Pop star Frankie Avalon and former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello inaugurated the beach movie proper (after Gidget tested the waters) with this celebration of surf, sand, rock & roll music, and, of course, sex. Frankie carries Annette (named Doris in the film) over the threshold of a beach cabin as she whispers "It's just like we're married." "Exactly!" he smiles before tripping over a dozen friends camping out on the floor. Well, not quite, as it turns out in the boys-against-girls contest of one-upmanship and jealous tantrums. Frankie woos the pneumatic Scandinavian Eva Six and Annette flirts with frumpy anthropologist Bob Cummings (wearing a beard that would scare Grizzly Adams). Meanwhile he secretly studies the mating rituals of the beach tribe with his eternally frustrated assistant Dorothy Malone. Harvey Lembeck (from Stalag 17) is the aging juvenile delinquent Eric von Zipper, a spastic motorcycle gang leader, while Morey Amsterdam recites silly beat poetry in a Chinese mask and surf rocker Dick Dale plays bongos and wears a gold earring. Look for bit parts by Beach Boy Brian Wilson (as a surfer) and Peter Falk (as a biker) and a cameo by Vincent Price. This first beach romp is about as sophisticated as a Keystone Kops farce (it ends with a slapstick free-for-all that wouldn't be out place in the silent era), but it's dumb, fluffy fun with lots of hunky boys and pretty bikinied girls shaking their booties and making out. --Sean Axmaker
2.
An anthropologist (Cummings) and his lovely assistant travel to the wilds of Southern California's beaches to study the indigenous beach population. In their attempts to study the local population and observe customs and rituals, the two discover that the beach denizens aren't nearly so "wild" as science describes them. The first of the numerous Avalon/Funicello beach movies to depict the social scene of Southern California's beaches and their seemingly constant musical departures. It should be noted that Funicello and Avalon were not from California but Philadelphia, a town not known for its sand or surf.
3.
Surfin' all day…Swingin' all night!
This is the bash at the beach that launched them all, the original Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movie that defined the California generation and introduced surfing, bikinis and a whole lotta hip-shakin' rock 'n' roll to a shocked America. This "downright yummy" (The New York Times) inaugural bash co-stars Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Harvey Lembeck and Morey Amsterdam and features the legendary southcoast surf band, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.
Summer break means only one thing to teen hipsters Frankie (Avalon) and Dolores (Funicello): partying at the beach with their buds! While the gang is getting down in the sand, a disgusted local Professor (Cummings) decides to expose these kids as primal deviants to put an end to their monkey business. But this fun-lovin' gang pulls out all the stops to teach the good Professor a thing or two about jiggling, oogling, and rocking the night away!
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