Bikini Beach
| Bikini Beach | |
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theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | William Asher |
| Produced by |
Samuel Z. Arkoff James H. Nicholson |
| Written by | William Asher Robert Dillon Leo Townsend |
| Starring |
Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello Martha Hyer Harvey Lembeck Don Rickles John Ashley Keenan Wynn |
| Music by |
Les Baxter Alice Simms |
| Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
| Edited by | Fred R. Feitshans, Jr. |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000 |
| Box office | $4.5 million (US rentals) |
Bikini Beach is a 1964 American teen film directed by William Asher and starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The film belongs to the beach party genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in the series of seven films produced by American International Pictures (AIP).
School is out and the teenagers head for the beach. All is well until millionaire Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Wynn) comes around, convinced that the beachgoers are so senselessly obsessed with sex that their mentality is below that of a primate – especially Honeywagon's wunderkind pet chimp Clyde, who can surf, drive, and watusi better than anyone on the beach. With the teenagers demoralized and discredited, Honeywagon plans to turn Bikini Beach into a senior citizens retirement home.
Meanwhile, British rocker and drag racer Peter Royce Bentley, better known as "The Potato Bug" (played by Frankie Avalon in a dual role), has taken up residence on Bikini Beach. Annoyed by Frankie's reluctance to start their relationship towards marriage, Dee Dee becomes receptive to Potato Bug's advances. In a jealous rage, Frankie challenges The Potato Bug to a drag race, in hopes of winning Dee Dee back.
In a FILMFAXplus (April/June 2004) interview, director William Asher revealed that the script was originally written for The Beatles. According to Asher's claim, the group had agreed to act in the film but later dropped out as their rapidly growing fame (especially after their 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show) caused their fee to exceed the film's budget. Asher was forced to rework the script. Frankie Avalon's dual role as an English singer named "The Potato Bug" was created to replace the four Beatles in the story.
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Wikipedia