie is just like the old Beach Boys song, "Fun, Fun, Fun." NOTHING to take seriously. Pure fluff, just like the old Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies from a more innocent time. Not too much in the way of plot (hot-blooded and red-blooded American girls and boys, sand, surfing, rock 'n' roll, a little harmless sex (c'mon, this IS 1963!), a couple of middle-agers (Bob and Dorothy) and the most tame, inept and funny "outlaw" motorcycle gang you've EVER seen! Also, a GREAT supporting cast: Morey Amsterdam, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Eva Six and EVEN Vincent Price!Look, upon reaching puberty, Annette Funicello was my very first "crush." I'm 55, now, and I STILL love her! This movie didn't re-define the American cinema, but there are FAR worse ways to kill 101 minutes!