Muscle Beach Party (1964) on Netflix
Coach Jack Fanny's bodybuilders take over the Malibu surf spot shared by Frankie, Dee Dee and their friends. Countess Julie arrives from Italy and turns her attention to Frankie.
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- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb5.2/101,973 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
Frankie, Dee Dee and their friends settle in at Malibu Beach for another summer of surfing rather than jobs. The stretch of sand they keep for themselves is threatened when a troupe of bodybuilders moves in next door; Jack Fanny coaches the musclemen, among them Flex Martian. Then Contessa Juliana Giotto-Borgini, called Julie, comes from Italy with S.Z. Matts, who manages her, and Theodore, her lawyer. She means to court Flex Martian, and the three of them chase Jack Fanny's group for that purpose. Julie turns her attention to Frankie instead, intending to make him a teen idol, and Dee Dee grows jealous.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Muscle Beach Party (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stevie Wonder made his film debut in Muscle Beach Party at the age of thirteen, billed as "Little Stevie Wonder" and appearing in a musical number with Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.
- Burma banned the film along with three other American International beach pictures: Ski Party, Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo.
- Larry Scott, who played the bodybuilder Rock, became the first Mr. Olympia, and the Preacher Bench he favoured became known as the Scott Curl Bench because of him.
- Peter Lorre appears briefly near the end of the film, where a notice promises he will return in the next instalment; he died in March 1964, so this was his only appearance in the series.
- The end titles credit a "Muscle Mao Mao Dance Sequence" choreographed by John Monte, the National Dance Director of Fred Astaire Studios, but no such sequence is in the film's release prints.
- This was the second and last time Frankie Avalon or any other teenage character in the series smoked on screen, filming overlapping with the release of the Surgeon General's report on smoking on 11 January 1964.
