bkoganbing The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini if it hasn't should attain a certain amount of screen immortality in having one of the most eclectic casts ever assembled for one film. Of course the film isn't exactly Citizen Kane or Gone With The Wind.The title role in this last of the Beach Party cycle is played by an ethereal Susan Hart who parades around in a bikini which certainly wasn't in fashion when she and Boris Karloff were young and dating. Karloff has gone on to meet his maker, but apparently Susan who died young and was his beloved has interceded with the Deity. Karloff was a stinker in real life and Susan has come to give him one more chance to do a good deed to insure his entrance to heaven with her. He'll even go in as a young man because apparently there is sex in heaven.Karloff has to make sure that his rightful heirs inherit his ill gotten gains in life and those heirs would be Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, and Patsy Kelly who acts as den mother to the whole beach crowd who move in with the three of them. They have to stay in the ostensibly haunted house after the reading of the will. You know something sinister has to be up with that kind of clause in the will. Especially when the will is drawn up by Basil Rathbone as the lawyer who wants his hands on the Karloff fortune. Rathbone is aided and abetted by Jesse White, Benny Rubin as a Jewish Indian, and Rathbone's nearsighted daughter Quinn O'Hara. And crashing the party as they always do is Harvey Lembeck and is intellectually challenged motorcycle gang of which he definitely is the leader.Incredible when you think about it, but making his last big screen appearance in an over 50 year career is that first leading man of Hollywood, Francis X. Bushman. He has a small role as Rathbone's butler. And part of the beach crew are the daughters of a pair of singing icons, Nancy Sinatra and Claudia Martin. I leave it to you, have you ever seen a more widely varied generational cast than this?It's an incredibly dopey film, but charming in its own way. But what a place to find Messala, Sherlock Holmes, and the Frankenstein monster.

MartinHafer This is a truly terrible film and marked the end of the so-called "Beach" films. And, after seeing it, it was pretty obvious that this one alone killed the genre--though is that really such a great loss?! For once, Annette and Frankie are NOT in the film. Instead, a new cast of "actors" are on hand along with some old familiar Beach actors as well as some once-decent actors who obviously needed the money or were so ego-centric that they'd star in anything just to see themselves on the screen. Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Patsy Kelly all appear out of place here and it's rather sad to see them in such a wretched film. Now I have never been a Patsy Kelly fan, but here I even felt sorry for her! No, after listening to her scream and overact yet again, she's exactly where she should be in this wretched film.The film begins in a crypt. Apparently Boris Karloff has just died and doesn't know it. A long-dead girlfriend appears and informs his of this AND the stipulation that he must do one good deed before being allowed to go to Heaven. This plot is right from a Tom & Jerry cartoon--seriously. But instead of an 8 minute short, here it's stretched to almost an hour and a half!! And, in an odd twist, Karloff is NOT allowed to do anything to help do this good deed but must send this dead lady in his place. Why? Well, because obviously Karloff wasn't interested in anything other than a walk-on! And, even more oddly, when you do see this ghost lady, she looks like a ghost BUT her bikini is totally invisible. With her magic powers, she returns to Earth and manipulates things to the betterment of Karloff's heirs--the ubiquitous Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley. These two actors (Kirk and Walley) seem to be available in practically every kooky teen film of the era whenever more talented actors refused the roles! Do an IMDb search if you don't believe me, as their films include IT'S ALIVE (1969), SPINOUT, MARS NEEDS WOMEN and SERGEANT DEAD HEAD.Back on Earth, there's a swinging party where Nancy Sinatra and dozens of bikini-clad teens (at least the girls) all have a ring-a-ding good time. Into this "fun" comes a bad lawyer (wow, that's being redundant), his gang of killers as well a gang of leather-clad idiots led by Eric Von Zipper-- this is the same group of morons who appear in all the other Beach films as comic relief, though they seldom, if ever, are funny. So what do you need to round out this assortment of unfunny jerks? Yep--an escaped gorilla, a culturally insensitive Indian character, a dungeon in this California mansion as well as a mummy! I'm almost surprised they also didn't include pirates and ninjas!!What makes this a particularly bad film is that unlike many of the teen-oriented films of the 50s and 60s, this one had a rather impressive budget. Decent camera work, music and a large cast make it atypical of horrible films of the era. At least with TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, PLAN 9 or THE KILLER SHREWS you could blame the rottenness of the film, at least in part, to minuscule budgets. What's the excuse here with this film?! Bad writing, overacting, cartoon sound effects and a plot that isn't worthy to line a parrot's cage is what you've got with THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI...and to make matters worse, it isn't even that entertaining to bad film fans--it's just stupid. I only recommend this film to people with severe head injuries and those who thought BEACH BLANKET BINGO was too intellectually taxing!!

Lee Eisenberg First, I should clear up any confusion that may have arisen from the title: not only is the ghost's bikini invisible, but what's underneath her bikini is also invisible. Now, I must ask: how was Boris Karloff reduced to starring in a "beach party" movie? "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" is basically a cross between beach party movies and the old-style horror movies. Karloff plays Hiram Stokely, a corpse who must accomplish a good deed within 24 hours. Fortunately for him, the title character (Susan Hart) has the answer: he can protect a bevy of teens who are descending on his estate for a party. Tommy Kirk plays the main youngster.Overall, the movie is pretty much an excuse for everyone to party as they would on the beach, except that they're doing it in what appears to be an English castle. I couldn't tell whether the movie was supposed to happen in California or England. I guess that this movie is better than most beach movies, just because it stars Boris Karloff. Oh, and the title character is pretty hot. But other than that, it's just another beach party movie.

BijouBob8mm With the rest of the Beach Party films having made their digital debut, THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI deserves the same consideration. True, we don't get Frankie and Annette, but we do have A.I.P. regulars Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lambeck, Bobbi Shaw, Susan Hart, plus Nancy Sinatra, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Even though this is not the best of the Beach bunch, the cast alone makes it worth watching. Granted, the film's not a major motion picture, but it was FUN (which is more than can be said for a lot of other titles, old & new.) Since last few Midnite Movies from MGM have been double feature DVDs, maybe this could be paired up with DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS film, which has also yet to see DVD release. (They could even throw on the obscure TV outing, THE WILD WEIRD WORLD OF DR. GOLDFOOT, as an extra.