Bikini Beach

1964 "It's where every torso is more so, and bare-as-you-dare is the rule!"
5.4| 1h39m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 22 July 1964 Released
Producted By: American International Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.

Genre

Comedy, Music, Romance

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Director

William Asher

Production Companies

American International Pictures

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Bikini Beach Audience Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
TedMichaelMor Foreshadowing Mike Nichol's "The Graduate", William Asher's "Bikini Beach" explores the angst of adolescent life in Southern California, though, perhaps, not quite as well as he already had in his outstanding "Muscle Beach Party" and "Beach Party". Written as a vehicle for the Beatles, this film also presages later classic Beatles films.I did not see these films on their initial release because of my aversion to such popular fare—at the time. I suppose it seemed one-dimensional, though that word is possibly an anachronism. However, Martha Hyer is beautiful here and that provides sufficient dimensionality to see the film. The music is the weakest element. Added later: I am not quite certain what to say about the Beach Party movies. I did not see them at the time of their release. I was quite serious about watching movies by that time and, for the most part, I would not have seen these movies; I am not certain that I would have even been particularly aware of them. During this time, I was exploring European modernist works. As for sex, my father had introduced me to Bardot movies around the time I was twelve, I think. Yet, these are not bad movies. They are much better than some Bob Hope comedies from that time, though without the witty dialogue one finds in the Hope films.These movies appear often on the "this" network. I have now seen all of them, a least, in a glancing way. They seem to have provided many gifted people with some income. I suppose a film scholar would find some way to reveal something profound about our society from reviews of the films. The camera work never seems to enter the scene. We are always somehow aware not our not being within the frame or involved in what is happening. The movies are not bad. They are trite in a way but not entirely mindless. The iconography might be the most important aspect of the films but that would require a long discourse I am not able to provide. They probably do not deserve a lot of attention but probably some attention. The frantic dancing in most of them is the most dated part. I know that Ms. Funicello was a gifted dancer but you would not know that from these works. I would not have appreciated them when they were released but I was in the wrong demographic at that time. No one was ever the way characters in the Beach Party films are. And I doubt anyone had fantasies that relate to these stories. But they seem to have done well and made money. They must have meant something so I think that the films were on the edge of something that the Beatles finally did. The Beatles and the movie "The Knack". I have upgraded my rating. I do love Ms. Funicello. I suspect she had a latent talent for romantic comedy that might have flowered in a better world.I agree with the positive train of reviews here.
JasparLamarCrabb The usual inane shenanigans from Frankie, Annette and the Beach Party gang. This time they tangle with creepy Keenan Wynn, a monkey and Don Rickles (as Big Drag). Wynn is convinced he can prove that teenagers are not more intelligent than a chimp. Clearly he's seen BEACH PARTY, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and PAJAMA PARTY. Sexy Martha Hyer is his girl Friday and Avalon plays a second role (a Beatle-esq British singer named Potato Bug). He's dreadful. A bunch of songs are lip synced in the shoddiest way possible and save for an appearance by (Little) Stevie Wonder, they're all completely forgettable. Harvey Lembeck and his biker goons show up as well adding no laughs.
Brian Washington This is probably the best of the "Beach Party" films. The series pretty much hit its peak here and after this it was all downhill. Annette Funicello is her level headed best and Frankie Avalon is still her lunkheaded boyfriend who only can think about surfing. The thing I think is a little ironic about this film is the fact that Avalon in his portrayal of Potato Bug takes a swipe at The Beatles. Many forget that Avalon was one of the hottest singers in America until the "Fab Four" arrived the same year this film was released. After that it was downhill from there. The other shining moment in this film has to belong to Harvey Lembeck as the perpetually dimwitted leader Eric Von Zipper. This was his defining role and this film was his funniest yet.
funkyfry One of the funniest beach party movies made by AIP (or anybody), with a great cast and pretty funny script with no story involved. Such as it is involves the arrival of the Potato Bug (Avalon in a double role), a John Lennon-esque Britisher that all the beach girls swoon over. Annette seems to decide the endless summer might never end, and jumps ship to the Bug. Frankie and the Bug have to drag race it out at Don Ricle's aptly named "Big Drag" -- Rickles is anything but a drag, constantly mugging with the lines they throw him and everyone else's too. Frankie Avalon's double performance may not go down in history as the modern equivalent of John Barrymore, but it's all good fun worth a hundred minutes of my lifetime. Looks like Mike Myers might have been watching this one pretty closely too.