These beach movies were not popular with teenagers at the time of their release, but with the passage of time older adults can enjoy this campy, airbrushed, sanitized sandy version of 1965. Annette and Frankie were never big teen idols or hitmakers, both scoring hits in the 1950s and then fading from sight, but they both had larger than life personalities that adults enjoyed as the years went by. Frankie and Annette were a joke to rock and rollers and the radio charts, and the singers promoted in the beach series all failed to spark any interest. William Asher, producer of the series, was best known as Elizabeth Montgomery's husband and helped create the classic TV series "Bewitched". His hand was steadier with the TV series than it was with the beach movies, but this entry is one of the best.
Annette and Frankie are cute in their all-WASPish, all heterosexual, all white, artificial beach world that never existed. This was not the real 1965 -- even at the beach -- but that's what movies are intended to do: take us out of reality and into imagination, where we can enjoy 90 minutes of life -- the way it might have been.
Annette and Frankie are cute in their all-WASPish, all heterosexual, all white, artificial beach world that never existed. This was not the real 1965 -- even at the beach -- but that's what movies are intended to do: take us out of reality and into imagination, where we can enjoy 90 minutes of life -- the way it might have been.