Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Beach Blanket Bingo Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 16, 2015

By the time Beach Blanket Bingo washed up onto countless drive-in screen in the spring and summer of 1965, the handwriting was already on the—well, maybe the sand instead of the wall, and this odd but oddly charming subgenre of the so-called “teen movie” was about to experience its own form of ebb tide. American International Pictures, the “little studio that could,” seemed to be incredibly adept at finding peculiar little nooks and crannies in the American marketplace and then exploiting them to unexpected success. Such had been the case when a little heralded film called Beach Party became one of the box office champions of the summer of 1963, catapulting Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello into a perhaps unlikely dance with superstardom. Three other “beach” films followed in relatively rapid succession (Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach and Pajama Party, though this last one is “different from all the rest,” as will be discussed below), all of them repeating more or less exactly the same formula, with Frankie and Annette (typically given another name) playing squabbling lovers who work out their little problems in the context of pretty bland pop laden “rock ‘n’ roll” and lots of swimsuits and oceanside shenanigans. Pajama Party was an exception to the general rule in that Frankie was not paired with Annette, with Disney standby Tommy Kirk filling the role of Annette’s love interest. Other than these occasional tweaks, the beach series from AIP is a study in a seemingly immutable formula being put through various paces, with what amounts to a repertory company reprising the same roles (or at least versions of the same roles) in much the same setting. Beach Blanket Bingo is regularly lauded as among the best of the AIP beach pictures, and it does have a general air of ebullience that makes it an enjoyable, if featherweight, viewing experience. By 1965, however, the cultural zeitgeist had changed considerably from even two years prior, when the elegance and youthful vigor of the Kennedy years were still in full flower (about to be cut down in their prime, of course). 1965 was a transitional year for much of the youth of the United States, however, when the dewy eyed optimism of a slightly earlier time suddenly gave way to an open eyed recognition that there were perhaps insurmountable problems in the world, including the accretion of American involvement in Vietnam, increasingly strained race relations in America itself and (not so coincidentally) the rise of a drug culture which would soon erupt into the full blown “hippie” movement and phenomena like the so-called Summer of Love and (a bit later) Woodstock.

Few kids who went to Beach Blanket Bingo in droves back in the day probably realized that the singer at the core of this particular lover’s spat between Frankie and Annette (called Dee Dee in the film) is named Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), a name film aficionados will no doubt remember from the character played by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. Sugar has a new album out, and her scheming press agent Bullets (Paul Lynde) has concocted a slew of ridiculous “events” to publicize the album, including Sugar supposedly jumping out of a plane and into the ocean, so that she can be rescued by the local surfing crew. In reality, a “stunt double” of sorts named Bonnie (Deborah Walley) is flown out over the sea by her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley, Walley’s husband at the time), where she jumps into the drink and is replaced by Sugar who arrives on a boat, despite the fact that a gaggle of surfers and their girls have gathered on the beach to witness the goings on.

Frankie of course ends up “rescuing” Sugar, something that pastes his picture across the front page of the newspaper, much to Bullets’ delight. Less pleased is Dee Dee, who sees both Sugar and Bonnie, whom the kids meet a bit later, as potential threats to her happily ever after. Subplots include Bonehead (Jody McCrea, Joel’s son) falling for a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen, soon to be Lost in Space), Bonnie and Steve dealing with their own relationship dysfunction, and Bullets attempting to feed real life columnist Earl Wilson (playing himself) various nuggets about Sugar. Buster Keaton and the unforgettable Bobbi Shaw are on hand for interstitial comedy relief, and the equally unforgettable (if for totally different reasons) Don Rickles appears as Big Drop, the operator of the local skydiving company, but a guy who evidently moonlights as a club standup specializing in insult comedy.

The film coasts along on the undeniable charisma of its large cast, even when it tips over into complete absurdity courtesy of the franchise’s regular villain, Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his “Rat Pack” of motorcycle cohorts, a bunch of misfits who aren’t exactly the Sons of Anarchy. Rickles and Lynde provide at least some passing verbal humor, but the bulk of the comedy here is pure schtick laden sight gag material, some of which is quite funny, if resolutely predictable. Also predictable is the midlevel song score by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner. Regular series songstress Donna Loren contributes what is arguably the strongest ballad in the film, “It Only Hurts When I Cry.”

Beach Blanket Bingo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beach Blanket Bingo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.33:1. Elements are in generally quite good shape, though there is quite a bit of minus density and positive damage like dirt and small scratches. Aside from one kind of fluky sequence early in the film, colors are really nice and accurate looking, and quite well saturated. The one problem occurs in the early scene where Lynde is attempting to arrange the photo on the beach with Avalon and Evans. For several seconds the entire color space ping pongs back and forth between the accurate looking palette of the bulk of this presentation and an almost purple-green tinted ambience. It's a strange anomaly but luckily transitory and one which is not repeated. (I never owned the DVD of this film, and it's been ages since I've seen it broadcast, so I can't authoritatively state whether this anomaly has been present in previous versions.) The presentation is, as with virtually all Olive releases, nicely organic looking, with a healthy, naturally resolving grain field.

Beach Blanket Bingo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beach Blanket Bingo features a solid lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that capably supports the film's silly dialogue and midlevel song score. Fidelity is very good to excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

Beach Blanket Bingo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (480i; 2:45)

Beach Blanket Bingo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Beach Blanket Bingo probably seemed a little hokey even to 1965 teen audiences, and in fact it's that kind of inherent "squareness" that probably doomed the series (there would be only two more films in what is generally included in the "beach" canon, neither of which did very well). The ebullience of the hard working cast carries the film over its clunkier aspects. Technical merits are very good, and if accepted on its own peculiar merits, Beach Blanket Bingo comes Recommended.