How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

source: How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

The review above regarding Mickey Roony touching the actresses' breast was true. The actress was Sue Willliams and she was a Playboy playmate. She was the first Playmate to get breast implants, so I don't know if Mickey did it on purpose or not. In any case it should have been caught. If you watch her act her small part thru out the movie she really tried to be noticed and shine. Sadly she was also the first Playmate to take her own life, September 2,1969. She was only 23. She was called Peanut in the movie and in real life she was only 4' 11". Sue acted in several of these types of movies and then it seems the parts dried up which may have led to her depression.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) * 1/2 (ouout of 4) Frankie (Frankie Avalon) is serving in the Navy on a beautiful island when he gets worried that Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) might not be being faithful so he goes to Bwana (Buster Keaton) for a potion. Back in the states Dee Dee finds herself desired by a man while a bikini salesman (Mickey Rooney) is looking for the next big model. HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI would bring the original Beach Party series to an end and while it's better than SKI PARTY there's no doubt that the series had ran its course and the final two pictures were rather lame to say the least. In fact, this last installment only has a few scenes of Avalon who was apparently cut out of the original screenplay when he asked for a pay raise. The film's biggest problem is that it really doesn't have much of a story and instead we've just got a bunch of half-brained scenes that don't add up to much. The Avalon stuff is just lame and the Funicello stuff isn't much better as they had to shoot her in full clothes (while everyone else is in bikinis) because she was pregnant in real life. Rooney gives an energetic performance but poor Keaton isn't given much to do. For the most part this was a decent series but there's no doubt that the final two movies were made just to try and milk whatever success was left. Neither film were all that good so sadly the series came to a bad end.

I was very sad because after seeing the ending of Beach Blanket Bingo for so many years where it lists this film as an upcoming sequel I had High hopes for it! It started sucking right when John Ashley starting singing "Healthy Girl". What the hell John Ashley is not supposed to be singing!!. (Healthy Girl is actually one of the better cast songs in this film.) This film stopped sucking for 3 minutes while The Kingsmen sang "Give Her Loving" and then afterwards pretty much started sucking right up again. What ever gave the people who made this film the idea that Harvey Lembeck and Micky Rooney should sing a bunch of tunes? God Awful! I do like Dwane Hickman but I think he did a much better and funnier performance in Ski Party. I'd like to know who came up with the idea (and why) to add musical style numbers. Awful, awful, awful! Annette really stinks in this movie and she really aged quick from Beach Party (where she was super sexy, innocent, young, and hot!) to this movie where she looks like a mother of a 5 year old who bakes cookies and shops at Kmart. OK so that's the bad now I'd like to talk about the good. The good Erik Von Zipper when he's not singing. The very hot Casandra, who needs Annette when you have Casandra! The Beach girls singing "How About me" because they are so yummy looking. The kingsmen of course is always good. And maybe The race at the end because it's goofy. Over the years I have how ever grown to somewhat like this movie and I'll watch I'll sit through it now and then. I mean it's the worst AIP beach party movie but it still beats watching Murder She Wrote, plus Casandra is Hot. Maybe if Bone Head would of had more parts in this film it would of been better.

You would have had to have grown up with these incredibility corny movies to find them even mildly interesting. I did. But the one take-away was when the native girl says to Frankie " here on the island, we have a saying 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". Now, did I hear that correctly? Sure enough, next scene, 'Cassandra" says the exact same line at the beach party. Now did Stephen Stills really get this line from Billy Preston for his first solo hit single? "Love the One You're With" Or did he watch this movie five years earlier and forget where he first heard this line?

Fairly desperate "Beach Party" entry (the sixth in the series!) has Annette Funicello contemplating a new boyfriend while Frankie Avalon is overseas. Enter...Dwayne Hickman? Frankie actually has a rather large cameo role for not receiving a livelier billing, and there's a cute ending, but these kids are starting to look more mature and their hijinks are starting to get musty. Annette sings two solo numbers and a duet, and she's perky and attractive despite being covered up to conceal her real-life pregnancy. The rest is mediocre, particularly leading man Hickman (eternally bland) and supporting player Mickey Rooney (game but charmless). ** from ****

Annette Funicello is always tempting and/or is a temptation when left alone, so sailor Frankie Avalon goes to Witchdoctor Buster Keaton and sends an enchanted Pelican to watch over her. That doesn't stop Dwayne Hickman as "Ricky". Mickey Rooney as "Peachey Keane" arrives on the beach to search for "The Girl Next Door", and he finds an eager ally in Harvey Lembeck's "Eric Von Zipper", naturally... Is there such a thing as a "Cheap Beach Party" movie? This one could not wait for Ms. Funicello to either get in shape or have the baby. Mr. Avalon is hardly present at all; strangely enough, he is missed. The film is unimaginative in recycling ideas both good and bad. Astute observers will know the "twitch" in the ending cameo isn't even done correctly. On the plus side, Mr. Keaton has more to do this time around, and it's good to see he and Mr. Rooney in a film. The song material sounds better at the end, and the opening credits are the highlight. Still, the "Beach Party" film series looks more tired with every entry ** How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (7/14/65) William Asher ~ Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Mickey Rooney

I purchased the DVD version of this movie and would like to inform other 'Beach Party' movie lovers that MGM has done a great job on the video and sound. I have in the past had to suffer through very low quality VHS copies of the Beach Party movies, where I wound up throwing away the tape and putting a VHS tape that I recorded off TV into the box. That won't be the case here! (even if I could record a DVD) As for the movie ... Well, it is my least favorite of the Frankie and Annette Beach Party movies ... And I think I'm in the majority there. But if you love the Beach Party genre of movies you have to have this one too and you don't need me to tell you about it. <standing salute to MGM>

I already wrote comments concerning this fine film, but I had to write another comment to respond to the note on here about Harlan Ellison and his possible connection to Harvey Lembeck's Erich Von Zipper character (who the poster referred to simply as "the biker character"). I don't understand this poster's point; he says it was "wrong" of the producers to ridicule biker culture, but I can't see how it's "wrong" to make fun of anything. The whole point of the biker characters (who, incidentally, appear in all the beach movies) is to poke fun at the individualist "rebel" aesthetic that had dominated the 50s teen culture, and to replace these with mellow early 60s "heroes" like Fabian and Frankie Avalon (as opposed to the more Elvis/Gene Vincent styled Von Zipper). It has absoutely nothing to do with late 60s counterculture, except to make fun of it before the fact. As for Charles Manson and Erich Von Zipper, I suggest that there are no two characters more far apart (besides the fact that one is a fictional character and the other is a real, albeit insane, person). I don't think the producers of this movie (James Nicholson, primarily) were even aware of who Harlan Ellison was, so I can't see that there's any connection here, and I suggest the person who posted those comments check his medication; might be time for a refill.

This is the final film to feature Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello as Frankie and Dee Dee, and it is also the worst. Avalon had grown weary of playing an over-aged teen-ager and wanted to do something more with his career and at the same time Annette Funicello had recently married and was starting a family. In fact, Ms. Funicello was very pregnant at the time the film was released. Also, Avalon was in the middle of filming Sgt. Deadhead and couldn't appear in the entire film. The solution, bring in Dwayne Hickman as Rick, an advertising executive, to keep Dee Dee busy while Frankie was off on military duty. This was a big mistake. These best thing about the "Beach Party" films was the chemistry between Avalon and Funicello and this film falls flat on its face because the two are on screen together for only a minute (not counting the duet they sang via split screen). After this film was completed, the two retired from the genre, Avalon to attempt more serious roles and Funicello to raise her family. However, Samuel Z. Arkoff tried to keep the series rolling a couple of more years before he finally gave up the ghost, and not the one in the invisible bikini.