Beach Blanket Bingo

Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

It's the game that separates the girls and the boys...into groups of two!

In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.

Date of release
1965-04-14
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (36)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Music, Comedy
Director
William Asher
Collection
Beach Party Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Leo Carrillo State Park

Beach Blanket Bingo is a 1965 American beach party film directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the Beach Party film series. The film stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Linda Evans, Deborah Walley, Paul Lynde, and Don Rickles. Earl Wilson and Buster Keaton appear. Evans's singing voice was dubbed by Jackie Ward. It was the last time Avalon had the lead in a beach party film.

Production

The part of Sugar Kane, played by Linda Evans, was intended for Nancy Sinatra. This change was due in part to the fact that the plot involved a kidnapping, somewhat reminiscent of her brother Frank Sinatra Jr.'s kidnapping a few months before shooting began. That made her uncomfortable, causing her to drop out.

Elsa Lanchester was announced for a small role off the back of her performance in Pajama Party but does not appear in the final film.

The character of Deadhead in Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach is called Bonehead in this film because AIP had decided the term Deadhead was a so-called "bankable noun" and had decided to cast Avalon as the title character of its upcoming Sergeant Deadhead. The Rat Pack leader character Eric Von Zipper is given more screen time in this third film.

John Ashley, who played Ken in Beach Party, and Johnny in both Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, returns in this movie as Steve, playing opposite his real-life wife Deborah Walley. According to Diabolique magazine, the Beach Party movies "weren't all about songs, sex, and surfing; they were also about friendship, and you really notice the entries where the lead male isn't good friends with Ashley – in Beach Blanket Bingo it's downright stressf…

After the sequence wherein Frankie sings "These Are the Good Times":

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