dwpollar 1st watched 7/30/2006 - 3 out of 10(Dir-William Asher): Silly harmless fluff of a movie with sweethearts Frankie(Frankie Avalon) & Didi(Annette Funicello) and their goofy adventures on the beach with their pals & gals. After the silly title song, the movie starts out being about a new singer promoting an album to the beach-nuts with a faked freefall from an airplane. The do-anything promoter is played by Paul Lynde with his usual sleezeball-style and the singer is a young Linda Evans. Everyone including the before-mentioned couple now wants to skydive and they hook-up with Don Rickles as the head of the skydiving company. Rickles is even able to throw in a mini-standup routine where he puts down everyone in the audience, as is his usual shtick. In a sidestory, the character Bonehead encounters a mermaid which brings a little variety and fun to the storyline. I hate to say it, but that's about it for this movie in a nutshell. A few songs are thrown-in(some better than others), plenty of booty-shaking, and a silent episode with Buster Keaton(playing a kind of Benny Hill-like character) adds to the light-hearted fare. If this is all that you're looking for in a movie, then this one is the perfect movie for you!! Otherwise, stay away.

Skragg I've hesitated to make any comments about this one of the beach movies. It's like commenting on Citizen Kane or 2001 - too daunting. First of all, along with the COMPLETELY regular cast, it's one of the ones with Don Rickles. People have said that he just doesn't come across well in anything that's SCRIPTED for him, but that's far from completely true. Just watch for the little moment with him, after Frankie does his skydiving - it's a "classic" Don Rickles moment. And Paul Lynde could always be funny, with or without a script (most recently, fans of Roger the alien on "American Dad" are interested in him). One of his best lines is when Earl Wilson - who looks like the most straight-laced person in the world - wants to visit the surfers' hangout a second time. Lynde says, "Which girl is it, Earl?" And then there are Jody MacCrea (sp.) and Marta Kristen in the "Lorelei" subplot. Anyone who's seen brooding movies like "Night Tide" might like this mainly COMICAL mermaid story (not that it's the first or last one, of course). And of course, Timothy Carey as South Dakota Slim, who steals Sugar Kane from Erich Von Zipper, after Von Zipper went to the trouble of kidnapping her himself! Anyway, these are just SOME of the things going for it. The only thing missing from this beach movie is the cameo - I've always wondered why that is.

Lee Eisenberg I think that we can all agree that the beach movies from the mid '60s were at the bottom of the cinematic barrel ("Catalina Caper" even got shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). "Beach Blanket Bingo" is an eye roll-inducing piece of swill about a gaggle of sexually inactive teenagers trying to protect a mermaid from a biker gang. How tragic that they wasted a potentially hilarious plot on something so stupid. If nothing else, couldn't they have waited a few years so that they could have thrown in some sex?! I mean, THEY HAD A MERMAID AND THEY COULDN'T DO IT WITH HER?!!!!!!!!! WHY?!!!!!!!!!! And isn't it more chic to portray biker gangs as cool? Anyway, the fact that Buster Keaton appears in this just goes to show how far he had gotten reduced. I don't doubt that the two people from "Bewitched" (director William Asher and co-star Paul Lynde) probably prefer to be associated with that show and not with this. It's no accident that Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello never became A-list stars (unless you count his appearance in "Grease"). Nowadays, I think that we only know her because she has multiple sclerosis, the same thing that afflicted Richard Pryor. "MST3K" really should have shown this flick; Mike, Servo and Crow could have made some great comments.

classictvgirl50 It is truly one of the best movies out there, no doubt! The music is great, it's HILARIOUSLY funny, it's perfect for the entire family to enjoy, and the characters are wonderful!!! Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon make such a cute couple; Donna Loren once again nails it at her wonderful singing; Paul Lynde and Don Rickles are funny as always; Jody McCrea and Marta Kristen's mermaid-human relationship is beautiful; John Ashley and Deborah Walley's skydiving bag is out of sight; Harvey Lembeck does the hilarious Von Zipper antics once again; and what a great almost-final acting job for Buster Keaton before he died (even though it wasn't a big role)! If you're looking for a lot of fun, romance, comedy, drama, adventure, and more...this is the movie for you! It has everything!!! Look out Hot-Doggers and Beach Bunnies...this movie's a knockout!!!