Starring Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Elsa Lanchester, and Harvey Lembeck
Directed by Don Weis
Music by Guy Hemric; Lyrics by Jerry Stymer
Let's celebrate summer with the last official Beach Party movie I haven't gotten to yet. The Beach Party films weren't the only genre that appealed to teens in the early 60's. Science fiction continued its popularity from the 1950's, especially as the space race picked up steam. American International somehow crossed the low-budget sci-fi films of the time with its musical beach capers with this story of an alien youth who comes from Mars to invade the planet and ends up falling for a teen girl. Does it still work today, or should it be dumped in the pool? Let's begin on a Martian ship, as spy Go-Go (Kirk) gets orders from head Martian Big Bang (Don Rickles) to prepare for an invasion and find out...
The Story: Go-Go's jet pack malfunctions, leaving him hovering in the air. He's rescued by sweet widow Wendy (Lanchester), who takes him in. She's having trouble of her own. Her neighbor J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White) and his goons Fleegle (Ben Lessy) and Chief Rotten Eagle (Buster Keaton) would do anything to find the million-dollar inheritance Wendy supposedly has hidden in her home.
Wendy directs Go-Go to the beach to hang out with human kids close to his own age. Connie (Funicello) is trying to get Wendy's nephew Big Lunk (Joel McCrea) to pay attention to her and flirts with Go-Go to make him jealous. Not only does it not work, but Go-Go falls for Connie, and Lunk starts to give Rotten Eagle's Swedish bombshell assistant Helga (Bobbie Shaw) a second glance. There's also Erik Von Zipper (Lembeck) and his biker Rats, who have no love for beach bums, aliens, or eccentric old ladies. It'll take the biggest pajama party in the history of California to get everything settled and convince Go-Go that Earth isn't such a bad place after all.
The Song and Dance: Well, you can't say this one isn't creative. This is the only Beach Party-type film to dive into science fiction, and the only one where Tommy Kirk isn't blatantly miscast. He's a wonderful wide-eyed Go-Go, sweetly naive with Lanchester's dotty old dear and adorable with Funicello, and not a bad singer. Funicello for her part has a great time playing the slightly more worldly one, and Lembeck is having as much fun as ever mauling malaprops with his Rats. Some nice costumes, too. Check out the gowns and outfits during the fashion show sequence and those pajamas at the party in the finale.
Favorite Number: We open with the chorus number "It's That Kind of Day" as the aliens witness the teens wriggling by the pool and at the beach, enjoying the sunshine and each other. Connie's friend Vikki (Donna Loren) sings "Among the Young" at the pool with the Nooney Rickett 4 as the kids dance and Candy (Candy Johnson) literally breaks glass and makes soda bottles pop with her hot moves.
The head saleswoman at the dress salon (Dorothy Lamour) wonders "Where Did I Go Wrong?" when her models keep dancing instead of showing off dresses. Go-Go insists "There Must Be a Reason" he's falling in love, while Connie claims it's a natural feeling. She laments to her "Stuffed Animal" that boys can be a pain to figure out at her smaller pajama party with Vikki and Jilda (Susan Hart). Connie kicks off the title song at the bigger pajama party in the finale, eventually joined by the Nooney Ricketts 4. They also perform an instrumental dance routine, titled "Beach Ball" after the one that keeps getting thrown around.
Trivia: Inspired by a play written by cartoon legend Joseph Barbara, The Maid and the Martian, which had a successful run in LA twice during the 50's.
Dorothy Lamour's last musical number in a film. Columnist and What's My Line? panellist Dorothy Kilgallen has a brief cameo when she lands on one of the Rats' bikes and introduces herself.
What I Don't Like: First of all, for a movie called Pajama Party, this is seriously lacking in pajama parties. We only see the brief one Connie holds with her friends and the one in the finale. Second, this is one of the strangest stories in a series that's notorious for them. Nothing makes sense, even by Beach Party standards. Von Zipper and the Rats and Hulk and his goons seem to have come from an entirely different movie. Lamour's musical number at the dress shop seems to have been dropped in to give her a number and for a few jokes from Buster Keaton. (Who definitely does not resemble anything like a Native.) Most of the remaining cast doesn't have a whole lot to do, including McCrea's aptly-named Lunk. The music is mildly cute, but other than Kirk and Funicello's duet, nothing great.
The Big Finale: This ended up being better than I thought it would from the nutty premise, but it's still not the first Beach Party movie I'd introduce to casual filmgoers. Start them on Beach Party or Beach Blanket Bingo first. Fans of the series, its many imitations, or Kirk and Funicello will want to dive right in.
Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming.
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