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House band in this
film: Dick Dale and his
Del-Tones
As the
opening title credits roll, we get a Baxter scored
bongo-driven, jazz oriented version of the title piece, which
doesn't really hint at what's about to follow. The series
kicks off musically with Annette Funicello (here cast as “Dolores,”
in almost every other Beach Party film she played the nicknamed “Dee
Dee”) and Frankie Avalon in a somewhat antique-looking "hot
rod," (scene to right) rolling down the Pacific Coastal Highway
to Paradise Cove in Malibu (where most of the beach scenes in these
films were shot) on their way to spring vacation, as they sing
Beach
Party. As scored and
performed (with a somewhat anemic sounding rhythm guitar), the
piece isn’t exactly rock n’ roll, but it’s upbeat and bouncy enough
to give the audience the sense this is not your mother’s
musical. 
We are then introduced to Robert O. Sutwell, a quirky
anthropology professor, played by Robert Cummings (who had made
a career out of appearing as such affable, bumbling men)
and Marianne, his beautiful, romance-challenged adult assistant,
played by Dorothy Malone, who holds the notable
distinction of being the only Oscar
winner to ever appear in these films.
Malone had won Best
Supporting Actress in 1956, for her scorching portrayal
of a sickeningly spoiled heiress
in Written on the
Wind (scene from that film of her
with Robert Stack, left). Like many other older, prior
"A" film stars who appeared in AIP productions,
Malone was using it essentially as "the studio of last
resort," the only option after a career had gone
cold. 
But enough of that tangent; to quote the
Gilligan's Island theme song, back to the "Professor and
Marianne:" The beach house they have rented is full of
circa-1963 high tech spying/recording equipment.
We quickly learn those are tools to
assist Professor Sutwell in his "project," which
is studying the analogies between the behavior of the
surfing kids and that of "primitive tribal
culture."
Later on, during the initial beach scenes (which include the
best stock surfing footage of the whole series), Dick Dale
appears in the sand with his light blue Stratocaster, and jumps
into Secret Surfin’ Spot,
a vernacular-filled uptempo dance piece. The song is
relatively unadulterated vintage Dale, and the gang jumps up to
start fruggin'. The resulting footage (documentary-like close
ups of bikinied girls and baggied dudes whoopin it up in the
sand) probably had every teen in the audience immediately
wanting to move to California.
We then cut to the first club scene at Big
Daddy's. Things
The icons at the very
beginning: Annette and Frankie
roll of intentionally have a somewhat beatnik
feel (Dale is wearing
onto the sand at the start
of Beach
Party
an earring), likely to add just enough “edginess”
to things.
things Yes, Asher wanted this film to be
about good kids, but not boring
kids).
Dale then grabs
his Stratocaster and jumps into Swingin' and
Surfin', an upbeat number that of
course immediately gets the gang dancing. Now, from a contemporary
perspective, this sequence
may not appear to be anything particularly special. However, one must keep in
mind that that the scene of a hot rock band driving a crowd “wild”
in 1963 was pre-Scopitone, pre-Hullabaloo, pre-Shindig, pre-MTV,
etc. In other words,
it’s music video before music video. So forget about current
standards and imagine the kind of impact that imagery had on
audiences – adolescent audiences (the target for these
films) -- in 1963. Note: Dick managed to leverage
the popularity of this film to get an appearance doing this song on
the Ed Sullivan Show on October 6, 1963 (two months
into the release ). 
The script for this film of course features an
ongoing relationship battle between Annette and Frankie, and the
“bad” girl trying to drag Frankie away in this case is Ava Six
(left, who is played by Eva Six, an obscure Hungarian
bombshell whose entire film career consisted soley of this and one
other role). Frankie’s flirtation with her becomes an excuse
for his only solo in the film, the upbeat Don’t Stop
Now. The song itself isn’t
particularly Marianne,
Robert, Frankie and
Dolores
interesting -- Avalon does what
he can with it, which isn’t much -- but the piece is entertaining
enough because of the choreography (Frankie
starts out dancing with Ava, moves on to Candy Johnson, then a bevy
of women, and eventually gets the whole gang up and
going). This
followed by the introduction of what I feel is one of the most
purely entertaining comedic characters in Hollywood history:
bumbling motorcycle gang leader Eric Von Zipper,
portrayed seamlessly by Harvey Lembeck.
Later,
regretting her “loss” of Frankie to Ava,
Annette sings her first -- and
one of her best -- ballads of the series, Treat Him Nicely to her
reflection in a mirror.
The slow, beautifully orchestrated piece is probably one of
the top two solo ballads she performed in the entire series. The song -- based on a combo
doing a slow, gentle four chord progression, with a wonderful
counterpoint by a swooping string section -- just drips of the
era, and Annette takes full adavntage of that backdrop by layering
on a restrained but emotional vocal.
It should be noted that the version in the film is
similar to, but slightly different than the one that appears on the
soundtrack album (the latter sounds like it has less doubletracking
than the one in the movie; perhaps a different mix?) The scene also benefits from
some wonderful camerawork.
T he next evening, we are now around a campfire at
the beach, and Dick Dale is again at the bongos, leading the gang in
a vocal reprise of Swingin' and Surfin',
which gives Candy Johnson an excuse to get up and start
wiggling. Just when you
think that’s going to lead to a song, the script makes a hard left
turn as all the couples run off to engage in…well, whatever. As Dolores tries to seduce the
anthropologist (scene in lobby card to right; as she flirts, he
keeps asking her how to educate him on her
"clan"), Marianne (who is is jealously listening into
the two with the "spy" equipment back up in the beach house)
puts on a record, which just happens to be Annette (in background
music form) performing her second ballad of the series,
Promise Me Anything. This wonderful song
is best enjoyed if one has the soundtrack album, the film version is
audio backdrop to all sorts of giggling and whatever, which makes it
hard to really enjoy the way this classic, lounge-ish sounding early
sixties piece acts as a wonderful stage for Annette’s gentle,
gliding mezzo soprano.
As it is used in the movie, it works well in “theming” this
section of the film, as couples engage in
various forms of ‘noodling” under the moonlit sky. It's also
unique in being the only piece in the entire series where the
person performing the song doesn't actually appear singing
it.
Now, if that's a
disappointment, don't worry. If one really misses seeing
Annette sing this beautiful number, she did do a subsequent
performance of it -- a rather nice one, in fact -- on a TV
special in November of 1963, and it's now available on
home video. That show -- Dick Clark's Celebrity
Party -- is discussed in some detail (including a
source for the tape) in the Donna Loren area of this
site.
After
the climax (a brawl at Big Daddy's between the kids and the "Ratz
and Mice" (Eric Von Zipper's bike gang), with Professor Sutwell
saving the day, right before a brief cameo by Vincent Price), the
closing credits start a theme that will be repeated for the next
three movies, featuring a split screen approach. As Frankie Avalon sings a
more upbeat, rock n' rollish solo version of Beach
Party
in the background, the credits roll
on the right as Candy
Johnson dances like a nut on the left. 
Club host "Cappy" (Morey Amsterdam)
and "Dee
Dee" in rare out-take scene on a lobby
card
Who thought paper dolls could be this much
fun?
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