by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 13, 2008

In 1965, Annette and Frankie celebrated their sixth and final "beach party" movie with their gang of movie friends.

It's another lightweight 60s musical comedy, this time ending with a motorcycle race. But it's got the strangest plot of them all, as a witch doctor struggles to keep Frankie and "Dee Dee" together, even though Frankie's stationed overseas on a tropical island! Along the way there's a talking pelican, a "sea beauty," and, yes, a lot of silly jokes for teenagers. But this cheery mix of teenaged fun holds a campy significance, those last moments before the late 60s changed everything, and it catches the end of an era.

This would be the last time AI Pictures created their special brand of teen movie using Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Annette was already pregnant with her first child when this movie was filmed, and she's always shown wearing a floppy Hawaiian mumu (or filmed from above the waist!) The film also includes includes the only movie appearance ever for the band "The Kingsmen," whose song "Louis, Louis" was one of the top songs of 1963, and the movie stars Dwayne Hickman, from the popular 60s TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Harvey Lembeck reprises his role as Erich von Zipper, a parody of Marlon Brandon's iconic 1953 performance in "The Wild One." (Wearing the obligatory black-leather jacket, Lembech plays the goofy leader of a harmless motorcycle gang who challenges the gang to a cross-country motorcycle race.) And the claymation opening credits were produced by the original creator of Gumby. Even Elizabeth Montgomery from TV's "Bewitched" makes a cameo!

But the era-catching doesn't end there, since the movie also features an appearance by former vaudeville star Mickey Rooney. And one year before his death, Buster Keaton, one of the great stars of the 1920s, gets one last chance to entertain a new audience of 60s teenagers. It was one of his last movies ever - he was 70 years old - and he compliments the movies "anything goes" feel with one more "funny grown-up" part that the teenagers were craving. (One reviewer said kindly that "he's just having good, dumb fun like everyone else.")

As the ridiculous plot about the "sea beauty" unfolds, there's something poignantly nostalgic about this lost moment in time. Annette sings another sweet song - "You Better Be Ready When Love Come Swinging Along" - and there's five great examples of the peppy "beach music" that these movies helped popularize. For today's audiences, the title could be changed to "How to Watch a Campy Movie." But it's refreshing to see an old movie that aimed to be nothing more than simple fun.

This movie captures an impossible world where it's summer all year long, and the sun never sets on young Frankie and Annette.

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