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Pretty Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The acting in this movie is really good.

This third film in the series (after "Beach Party" and "Muscle Beach Party") has "Frankie" (Frankie Avalon), "Dee Dee" (Annette Funicello) and the rest of the surfer gang headed back to the beach to enjoy some sun, waves and music. When they get there they meet a millionaire named "Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III" (Keenan Wynn) who seeks to rid the beach of the surfers so that he can construct a senior citizens home on it. To help him in that regard is a pet chimpanzee named "Clyde" (played by Janos Prohaska) who drives, surfs and dances the Watusi better than anybody there. Another visitor to the beach is a famous British rock star by the name of "Potato Bug" (also played by Frankie Avalon) who has all of the young ladies squealing with delight whenever he sings. Throw in a bar and drag strip owner named "Big Drag" (Don Rickles), a beautiful defender of the surfers by the name of "Vivien Clements" (Martha Hyer), a motorcycle gang known as "the Ratz" led by "Eric Von Zipper" (Harvey Lembeck) and a bevy of attractive young women and the result is a film that is light on substance but fun never the less. What was probably most interesting was the way this movie managed to assimilate the relatively new "surf music" with the brand new sound characterized by the "First British Invasion". On the other hand, while I appreciated the scenery provided by Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer, Meredith MacRae (as "Animal") and a host of other young ladies, I didn't especially care for the amount of time devoted to Clyde or "Candy" (Candy Johnson). Neither did I feel that Don Rickles was given an adequate script to showcase his comedic talent. But that's just my opinion. In short, this wasn't a bad movie but it wasn't that great either. Accordingly, I rate it as average.

British superstar Potato Bug shows up and causes friction between Frankie and Annette. Meanwhile Keenan Wynn and his pet chimp try to put a stop to teens on the beach so he can build an old folks' home there. This is a fun movie with a terrific dual performance by Frankie Avalon. Annette Funicello looks beautiful and sings a couple of nice ballads. I'm not the biggest fan of the Beach Party series but some of them are good fun. This is the second best, I think, behind Beach Blanket Bingo. It's got everything you could want from a beach movie. Girls in bikinis, nice songs, goofy comedy, a guy in a chimp suit, and a great cameo by Boris Karloff. If you like simple, fun, innocent movies then you'll like this a lot.

Watched it on Netflix streaming movies. Bikini Beach is just one of the silly, beach movies featuring young teen idols of the 1960s. This one with Frankie Avalon, who was actually a pretty decent singer, and Annette Funicello who wasn't much of a singer, couldn't act much, but was cure as a bug.These movies strike a particular chord with me, as I was a college freshman in 1963/1964. I remember the Beatle invasion quite well, and this movie, 'Bikini Beach' has a character that is a parody of the Beatles, the 'Potato Bug', a wealthy and popular young British pop star with a mop of a haircut and wire rim glasses. Interestingly Frankie Avalon plays him as well as 'Frankie' the suitor of Funicello's character.By today's standards this would rate as a fairly poor movie, but for those of us who were teenagers in the 1960s, it brings back good memories of a simpler time. There is a thread of a story here, the teens just want to hang out at the beach near Los Angeles, but a wealthy businessman and developer wants to give them bad press as part of his attempt to buy up some beachfront land. There is also a motorcycle gang, seemingly for no good reason, and some drag racing. Much of the "humor" is slapstick, inspired by the Three Stooges I'd imagine.Frankie Avalon plays Frankie and, in a wig and gap teeth, the Potato Bug. Annette Funicello plays Dee Dee. My favorite was Martha Hyer, pushing 40 in 1964, but lovely as Vivien Clements who takes the side of the teens. A relatively young (35-ish) Don Rickles is Big Drag , who builds drag racing 'rails'. Harvey Lembeck is Eric Von Zipper, the outlandish motorcycle gang boss. Plus assorted cute girls in bikinis. Of note is a cameo appearance by Stevie Wonder , still known as 'Little Stevie Wonder' at about 13. He sings one song as the movie is ending. Just plain 1960s fun, that's all.

This movie, Bikini Beach, is the first time I've actually seen these Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello Beach movies in their entirety. Avalon is highly amusing in playing another role as Potato Bug, a British rock singer obviously inspired by The Beatles' invasion of America as evident by Bug's two numbers that spoof many of the Fab Four's early hits with the "oooohs" especially noticeable. There's also some amusing stuff from blond dancer Candy Johnson and Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Keenan Wynn as a crusading newspaper publisher (and why is the paper called Bikini Bugle, why ask why?) or especially Don Rickles as a painter/bar owner/drag racing announcer as they have no real punchlines. I also didn't find the gorilla stuff or the chase at the climax amusing either. I did like the songs and instrumentals, the latter of which was provided by a guitar band called The Pyramids. Frankie and Annette have a nice duet at the beach while Ms. Funicello provides a nice solo. Brunette teen Donna Loren also sings an enjoyably catchy song at the beginning here and then there's Little Stevie Wonder providing his number at the end which, while not memorable, is all right. Like I said, the comedy mostly falls flat after about 30 minutes but that said, Bikini Beach remains mostly harmless fun as an introduction to me of the series. Trivia: the director's wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, provides the voice of Lady Bug. Oh, and there's a cameo by a famous horror star near the end...