Ski Party is the beach party entry into the "Some Like It Hot" category, since Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman spend a good part of the film in drag. Frankie and Dwayne are college buddies who are losers with their gals (Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig). Speaking of gals, Annette has a cameo as a professor at the school. Were Frankie and Dwayne so dumb that by the time they made it to college, Annette had already graduated and became a professor? Anyway, watch for a pretty good gag with Annette in the film... Back to the story...when Frankie & Dwayne hear there's going to be a ski trip sponsored by the school's playboy, they decide to tag along and see if they can change their luck. On the trip up, Lesley Gore is on the bus and sings the infectious "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" and everyone else on the bus joins in on the chorus.
Once at the ski lodge, which just happens to have a heated pool, all the girls get into their bikinis, and Frankie sings a nice upbeat song "Lots, Lots More" as he lies on the diving board. Frankie doesn't fare as well on his other number, which also includes Hickman, Walley and Craig, entitled "Paintin' the Town", which is just a terrible song and doesn't match up to the quality of any of the other songs in the film. Later, Walley and Craig sing "We'll Never Change Them," which almost sounds like a song left off an old Ronnettes album. It was actually previously titled "I'll Never Change Him" and sung by Annette in the initial release of Beach Blanket Bingo, but the song was cut from all home movie releases.
And now we come to the THE BEST REASON to watch Ski Party... James Brown. James has a comedic skit as a ski ranger and then sings "I Got You" with The Flames as his backup dancers. At the end of the song, he dances out the door and does a split as his finale. This is the highlight of the movie and you really owe it to yourself to check it out. If you don't won't to watch the whole film for his performance, it's on youtube just google "james brown ski party". A bit of trivia I gleaned from imdb "James Brown said out of all the times he did splits, the only time he ever ripped his pants was in this movie."
At the end of the film, the gang winds up back at the beach where The Hondells (who also sing the title song of the movie, but do not perform it in the film) are hanging out on the beach singing "The Gasser", a pretty decent surf/hot rod song. Of course, this gives the filmmakers another chance to have girls dancing in bikinis. At the end of Ski Party there's a note to stay on the lookout for the next film in the series "Cruise Party", a film that was never made, since "the beach party series" had pretty much run its course by 1965/66.
Beach Blanket Bingo (BBB) was the fourth or fifth entry into the"beach party" series, depending on whether you count Pajama Party (which I don't). BBB still holds up today as good lightweight entertainment with stress on the word lightweight. As usual, there's some jealous tension between Frankie and Dee Dee (Annette) that will be resolved before the end of the movie, there's a featured musical group (The Hondells) , there's a simple plot to hold everything together, there's some dancing, some surfing, a slapstick chase, and most importantly there are lots of pretty girls in bikinis. The funny thing is when I was younger, I knew the girls in the movie were too old for me....and now I'm too damn old for them!
Linda Evans (Dynasty) plays a budding singer named Sugar Kane and her manager is Paul Lynne. He cooks up a publicity scheme to make it appear Sugar Kane is diving out of a plane over the ocean, when actually it's Deborah Walley doing the skydiving (well a stunt woman, but it's supposed to be Walley). When she lands in the water, she'll need to be rescued and this will generate some news according to Lynne's plan. Frankie Avalon is the hero of the day when he saves Sugar and, of course, Annette gets jealous about Sugar and Frankie. The real trouble comes when Frankie decides to try skydiving and tells Annette it's for guys only, she belongs in the kitchen (oh, how times have changed). Besides Annette being mad at Frankie over this remark, the skydiving outfit run by Big Drop (Don Rickles in his last "beach party" movie) employs two pilot/skydivers: John Ashley and Deborah Walley (who in real life were married to each other) who set their sights respectively on Annette and Frankie. Deborah isn't really that interested in Frankie she only wants to make John jealous. I think John was digging on Annette's lacquered hair and thought they could share cans of hairspray.
As far as the music in BBB, Frankie and Annette sing the title tune "Beach Blanket Bingo" as the movie opens. After some plot development, we see Donna Loren back at the beach house singing a terrific song called "It Only Hurts When I Cry". The gang gets invited to a party to hear Sugar Kane/Linda Evans "sing" (her songs were actually done by Robin "Wonderful Summer" Ward) and she performs "New Love" with The Hondells backing her up. Frankie then sings "These Are The Good Times" at the same party.
Later after some skydiving and other plot development, Frankie and Annette have once again reconciled and during a moonlight stroll on the beach, they sing a really sweet song called " I Think, You Think". Back at the club, The Hondells perform "The Cycle Set" as the gang dances along and Buster Keaton chases around a blond bombshell (Bobbi Shaw). This is followed by Sugar Kane/Linda Evans "singing" "He's My Fly Boy".
As Eric Von Zipper schemes on how to get his new love Sugar Kane, he performs a Broadway show type tune called "Follow Your Leader". As the movie ends and the credits roll we get more of Buster Keaton chasing Bobbi Shaw, taking the place normally occupied by Candy Johnson who left the series or was forced out after Pajama Party. Maybe it was because it was also Don Rickles last appearance in the series, but in a scene at the party, he gets to go into his nightclub "putdown act" on the gang. I won't spoil all the good lines he has, but he starts off by calling Frankie and Annette "43 year old yo-yo's". This scene is a highlight in BBB, which was already one of the best of the "beach party movies".
