A new DVD box set came out this week that really sent me into a nostalgic spin:
"Frankie & Annette: Movie Legends Collection."
That pretentious box title might be overstating it a bit.
James Stewart was a legend. Katharine Hepburn was a legend.
Frankie & Annette? Not so much.
Despite their lower-tier status in the Hollywood community, however, when Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello burned bright as a movie couple, they were every bit as hot as their sunny dispositions.
As a duo, they are, of course, most famous for the "Beach Party" franchise — a low-budget series of impish-teen musical comedies that are still beloved by a certain audience. An older audience, to be sure, and one that can perhaps be more forgiving than young eyes looking at them for the first time.
In truth, all of these films look pretty silly in the sophisticated 21st century. ... Although, I'm not sure they're any sillier than "Napoleon Dynamite" or "Wild Hogs" or the average Adam Sandler comedy.
Another drawback for die-hard film buffs is trying to forgive the "Beach" movies' misuse of such veteran former stars as Buster Keaton and Boris Karloff.
And yet, having said all that, it was sure fun to sit in front of the tube a couple of nights ago and watch these snapshots of a more innocent time, when teenagers could romp on the beach and sex was only vaguely alluded to, when innuendo ruled instead of vulgar, sleazy gags or graphic sex and nudity, when films aimed at the teen audience had simple jealousy plots that frequently gave way to goofy songs and a cheery atmosphere.
That these films always came out in the summer was no accident.
I grew up in Southern California, and that's when my peer group and I spent the day at the beach and the evenings at the drive-in.
I was in my teens when these films were big, and when Hollywood was just discovering that teenagers could be a big movie audience all by themselves.
And I remember piling with my friends and/or our dates into a few cars, pulling into the drive-in theater, hooking that little audio box on the driver's window, and listening to pop music and short comedy routines (Jose Jiminez's "The Astronaut" was a favorite), while waiting for dusk and the start of cartoons and trailers, and sometimes a short film, which would precede two features.
And since we were surrounded by cars filled with other teenagers, it didn't take long to turn it into a party atmosphere.
We'd go to horror movies (nothing like today's gore-drenched horror, of course — although we thought "The House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum" were pretty gruesome at the time), to rock 'n' roll musicals (flimsy plots used as an excuse to highlight singers or bands that had a radio hit or two), biker and dragstrip thrillers (formulaic and cheap), anything with Elvis (equally formulaic and cheap)— and, of course, the "Beach Party" movies.
Avalon and Funicello were not great actors, but they had a certain screen charisma, appeal and chemistry, and these films surrounded them with veterans (Brian Donlevy, Mickey Rooney), with stars who would go on to bigger things (chiefly Linda Evans in "Beach Blanket Bingo"), with stars whose careers were fading (chiefly Buster Keaton toward the end of his life, still abley taking pratfalls at 70), and antic comic performances from Paul Lynde, Buddy Hackett, Morey Amsterdam and, in three films, Don Rickles (who cuts loose with an insult improv in "Beach Blanket Bingo"). As well as such pop stars as Little Stevie Wonder and Dick Dale and the Del Tones. Not to mention the mermaid, the falcon that talks like a parrot or the guy in a monkey suit. ...
This "Frankie & Annette" collection (MGM, 1963-67, four discs, $39.98) includes five of the seven "Beach Party" films, plus one that switches the formula to a ski lodge, along with a pair of dragstrip pictures.
These are the set's double-bills:
"Beach Blanket Bingo"/"How to Stuff a Wild Bikini"
"Beach Party"/"Bikini Beach"
"Fireball 500"/"Thunder Alley"
"Muscle Beach Party"/"Ski Party"
Missing from the official "Beach Party" series are "Pajama Party," which had Annette without Frankie, and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini," with which had neither. (The belated 1987 spoof/sequel, "Back to the Beach," is owned by Paramount; all of these are on DVD.)
One could argue that "Pajama Party" (which stars Funicello and features Avalon in a quick cameo) is out because this is a "Frankie & Annette" set, not a "Beach Party" set, so it's devoted to films with Avalon and Funicello together ... although that doesn't explain the inclusion of "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini," which stars Funicello but has unbilled Avalon relegated to a series of cameos, or "Ski Party," which has Funicello in an unbilled cameo, or "Thunder Alley," which doesn't have Avalon at all. (Such are the concerns of former movie critics, whose minds remain filled with useless minutia.)
This is really just a reissue set; these are the same double-feature DVD packages (each with a single double-sided disc) that have been out before, with nothing new, save the colorful box and thin sleeves.
So, aside from trailers, there are still no bonus features.
But for fans who have not already invested in these DVDs, hey, no complaints.
Silly? Yes. Dumb? You bet. Memorable cinema? Of course not.
Fun? Oh, yeah.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com