Who payed the critics

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

1. the new B&W sequences are sharp and clear 2. Bachus is repulsive as usual 3. Tab's dialog laughable: "That's what he said when we left-like 3 hours ago." 4. some location work showing a seaplane entering the water and taking off is credible. Then the Jap soldiers get rousted out of a tent and march into the jungle. 5. Showing Frankie in his berth sans shirt while dreaming was cool. 6. Some Japanese extras got some work. 7. Tab's girlie-fight was wasted in costume. 8. The blocking and dialog is so bad it makes the acting seem OK (kidding). ("Watch out for the girls") 9. Frankie is a knockout in A shirt listening to Crosby doing an impression of his dad. 10. the songs are forgettable-thank God. 10. But the cinematography is great !

As if the really fake submarine deck scenes and awful dialog wasn't bad enough, we then have to contend with the Eva Six character falling in love with Tab Hunter, right after he HITS HER. I guess that's what defined male/female relationships in 60's cinema. "Beat me up and I will immediately fall for you." Thankfully, she dies before the end of the movie, so we don't have to imagine them going back to the States to continue this ugliness as a married couple.Jim Backus looked so bad in this movie that I had to infer that he was preparing for his role in "Gilligan's Island." His delivery was stilted, slow and terrible - as though he had to be prompted from off-camera before each line. The whole production must have consisted of scenes wrapped after the first take.

When I tune in to watch a movie with Frankie Avalon entitled "Operation Bikini" I immediately expect two things. (1) Frankie singing and (2) some beach bunnies prancing around in bikini swim wear. I was a bit dismayed at the start of the film to discover that "Operation Bikini" was a WWII submarine yarn with dramatic intentions. Would I get to see/hear Frankie sing and see those bikini clad gals? Happily the answer was in the affirmative. This film did not let genre conventions prevent it from incorporating these key visual elements into the narrative structure of the film. A lesser film with more minor aspirations would not have been up to the task leaving the viewer in an entertainment vacuum. The film is far from perfect however. Tab Hunter's acting style seems to be based on his having just awaken from a deep slumber. His groggy acting method while perhaps revolutionary in its day just doesn't hold up over the years. And Jim Backus is woefully underutilized if not way too old for his part.

I agree pretty much with what everyone else wrote, so I won't reiterate the confusion, sadness and astonishment this movie subjected me to but I'm certainly relieved that other people seem to share my impression of the movie.But I am curious if anyone else agrees with me that the voice-over narration at the end (while the girls in bikinis are prancing around) sounds like a young William Shatner?Another thing that has me a little confused is why the Underwater Demolition Team ("UDT") that Tab Hunter's character was in charge of was a USMC unit, as opposed to a Navy UDT (precursor to SEALs, which didn't come around until the 1960s).