“It’s what happens when 10,000 kids meet on 5,000 Beach Blankets!”
An anthropology professor named Robert Sutwell (Robert Cummings) and his secretary Marianne (Dorothy Malone) study the sex habits of Southern Californian teenagers who spend their time at the beach and find themselves in the middle of a pie-throwing brawl.
Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dolores (Annette Funicello) have other teens spending the summer at the beach house with them due to Dolores’s dissatisfaction with their relationship.
To combat this, Frankie listens to his friends and decides to flirt with a waitress named Ava (Eva Six), which leads Dolores to stumble into the lap of madcap biker Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and be rescued by none other than Professor Sutwell, who she then develops a crush on.
The first and most famous of the Beach Party movies is something of a curiosity for the inclusion of Dick Dale and the Del-Tones who sang the title tune for A Swingin’ Affair earlier in the year.
Dale was the beach bum who played guitar and surfed on his own but finally rose to fame 32 years later with the hit soundtrack for Pulp Fiction(1994).
Beach Party was a bold departure for American-International, featuring some famous (and talented) actors and being shot in flaming colour. The budget was also considerably larger than anything they had done in the black and white/leather jacket days with movies such as Dragstrip Girl.
Professor Robert Sutwell
Bob Cummings Marianne
Dorothy Malone Frankie
Frankie Avalon Dolores
Annette Funicello Ava
Eva Six Eric Von Zipper
Harvey Lembeck Deadhead
Jody McCrea Cappy
Morey Amsterdam Ken
John Ashley Rhonda
Valora Noland Tom
Bobby Payne J.D.
Andy Romano Ed
David Landfield The Ratz
Jerry Brutsche
Bob Harvey
John Macchia The Mice
Alberta Nelson
Linda Rogers Dick Dale and the Del Tones Themselves
Director
William Asher
Video
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To combat this, Frankie listens to his friends and decides to flirt with a waitress named Ava (Eva Six), which leads Dolores to stumble into the lap of madcap biker Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and be rescued by none other than Professor Sutwell, who she then develops a crush on.
