Trailer
Plot summary
Frankie assumes a beach trip with Dolores is a private romantic getaway, but Dolores, dissatisfied with the relationship and unwilling to be alone with him, has asked several friends to share the beach house. Frankie is upset to find them there. Next door, Professor Robert Orville Sutwell and his secretary Marianne secretly observe the surfers' mating habits, taking notes on the young people who gather at the beach.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Beach Party (1963)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Ashley recalled that the cast had to wear body make-up because none of them had a tan, and that he and Frankie Avalon joked while filming in freezing water that they were "two thirty year old guys in body make up playing teenagers."
- Annette Funicello said she faced constant pressure during the shoot to show her navel; she refused, and believed audiences liked her character because they sensed her determination.
- William Asher rewrote Lou Rusoff's script with Robert Dillon but agreed to give up the credit after Samuel Arkoff told him Rusoff was dying of brain cancer; Rusoff got sole credit and died in June 1963.
- AIP wanted Fabian Forte to play opposite Annette Funicello, but he was under contract to 20th Century Fox, so Frankie Avalon was cast as the lead instead.
- Annette Funicello was always the first choice for the female lead, but she was under contract to Walt Disney, which had to approve the script and was worried about her image.
- Beach Party was one of the first instances of film cross-selling: at the very end of the credits AIP plugged its horror film The Haunted Palace, thanking Vincent Price for appearing as Big Daddy.
- With Beach Party, AIP created the beach party film subgenre; other studios copied the formula without equal success, turning out films such as Surf Party, Ride the Wild Surf and A Swingin' Summer.
