Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34886 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-01
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Running time: 93 minutes

From Amazon.com
"It ain't nothin' without the stuffin'!" That's what all the groovy beach partyers say when a phantom bikini appears out of nowhere, and suddenly fills out its two-piece form with the voluptuous body of Cassandra (Beverly Adams), who soon has all the beach-hunks drooling. Along comes Madison Avenue adman "Peachy" Keane (Mickey Rooney) to recruit Cassandra for his "Girl Next Door" ad campaign, while his assistant Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) gets all googly-eyed for Dee Dee (Annette Funicello), who's not as easy as the other sand 'n' surf chickie-babies. And where's Frankie (Avalon)? He's on a tropical island with the navy reserve, sampling the comely native fauna and bribing the local medicine man Bwana (played by... Buster Keaton?!) with generous doses of alcoholic "torpedo juice" in return for a failsafe love potion. Oh, and did we mention the cross-country cycle race that will determine who's the fairest young couple in the land?

The sixth installment of the seemingly endless Beach Party series, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a minor step up from Gilligan's Island, but you've got to love a movie that includes a mischievous pelican, an appearance by the Kingsmen (of "Louie Louie" fame), and a half-dozen forgettable pop songs that virtually define the beach-party genre. Comedy purists may lament the downward spiral of Buster Keaton's career, but he's just having good, dumb fun like everyone else, and geographic distance doesn't stop Frankie and Annette from crooning a split-screen duet. And dig those clay-animated opening credits by Gumby creator Art Clokey! Let's face it, these movies are perfect time capsules of juvenile entertainment, and if you can't enjoy them in all their cheesy glory, you're nothin' but a square! --Jeff Shannon

Review
For sheer in-joke references and pop-culture density, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is the most rewarding entry in the entire "Beach Party" series. From the delightful Claymation opening credit sequence devised by Gumby-creator Art Clokey, one can tell that the producers were putting a little extra into this picture, probably because there was a lot less of both Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello onscreen than in prior films. Avalon, who was making other films at the time, is barely in it, except at the beginning and the end, and Funicello was several months pregnant at the time and director William Asher was doing his best to shoot around her condition. They made up for the two stars' relative non-appearances with a very busy, goofy plot that managed to satirize the advertising industry, early '60s youth culture, and even exploitation movies of this kind (Keaton looks at the camera after delivering some explanatory dialogue and says "And that's all the plot you're gonna get out of me!") The script and plot are also filled -- practically to the penultimate scene, a great comic cameo by Elizabeth Montgomery -- with lines and characterizations that were lifted right out of the television series Bewitched, no surprise since this movie was co-authored and directed by William Asher, the producer of Bewitched. The presence of Dwayne Hickman, TV's Dobie Gillis, in a prominent role, is also exploited to the fullest, even allowing the actor to address the camera (as in that television series). There are also some surprising bonuses in the music -- all good surf songs and girl-group numbers -- which are much better integrated into the plot than any of the earlier movies, advancing the story like a real musical rather than stopping it cold. Brian Wilson is on hand as an anonymous beach denizen, but the Kingsmen grab the onscreen musical glory with a superb punk number called "Give Her Lovin'." And in the middle is a line of dialogue -- "If you can't be with the girl you love, love the girl you're with" -- lifted in part from Finian's Rainbow, but anticipating Stephen Stills' pop-sexist anthem "Love the One You're With" by seven years. Anyone with a sharp eye or ear and a memory for the time will need a scorecard to sort it all out -- if they can stop chuckling long enough. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

On the DVD
Collectible booklet
Original theatrical trailer

Customer Reviews

Frankie And Annette And Samantha from Bewitched
The Best scenes are Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello singing a song together and there is a good scene with Elizabeth Montgomery in her role of Samantha from Bewitched sending Frankie home to Annette who plays Dee Dee and also Annette singing songs.Although Frankie isn't in many scenes with Annette since his character is away he is in the story and Frankie does come home to Annette.If you like Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and Elizabeth Montgomery and Bewitched then you would enjoy this.The scene with Elizabeth Montgomery in her role of Samantha from Bewitched makes this film more fun.Frankie and Annette are always good together and though they don't have many scenes together in the film it is a good film and they do have scenes together later in the film.

Like a Disney film directed by Andy Sidaris.
Too silly. Too leering.

Even more hackneyed than others. Bad songs. Little cleverness.

A supporting cast of lesser interest, to me anyway. (No Susan Hart, no Don Rickles, no Donna Loren, darn little Buster Keaton and Bobbi Shaw- and she's a brunette here).

Watchable at best.

Like a Walt Disney film directed by Andy Sidaris.
All very silly and naive, but as leering *in tone* as just about anything you'll find. The movie opens on a close-up of a girl's navel, and soon a group of boys are singing a song about girls' measurements. It continues downward (?) from there. There are much better Beach Party movies than this recycled patchwork of earlier and superior songs, characters, situations and chases.

IMHO, "How to Stuff..." needed more Buster Keaton and Bobbi Shaw. An appearance by Susan Hart wouldn't exactly have felt like a sharp stick in the eye, either.