Beach Party
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There are arguably two surf movie genres. The first type would be the sporting documentary pioneered by Bud Browne (i.e. "Hawaiian Holiday") in the 1940s and early 1950s, later popularized by Bruce Brown (i.e. "Endless Summer") in the late 1950s and early 1960s, then later perfected by Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman (i.e. "Five Summer Stories") in the 1970s and beyond.
The second type would be the campy entertainment feature, also termed "beach party films" or "surfploitation flicks" by true surfers, having little to do with the authentic sport and culture of surfing and representing movies that attempted to cash in on the growing popularity of surfing among youth in the early 1960s.
Beach Party (1963) was the first of the Beach Party films, aimed at a teen audience. It was directed by William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. The main actors included Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.
Summary
The plot included an anthropologist, Professor Robert Orwell Sutwell (Robert Cummings) who was studying the wild dating habits of teenagers that hang out at the beach, and decides to court a young girl (Annette Funicello) so he can study the behaviour of her jealous boyfriend.Cast
- Robert Cummings .... Prof. Robert 'Bob' Orwell Sutwell (as Bob Cummings)
- Dorothy Malone .... Marianne
- Frankie Avalon .... Frankie
- Annette Funicello .... Dolores/DeeDee
- Morey Amsterdam .... Cappy
- Harvey Lembeck .... Eric Von Zipper
- Eva Six .... Ava
- John Ashley .... Ken
- Jody McCrea .... Deadhead
- Dick Dale .... Himself (as Dick Dale and The Del Tones)
- Andy Romano .... J.D. (Rat Pack member)
- Jerry Brutsche .... Rat Pack member
- Bob Harvey .... Rat Pack member
- John Macchia .... Rat Pack member
- Alberta Nelson .... Rat Pack member
- Linda Rogers .... Rat Pack member
- David Landfield .... Ed
- Bob Payne .... Tom (as Bobby Payne)
- Pam Colbert .... Surfer
- Delores Wells .... Sue
- Johnny Fain .... Surfer (as John Fain)
- Valora Noland .... Rhonda
- Meredith MacRae .... Beach girl
- John Beach .... Beach boy
- Lorrie Summers (as Lorie Summers)
- Roger Bacon .... Tour guide
- Luree Holmes (as Luree Nicholson)
- Michael Nader .... Beach boy (as Mike Nader)
- Laura Nicholson .... Beach girl
- Mickey Dora .... Beach boy
- Donna Russell .... Surfer
- Ed Garner .... Surfer (as Eddie Garner)
- Candy Johnson .... Perpetual motion dancer
- Vincent Price .... Big Daddy
Crew
Directed by William Asher
Writing credits Lou Rusoff
Produced by
James H. Nicholson .... producer
Lou Rusoff .... producer
Samuel Z. Arkoff .... executive producer
Robert Dillon .... associate producer
Original Music by Les Baxter
Trivia
Beach Party was intended as a low-budget parody of Elvis Presley's musical movies, but soon spawned into something more, making significantly more money than the studio expected. Six more films in the "Beach Party film" series were produced over the next few years.
The film introduced a running gag throughout most of the rest of the series, when Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) learns a special nerve touch to the head that puts a person into a frozen trance that he calls 'giving someone the finger'. Unfortunatelly for Von Zipper, the only person to whom he seems able to give the finger is himself. The gag isn't used in Muscle Beach Party because Von Zipper and his gang do not appear in the film.
AIP didn't feel that Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello had enough "star power" to get top billing for a motion picture, so they gave Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone top billing. By the next film, Muscle Beach Party, however, Frankie and Annette were the top billed stars.
Annette Funicello was still under contract to the Walt Disney Company in 1963 and Disney's lawyers threatened to sue AIP if their now voluptuous star appeared in Beach Party in a bikini. AIP capitulated — an unimaginable act for the company prior to this, before the stakes were raised. Annette would not only not wear a bikini in the film, she would spend a surprising amount of her screen time repressing the sexuality of the other kids, an odd angle indeed for the once exuberantly permissive and exploitative AIP.
It was deemed "Sleeper of the year" by the Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine.
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