Starring Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Deborah Valley, and Yvonne Craig
Directed by Alan Rafkin
Music and Lyrics by various
The Beach Party movies were so popular in the mid-60's, American International tried replicating their success in a more wintry location. Avalon stayed on, and they brought in Walley and TV favorites Hickman, two years after The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and Yvonne Craig, two years before she became Batgirl on the original Batman. Does the formula of dancing, romancing, and gags work on the slopes, or should this party be sent back to the beach? We start at college, where a very attractive - and familiar - sex education professor (Funicello) is teaching her rapt audience of young men the basics about love, to find out...
The Story: Todd Armstrong (Avalon) and Craig Gamble (Hickman) haven't been having much luck with their dates Linda Hughes (Walley) and Barbara Norris (Craig). They envy their classmate Freddie Carter (Aron Kincaid), who has every co-ed at school eating out of his hand. They can't figure out what they're doing wrong with the girls. When Freddie organizes a big ski vacation to Sawtooth National Forest, Idaho and the girls join in, the boys follow them, despite not being able to ski.
Hoping to learn more about what girls want, they pose as two co-eds from England, Nora and Jane. They easily befriend the girls, but the girls still aren't giving them the time of day as boys. Todd flirts with Swedish ski instructor Nita Elksburg (Bobbi Shaw) in an attempt to make Linda jealous, while Freddie falls for "Nora," to Craig's embarrassment. Nita suggests a ski-jump contest between Todd and Freddie, but Todd's attempts to cheat land him with a broken leg. When Freddie still insists on dating Nora, the boys decide the ruse has gone too far, and there's only one safe place they can go...the beach!
The Song and Dance: The guys are the thing here. Who knew Avalon could work so well in drag, or that he and Hickman could be so funny together? They actually make this 60's Some Like It Hot almost work. There's a lot of references to that movie, in fact, from the boys mentioning it by title to them fleeing snowy Idaho for warm California in the end, much like Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon's characters fled Chicago for Florida. Funicello has a short but hilarious cameo in the opening sequences, with her trying to explain how boys and girls' sexuality works very differently. There's some nice location shooting in Idaho, too, especially when they're on the slopes.
The other big things are the guest singers. Leslie Gore and James Brown are so above the usual pop stars who appear in beach party movies, they give the film a lift with their brief numbers. There's also game show host Robert Q. Lewis, who gets a few good gags as the head of the lodge with a fondness for lederhosen.
Favorite Number: We open with the rollicking title song, played during the second half of the credits and the actual beach party in the finale. Leslie Gore gives us one of her biggest hits, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows," which she performs for the ladies on the bus to the ski resort. Frankie Avalon admires the ladies in bikinis around the lodge pool, singing how he'll have "Much Much More" of them. The quartet sing about how they'll be "Paintin' the Town" during a sleigh ride. A young and slim James Brown shows off the dance moves and charisma that made him one of the great early soul artists with his huge hit "I Got You (I Feel Good)" at the lodge, after he and his back-up dancers come in claiming to be the ski patrol. The girls claim "We'll Never Change Them" at the pajama party, no matter how much their boyfriends drive them crazy.
Trivia: The end credits have a blurb for a sequel, Cruise Party, that ended up being scuttled after this one didn't go over well at the box office.
"We'll Never Change Them" was originally intended as a solo for Funicello in Beach Blanket Bingo under the title "I'll Never Change Him," but was cut from that film.
This wouldn't be the last time someone attempted to turn Some Like It Hot into a musical. Sugar was the first stage version in 1972, but the songs were mediocre, and it tried too hard to imitate the movie. It barely lasted a year and a half, not bad, but not great with the film pedigree. The unrelated Some Like It Hot that just opened on Broadway a few weeks ago has gotten smashing reviews and seems to be going over a lot better.
What I Don't Like: Snow or no snow, this is still a low-budget teen comedy from the mid-60's. You know what you're getting into. Frankly, the story doesn't make a lot of sense, and the big chase scene with everyone ending up in California seems to exist more to have a chase scene and to get the kids back to the beach. The girls don't really have much to do besides sing their one number and reject the boys' advances.
The Big Finale: If you loved the other movies in this series, you'll probably like this one, too...but if you're not a fan of Beach Party films or musicals from this time in general, this one won't change your mind.
Home Media: Like most movies released by MGM/UA, it's now hard to find on DVD. You're better off streaming it, especially since it often turns up for free with commercials.
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