One in a series of Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello movie musicals, Bikini Beach has everything you’d expect from a squeaky-clean, 1960s teen picture: cheesy sound effects, countless fake backgrounds, outfits that look like lamp shades, random musical numbers and, for no apparent reason, a chimp (or at least a man in a chimp suit). I couldn’t follow the plot – something about an uptight old guy wanting to shut down the beach where Avalon and his buddies surf – but the movie is better encapsulated by the tag line from the original trailer anyway: “It’s yesterday’s ideas versus today’s swinging singers.’ Count me in.
