Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman Say Bon Voyage!

Fred MacMurray playing another Dad.

Fred MacMurray made seven films for Walt Disney Productions, starting with The Shaggy Dog (1959) and ending with Charley and the Angel (1973). There were big hits (The Absent-Minded Professor) and big flops (The Happiest Millionaire). One of Fred’s least successful Disney outings was Bon Voyage! (1962), a well-intentioned family comedy that will test the patience of even Fred’s most fervent fans.

The veteran actor stars as Harry Willard, a plumbing contractor from Terre Haute who finally makes good on his promise to take wife Katie (Jane Wyman) to France. Of course, it’s taken 20 years to make the trip a reality and the couple now have three kids: teenagers Amy (Deborah Walley) and Elliott (Tommy Kirk) and youngster Skipper (Kevin Corcoran).

Deborah Walley as Amy.

Amy finds romance almost immediately with a handsome, brooding would-be architect named Nick (Michael Callan). Elliott pouts over his girlfriend back home--for about five minutes--then tries to reinvent himself as a suave playboy. Katie finds herself wooed by a Hungarian lothario. And Harry...he just attempts to make sense of everything going on around him.

Bon Voyage! was based on a novel co-written by Joseph Hayes, who penned The Desperate Hours--a very different family drama. Esther Williams and James Cagney were attached to Bon Voyage! at various times during its development. But the cast changed significantly when Walt Disney acquired the rights.

Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk had already appeared together in two Disney pictures: The Shaggy Dog and The Absent-Minded Professor. Kevin Corcoran co-starred with them in the former film. Deborah Walley and Michael Callan had also teamed up in the previous year's Gidget Goes Hawaiian.

Yet, despite such built-in chemistry, Bon Voyage! comes across as no more than an overlong, episodic travelogue that makes one pine for Rome Adventure (also 1962). It's difficult to fathom why director James Neilson didn't trim the length by at least 30 minutes. The current running time of 132 minutes seems interminable.

As Nick, poor Michael Callen is saddled with a character that borders on psychotic. In one scene, Nick is wooing Walley with aplomb. In another, he is launching into rants about marriage, career choices, and the meaning of life. Simply put, Nick may be the most bizarre character to grace a Disney live action family film.

Jane Wyman as Katie.

As expected, Fred MacMurray shoulders most of the movie, although it's too bad he and Wyman don't get a subplot together until late in the proceedings. By then, I was already looking at my watch every five minutes.

As much as I like the actors, I can't recommend Bon Voyage!. Save two hours of your life! However,  you may want to watch the opening credits. The title song by Disney veteran composers Richard and Robert Sherman is pretty catchy.

The Hardy Boys, Disney, and Pieces of Eight

Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine.

I was probably too old to fully appreciate The Mickey Mouse Club by the time it was syndicated in my home town. Honestly, I don't think the Mouseketeers' musical numbers would have appealed to me at any age. And, in regard to the cartoons, I'm a Warner Bros. kind of guy. The serials, though, were another matter. Even the girl-centric Annette held my interest...because I'm an Annette Funicello fan. And then there were the Hardy Boys, which brings us to today's review.

Edward Stratemeyer created teenage amateur detectives Joe and Frank Hardy in 1927. The boys lived in the small coastal town of Bayport with their parents. Their interest in solving mysteries was apparently inherited from their father, Fenton, who worked as a detective.

For the initial books, Stratemeyer and his daughters Edith and Harriet wrote the plot outlines. The juvenile novels would then be completed by ghostwriters, who all used the name Franklin W. Dixon. Grosset & Dunlap published a total of 58 Hardy Boys mysteries between 1927 and 1979. These are considered the original novels, though the characters continued to appear in dozen of books after that (which featured changes in format, style, and settings).

Frank, father Fenton, and Joe.

The Hardy Boys mysteries were still immensely popular in 1956 when Walt Disney produced The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure, a 19-episode serial for The Mickey Mouse Club. It was loosely based on the first Hardy Boys book, The Tower Treasure (1929). Each installment of the serial was about 12 minutes long. For this adaptation, Frank and Joe were made younger and their mother was replaced by Aunt Gertrude. Their father worked in "the city," which accounted for his absence during most of the episodes.

The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure opens with Iola, Joe's "girlfriend", spilling her purse after bumping into a new boy in town named Perry. That same day, someone steals Iola's purse. Joe recovers it and nothing appears to be missing. Perry turns out to be on parole (of sorts) from a reform school and is working for Old Man Applegate. He also lives in a shack on Applegate's estate.

Sarah Selby as Aunt Gertrude.

When some tools go missing, a plumber, who is doing work for Applegate, suggests that Perry is a thief. That night, Joe and Frank search Perry's room and find the missing tools. The police arrest Perry--but not before he asks for Joe's help and gives him a gold doubloon found on Applegate's estate. Later, Mr. Applegate recounts to Joe and Frank the story of how his "treasure" was stolen ten years earlier. Could someone be searching for the missing treasure...and trying to frame Perry? Or is the treasure just a figment of an elderly gentleman's imagination?

The central premise of The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure is a promising one--hey, what kid wouldn't want to find a box of gold doubloons and pieces of eight? And the solution to the mystery, when it's finally revealed, turns out to be worthy of Agatha Christie. However, at three-and-half hours in total length, the serial is awfully leisurely at times. There are a few episodes in which nothing much seems to happen.

Still, the cast is energetic and enthusiastic, with Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine leading the way as Joe and Frank Hardy. Kirk would become one of Disney's most reliable stars after appearing in Old Yeller the following year. Considine was already a teen star, having appeared as Spin in the Spin and Marty serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. The original Spin and Marty serial was so successful that it spawned two sequels. Considine went on, of course, to play Mike Douglas on My Three Sons from 1960-65.

Carole Ann Campbell.

My favorite cast member, though, was Carole Ann Campbell, who played Iola. The incredibility sweet Campbell had only seven acting credits during her career. She played Lillian Roth as a child in the movie biography I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) with Susan Hayward. Campbell recorded some songs on Kangaroo Records, but never pursued an acting career after a couple of TV guest star stints in the 1960s.

The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure was successful enough to warrant a sequel, The Mystery of the Ghost Farm. It reunited Kirk, Considine, and Campbell, but was shorter (14 episodes) and not as popular as the first Hardy Boys serial. It has never been released on DVD.

By the way, the opening credits to The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure feature an awesome pirate song warbled by Thurl Ravenscroft (the one-time voice of Tony the Tiger). The film footage was borrowed from Disney's own Treasure Island (1950).

Fred MacMurray and a Double Dose of Flubber

MacMurray in the lab.

Following the success of 1959's The Shaggy Dog, Walt Disney re-teamed Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk for The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). This time around, Fred got most of the screen time with Tommy in a supporting role as the villain's son.

Fred plays Ned Brainard, a brilliant professor at Medfield University, who tends to forget everything when conducting his experiments. Having missed his wedding to fiancee Betsy two times, Ned relies on his housekeeper to get him to his latest scheduled nuptials. That turns out to be a poor plan when Ned leaves Betsy waiting for the third time!

Nancy Olson as Betsy.

To make matters worse, his current experiment literally blows up--but in the aftermath, Ned discovers a strange gooey substance. He rolls it into a ball and discovers that it gains energy with every bounce. It's like flying rubber, so Ned dubs his invention "flubber." Unfortunately, no one takes Ned and flubber seriously until the despicable Alonzo P. Hawks (Keenan Wynn) learns of the new invention's potential.

The Absent-Minded Professor is a first-rate family film bolstered by a bevy of wonderful supporting players. In addition to the aforementioned stars, the cast includes: Nancy Olson (Sunset Boulevard) as Betsy, Leon Ames (Mr. Ed) as the college president, Elliott Reid (Inherit the Wind) as a rival for Betsy's affections, Edward Andrews as a government bureaucrat, David Lewis as a general, Ed Wynn as a fire chief, and many others. My wife and I think we recognized almost everyone in the movie.

What a way to score!

Almost as important as the cast is Disney's special effects department, which earned an Oscar nomination for its work. The film's highlight is a basketball game in which Medfield is being crushed by its nemesis Rutland University.With the score 46-3 at halftime, Ned hatches onto a scheme to help Medfield and demonstrate flubber. He irons the gooey substance on the soles of the Medfield players' shoes. He then encourages them to bounce! The result is one of the most memorable basketball games in the history of cinema!

The Absent-Minded Professor was the fourth highest-grossing film of 1961 (Disney's 101 Dalmatians and The Parent Trap were also in the Top Ten). Thus, Walt Disney, who allegedly abhorred sequels, agreed to make Son of Flubber in 1963. It returns most of the original film's cast, although Tommy Kirk, still playing the same character, has now become Professor Brainard's assistant.

Joanna Moore as Desiree.

Having sold flubber to the government, newlyweds Ned and Betsy have yet to see any money from Ned's promising invention. That doesn't matter to the IRS, which wants them to pay over $600,000 in taxes due to projected earnings. Things get rockier when Ned's old flame, the vivacious Desiree de la Roche (Joanna Moore) returns to Medfield. Meanwhile, Ned has harnessed flubber gas, which he plans to use to control the weather.

Son of Flubber is a spotty follow-up that feels hastily put together. The highlights are an educational film on the commercial uses of flubber in the home and a football game with Paul Lynde as the announcer. In the latter, Biff employs flubber gas to give Medfield an edge against an undefeated Rutland team. However, since flubber gas can become unstable, it's not used to inflate the football--but rather a running back who is then thrown by his teammates!

A Medfield player--with ball--is hurled through the air.

Although Son of Flubber was a big hit, too, no further sequels were made. Medfield College popped up later, though, as the setting for the Dexter Riley film trilogy starring Kurt Russell: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969); Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972); and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). The Disney Studios remade The Absent-Minded Professor twice, first as a 1988 made-for-TV movie with Harry Anderson and then as the 1997 theatrical film Flubber with Robin Williams.

Walt Disney's The Shaggy Dog

Fred MacMurray and his shaggy, car-driving co-star.

In hindsight, The Shaggy Dog (1959) was a landmark Disney film. After all, this amusing comedy perfected the formula for the contemporary live-action family films produced by the studio for the next twenty years. It was also the first of Fred MacMurray's five Disney films--and, according to some sources, it inspired his long-running TV sitcom My Three Sons. Pretty impressive for a comedy about a teenager that periodically transforms into a sheepdog!

Tommy Kirk stars as Wilby Daniels, the kind of teen inventor that accidentally launches a missile interceptor through the roof of his family's house. That doesn't sit well with his grumpy father (MacMurray), a postal carrier who hates dogs--even though his younger son Moochie (Kevin Corcoran) badly wants one.

Wilby in the bathroom.

Moochie gets his wish, more or less, when Wilby accidentally comes into possession of a ring owned by Lucrezia Borgia. When he tries on the cursed ring, he transforms into a sheepdog owned by his pretty, new French neighbor (Roberta Shore, whom we interviewed in 2016).

Later, Wilby transforms back into his human self, but continues to turn into into a shaggy sheepdog at the most inopportune moments. He seeks help from Professor Plumcutt (Cecil Kellaway), who informs Wilby that he has invoked a curse that can only be broken by a heroic act. Thank goodness, while in his canine form, he discovers a spy ring in the neighborhood!

Kevin Corcoran was a Disney mainstay.

Although it was loosely inspired by a 1923 novel called The House Florence, The Shaggy Dog owes much to Old Yeller. That family drama, made two years earlier, teamed Kirk and Corcoran as brothers for the first time. And it was about a dog, too! Of course, Old Yeller is a very different film (Tommy Kirk's big scene near the end always gets to me).

Still, it's apparent that Walt Disney recognized the natural brotherly connection between the teenager Kirk and ten-year-old Corcoran. The two got along well and appeared together in a total of five Disney pictures, portraying siblings again in Swiss Family Robinson, Savage Sam (a sequel to Old Yeller), and Bon Voyage!--which also featured Fred MacMurray as their father.

Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk.

However, it was another Shaggy Dog star, Tim Considine, who would become one of Fred's sons when My Three Sons debuted in 1960. Considine only has a small role in Shaggy Dog, playing Wilby's rival for Annette Funicello and Roberta Shore. Earlier in his career, he played Frank Hardy opposite Tommy Kirk's Joe Hardy in two serials about the sleuthing Hardy Boys.

The Shaggy Dog also introduced the "absent-minded inventor" theme that provided the plots of numerous Disney comedies. Kirk played a college student with a passion for a wild experiments in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) and its sequel, The Monkey's Uncle (1965). His Shaggy Dog co-star Annette Funicello played his college sweetheart. Meanwhile, MacMurray had one of his biggest hits in the title role of The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963).

As for the original Shaggy Dog, it was a big hit that resulted in a belated sequel The Shaggy D.A. (1976), with Dean Jones as the adult Wilby. It also spawned several additional sequels and remakes. That's a pretty impressive legacy for a movie about a teen were-dog.

Annette Funicello and Janet Munro Go Horse Jumping!

A "good condition" VHS tape of The Horsemasters goes for about $170. That's not bad for a 1961 two-part episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color that was released theatrically as a motion picture in Europe. The popularity of The Horsemasters among video collectors has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It's all about the cast--but more about that later.

The plot follows eight youths enrolled in an intensive training program at the Valleywood Riding School in England. Their goal is to become "horsemasters," which apparently requires that you know everything about caring for and riding horses. The students spend the first few weeks doing nothing but cleaning stables, grooming horses, and learning about them. Eventually, though, they do to get to ride and jump their steeds. The training program ends with a riding exam and a written test.

Much of The Horsemasters unfolds like a documentary as we follow the kids during their daily routine. The first half, which was subtitled "Follow Your Heart" for TV, focuses on Dinah Wilcox (Annette Funicello). Her mother was a famous equestrian whose career was cut short after being thrown from her horse. As a result, Dinah has to overcome her fear of jumping.

Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, and Millicent Martin.

The film's second half, known on TV as "Tally Ho," centers on first-time Valleywood instructor Janet Hale (Janet Munro). She struggles to gain the respect of her pupils while instilling discipline in them. She gets minimal advice from The Major (who owns the school): "People are like horses, Janet. If you don't ride them, they'll ride you." It doesn't help that there are romantic sparks between her and the handsome lad from Australia (John Fraser).

The Horsemasters is modestly interesting without ever being engrossing. It doesn't help that the film ends abruptly with the new graduates riding over a hill during a fox hunt.

Annette.

Still, the reason to watch this film is for the cast. Annette Funicello was pretty much at the peak of her Disney stardom (and two years away from the Beach Party series). Her subplot in Horsemasters pairs her with Tommy Kirk, who was also a big Disney star at the time. Walt teamed the two frequently and they became good friends. After leaving Disney in 1963, Kirk signed with American-International Pictures and co-starred with Annette again in 1964's Pajama Party. (Kirk subsequently returned to Disney for two more films, including The Monkey's Uncle with Annette.)

Janet Munro.

Janet Munro appeared in four Disney films, the other three being Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Third Man on the Mountain, and Swiss Family Robinson. Although she frequently played tomboy roles, she could also turn on the sex appeal, as she showed in the excellent science fiction film The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). She died from heart disease in 1972 at age 38.

The remaining cast members include: Donald Pleasence, Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs), and Millicent Martin (Daphne's mother on Frasier).

The Beach Party Series Comes to a Sad End with "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini"

This was not the film's original title.

As visitors to this blog know, we are Beach Party proponents, Annette admirers, and Frankie aficionados. Yes, we like our BP movies, but what is one to make of the last--and least--entry in American International's seven-film series? Frankie and Annette are nowhere to be seen. Other prominent series regulars that are also missing include Candy Johnson, Donna Loren, John Ashley, and, most notably, Jody McCrea (Bonehead/Deadhead). Even William Asher, who directed five of the series' entries, opted to avoid this outing (he had shifted his focus to his then-wife's TV series Bewitched).

In the closing credits of 1965's Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, AIP announced that Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, and Aron Kinkaid "would soon appear in The Girl in the Glass Bikini" (we'll address the title change later). However, by the time production commenced, Annette was no longer attached to the project. Deborah Walley became the female lead and Tommy Kirk, who had previously appeared in Pajama Party, was cast as her co-star.

Kirk and Walley hold hands for a seance.

The plot sends Chuck Philips (Kirk), Lili Morton (Walley), and the older Myrtle Forbush (Patsy Kelly) to the recently-deceased Hiram Stokely's creepy mansion. The trio are the rightful heirs to Hiram's estate, which includes a large sum of money hidden in the house. The dead man's lawyer, Reginald Ripper (Basil Rathbone), wants to swindle them out of their inheritance. Meanwhile, Myrtle's partying nephew Bobby (Kinkaid) shows up at the estate--as does motorcycle gang leader Eric Von Zipper (accompanied by the Ratz and Mice) and J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White reprising his role from Pajama Party).

Karloff was too ill to stand.

When the completed film, now titled Bikini Party in a Haunted House, was screened for AIP heads James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, they deemed it a disaster. Nicholson came up with the idea to add a subplot in which Hiram's ghost (Boris Karloff) has to perform a good deed to get into heaven. A bikini-clad Susan Hart (who had recently married James Nicholson) was also inserted in the proceedings and the movie was retitled The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Unfortunately, the title change meant a big production number called "Bikini Party in a Haunted House"--featuring Aron Kinkaid and Danny Thomas protegee Piccolo Pupa on lead vocals--had to be jettisoned.

Still, the remaining songs penned by Beach Party veterans Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner are quite listenable. Nancy Sinatra does an energetic poolside rendition of "Geronimo" while the Bobby Fuller Four serves as the film's "house band." Piccolo Pupa (that was not her real name) sings lead on "Stand Up and Fight." The Italian performer never achieved success in the U.S. despite three appearances on The Danny Thomas Show and a gig on Shindig! 

Nancy Sinatra sings "Geronimo" and Piccolo Pupa dances.

The saddest part of The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is watching a fine cast being wasted. Karloff, Rathbone, and Francis X. Bushman were all in the twilight of their careers (and Boris was quite ill). It's painful to watch these classic era stars struggle with horrible material. Just two years earlier, Karloff and Rathbone had an opportunity to show off their comedic skills in Richard Matheson's funny The Comedy of Terrors.

Quinn O'Hara as Sinistra.

It's equally frustrating to see Beach Party veterans like Harvey  Lembeck and Bobbi Shaw forced to recycle old gags. Indeed, the only cast member that escapes unscathed is Quinn O'Hara. She's pretty funny as Sinistra, Rathbone's statuesque, but blind-without-her-glasses, daughter who keeps trying to kill Kinkaid's character.

After The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini crashed at the boxoffice, American  International Pictures concentrated on biker and horror flicks (the latter was always one of the company's staples). The Beach Party series, which had started off with such promise in 1963, had lasted just four years and produced only seven films (if you don't count Ski Party). It would take a few decades for their simple nostalgia and memorable music to become fully appreciated. But these days, I can safely say I am not alone in my affection for such drive-in classics as Beach Blanket Bingo and Muscle Beach Party.


This review is part of the Beach Party Blogathon hosted by Silver Screenings and Speakeasy. Click here to view the full schedule of awesome beachy posts!

Pajama Party: “It’s the Latest Craze Having a Party in Your PJs”

Mars is planning an invasion of Earth, and what better way than to target its teenagers? Fearing that teens may cause “intergalactic trouble” in the future, Martians send Go Go (Tommy Kirk), fully confident that, should he be captured, his idiocy will only further confuse his captors. Go Go lands in Aunt Wendy’s (Elsa Lanchester) backyard, and the woman, accepting the fact that Go Go is a Martian, dubs him “George” and has him change into clothes more suitable to a teen. She then introduces George to Connie (Annette Funicello). Connie is being courted by Aunt Wendy’s nephew, Big Lunk (Jody McCrea), but Wendy believes that Connie can make Big Lunk jealous by expressing interest in someone else. Big Lunk, for his part, earns his nickname by neglecting the beautiful Connie, who drops none-too-subtle hints that he should kiss her.

Aunt Wendy’s neighbor is J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White), whose sole reason for living next door is to steal the fortune of Wendy’s deceased husband, presumably hidden inside the house. Hulk believes the best way to the money is through Big Lunk, who is also singled out by Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his motorcycle gang of Ratz and Mice, their dimwitted leader blaming the teens for getting the beach “all footprinted up.” Big Lunk is identified by his red baseball cap, and when Connie goes out with George/Go Go donning said cap, it’s no surprise that Von Zipper and Hulk’s cronies, “Indian” Chief Rotten Eagle (Buster Keaton) and Swedish, non-English speaking blonde, Helga (Bobbi Shaw), mistake one for the other. It all comes to a head at a pajama party, part of Hulk’s nefarious plan, held to distract Aunt Wendy and leave her house vacant -- though the real pajama party was earlier, with Connie and the girls in tiny PJs.

Pajama Party (1964), directed by Don Weis, seems out of place among the Beach Party films, particularly since Annette Funicello has a lead role that isn’t Dee Dee. But the film secures its spot in the “official” series with familiar faces (Funicello, McCrea, Candy Johnson, and Lembeck reprising the winsome Von Zipper), familiar settings (though Aunt Wendy’s pool is a popular hangout, the teens spend just as much time at the beach), and familiar dilemmas (adults trying to spoil the youngsters’ fun and an offbeat chase sequence). Additionally, McCrea’s Big Lunk is a fusion of his own Deadhead/Bonehead and Frankie Avalon’s Frankie, most notably his disregard for Funicello’s character. Kirk, White (as the same character), and Susan Hart, who made their Beach Party debuts in Pajama Party, would later appear in the final series entry, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), also directed by Weis, while newcomer Bobbi Shaw would have roles in the remainder of the Beach Party series.

One slight difference in Pajama Party, however, is the decidedly more provocative innuendo. It isn’t the bikini babes leaving behind a line of bewildered boys, but the gyrating hips of Susan Hart’s Jilda making flowers swoon, setting marshmallows afire, and inciting a small display volcano to erupt. Perhaps more telling is Funicello, whose time as a Mouseketeer in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club kept her in more discreet swimwear than her Beach Party co-stars. In Pajama Party, she’s told by Aunt Wendy to look “seductive” for George (he hardly notices, though I personally found it quite effective), and when Connie makes note of a “well rounded education,” George says she has “well rounded--” before stopping himself. The movie soundtrack is appropriately titled Annette’s Pajama Party and features PJ-clad Funicello on the cover. The film’s highlight, teased by its title, is Connie’s sleepover, with all the girls, including Hart and even Donna Loren, in babydoll pajamas. The camera crawls through the window and into Connie’s bedroom as she sings “Stuffed Animal”, with suggestive lyrics: “a stuffed animal is more than a toy/something cuddly and not like a boy.”

Unfortunately, the characters of Chief Rotten Eagle and Helga, at least in retrospect, threaten to squander tolerance, as he perpetuates Native American stereotypes and she seems to mock foreigners’ inability to speak English. However, Chief Rotten Eagle, as portrayed by Keaton, does have inspired moments, like when he’s sprayed in the face by the perfume lady, and he retaliates by dousing her in perfume as well. Similarly, Helga’s lack of comprehension is more generally employed to mock characters other than herself, such as Big Lunk declaring her a good listener and conversationalist simply because she smiles, nods her head and repeatedly says, “Yah, yah” (and Big Lunk doesn’t understand that Helga is obviously recording him). It’s also a humorous metaphor to accommodate the film equating teens with Martians from another planet.

Elsa Lanchester as Aunt Wendy brings an air of sophistication to the series. She takes the role seriously, yet it still seems tongue-in-cheek as she expertly delivers comedic lines. The actress, perhaps best known as the Bride in James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935), was married to famed actor Charles Laughton until his death in 1962. She and her husband were both nominated for Academy Awards for Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957), for which Lanchester received a Golden Globe. She was also nominated for an Oscar for 1949’s Come to the Stable.

Donna Loren, as per usual, has one of the film’s best songs, “Among the Young”. She plays Vikki and even has a couple of speaking lines. Other memorable musical moments include a Funicello and Kirk duet, “There Has to be a Reason”, and “Where Did I Go Wrong” by Dorothy Lamour, who plays the saleslady at Aunt Wendy’s dress shop and sings her song when the girls dare to watusi in formal attire.

Beach Party alumni Frankie Avalon and Don Rickles have small roles as Martians, occasionally discussing the upcoming invasion (Avalon’s face isn’t shown until the end, but it’s clearly him). They are both credited in the closing with a “special thanks,” which also acts as a teaser for the subsequent film, Beach Blanket Bingo (1965).

Actress Teri Garr (billed as Teri Hope) and singer/dance choreographer Toni Basil have small roles as “Pajama Girls.” Garr, whose breakout role was in Mel Brooks’ seminal comedy, Young Frankenstein (1974), appears in the dress shop scene, modeling a yellow dress. Basil, best known for her number one hit single, “Mickey” (the accompanying hit music video was directed by Basil), is in the same scene in a bikini, and also appears earlier, when her return serve in volleyball is sidetracked by beach choreography. The film’s dance sequences were handled by choreographer (as well as director and producer) David Winters. Also a dance teacher, Winters’ students included Garr and Basil.

Well known journalist, columnist and What’s My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen has a cameo in Pajama Party, while her young son, Kerry Kollmar, plays a recurring character who regards every intimate moment in the film as “mush.”

Pajama Party is a Beach Party film that spends time away from the sand -- its trailer promised “babydoll PJs instead of bikinis.” It’s a world that the fans know: the hilarious Eric Von Zipper and his gang that sometimes leaves him behind in a sidecar (and declares themselves “typical clean-cut American yoots”); Jody McCrea as the imbecile; a spotlight on Donna Loren; and a gorgeous Annette Funicello whose cinematic boyfriend is oblivious, making her somewhat available and all the more appealing to a male audience. But the film also offers growth in the character of Connie. She’s more mature than Dee Dee, more sure of herself and what she wants. Even her voice sounds more sultry in the songs she sings. In the other films, she’s a pretty girl on the beach. In Pajama Party, she’s a woman, as Funicello steps out from the shadow of Walt What’s-his-name. Sadly, this was the only film for Connie, but I like to think that, in her last two Beach Party films, Dee Dee took a little inspiration from her Pajama Party counterpart.