In this 6th (but not last) movie of the beach series, "Frankie" (Frankie Avalon) has enlisted in the Navy Reserves and is stationed in the South Pacific on the island of "Guna Guna". Although his assignment is only temporary he has still managed to attract a lovely "Native Girl" (Irene Tsu) to keep him occupied. Although he sees nothing wrong in his fooling around he suddenly becomes worried that his girlfriend "Dee Dee" (Annette Funicello) might possibly find another boyfriend too. So to allay his concerns he pays a visit to a witch doctor named "Bwana" (Buster Keaton) to get him to concoct a spell to keep Dee Dee faithful. Bwana then creates a woman named "Cassandra" (Beverly Adams) who no man can resist and teleports her to the beach where Dee Dee hangs out. He also casts another spell which allows him to see through the eyes of a pelican and has it follow Dee Dee wherever she goes. Unfortunately, Bwana mixed up his ingredients when making the spell and because of that things begin to go a little haywire. Now as far as this particular film is concerned I personally believe that it is one of the better beach movies produced. It had a couple of interesting songs, fairly decent acting and some pretty good humor throughout. I especially liked the scenes involving "Eric Von Zipper" (Harvey Limbeck) and his motorcycle gang. Likewise, having two beautiful actresses like Beverly Adams and Irene Tsu certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I rate this movie as slightly above average. On a side note, I should probably mention that even though this is the last movie to have either Frankie Avalon or Annette Funicello, American International Pictures (AIP) filmed one last beach movie titled "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" prior to halting production. How unfortunate.

I watched it on tcm and enjoyed it. Minimizing Frankie and Annette is OK with me. I watched these movies as a kid, when they ran on LA TV, less than 10 years after they were made. F and A were the worst part.. I thought it was clever and about time to put frankie on a distant island.I remembered Buster Keaton's witch doctor .. and the pretty island girl, and the torpedo juice gag.. and liked them just as well as I did back then.I think it was a nice way to show kids a real actor, in the midst of this froth. And not in any way demeaning. A shaman, an old man with magic powers and mystery... whats wrong with that.. it's fitting. I loved the character then and now. He has his own set, his supporting players, and reccurs through-out the movie. At no point is he upstaged or interrupted by the youthful players.But Elizabeth Montgomery's cameo was indulgent and bugged me then even as now.Eric Van Zipper was great then, and even now a delight. One of the "mice" is a quite pretty blonde called "puss".. she's so serious- it plays well.Some-one mentioned musical "book-numbers".. I thought that was kind of cool.. and the fun part- setting it up, moving from dialogue to song to number.. was there, while the bad part- the music itself- was mercifully truncated. It played fine by me.Speeding up the race scenes was something borrowed from the greats of silent film... and made fun something that might have been tedious..I'm reminded now of the courtship motorcycle ride with Annette and the male lead.. that Was tedious.."Bonehead" is a wonderful character actor.. loved the girl sent by the witch doctor.. the clumsey gag was good..I liked the way the race was previewed by the sabatour explaining to Van Zipper how it would go down, and then we recognize it, before it happens, and enjoy it more that way. We know there is a tiger in the pit.By the way, no-one mentioned the gay innuendo involving the tiger. The blonde mouse says she's not OK with a woman being eaten by a tiger.. and the heavy says "well this tiger only likes to eat boys..." later, when Von Zipper is spared by the tiger, he exclaims.."I've never been so insulted..." Also, the island girl squeezes torpedo juice from a very phallic looking torpedo. The torpedo enters the screen nose first, with a shocking imagery.What else.. Liked the suits on the beach... nice juxtaposition.. and Micky Rooney was fun, and has nothing to be ashamed of in this, either. Contrast it with his and Buddy Hacket's dreary bit in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World".Yeah, it's sophisticated- and I liked it. I'd of rated it higher, but I didn't want to give you the wrong idea.

The second to last Beach Party movie. In this one Frankie Avalon is separated from Annette Funicello by being in the Naval Reserve. While on an island he gets a witch doctor (Buster Keaton!) to see if Annette is being faithful to him. Keaton sends a pelican (???) to spy on Annette. Meanwhile handsome, attractive Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) is hitting on her. Then there's Mickey Rooney looking for the boy next door and girl next door for an ad campaign.Even for a beach party movie this is pretty desperate. Funicello looks way too old to be hanging out at the beach (and her pregnancy is clearly visible); the dialogue is more inane than usual; the songs are (to be nice) terrible; the jokes are stubbornly unfunny; Hickman is as bland as they come (even worse than Chris O'Donnell); Harvey Lembeck returns as the incredibly unfunny Eric von Zipper; the "comical" motorcycle race at the end is incredibly stupid; and it's kind of sad seeing Keaton and Rooney reduced to this. Still, this is kind of fun in a silly sort of way. It's not even remotely good but I kept watching. The Claymation opening is fun and I did laugh out loud at the "Bewitched" joke at the end. Also this is perfect for young kids. So it's not good but it's harmless. It's certainly better than the next (and last) beach party movie "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"!

This was the last of American-International's beach musicals that starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello (although they'd try to continue for a few films without these two). Frankie and Annette are barely together even in the film--Frankie is more of a cameo than a major character in the plot.Intriguingly, this musical is filled with "book numbers"--where the characters sing when they should be talking. Usually, the beach party movies just had people asking Frankie or Annette to sing at a party or at a nightclub. So, that's a change. The problem is that the songs aren't anything to write home about.Further, the film betrays why the beach movies were losing their popularity: the surfing fad was being supplanted by a renewed interest in motorcycle culture. Only a year or two later, American-International would be making films like "The Wild Angels." This is a problem for a series where the stock antagonist, Eric Von Zipper, is a parody of Marlon Brando's biker hood in "The Wild One" (1954). The film shows a renewed interest in cycles--Annette's romantic interest, Harvey Lembeck, is an avid motorcyclist. The film tries to deal with this by transforming Von Zipper from a biker into the stereotypical 60s junior executive (a la "How to Succeed in Business"). But, you can see the structure starting to fall apart here.There are fun moments though--particularly the opening credits (clay animation done by Art Cloakey, the creator of Gumby), and the wacky motorcycle race at the end of the film. Lastly, there's a fun cameo at the very end of the film by producer William Asher's wife...