List Price: $39.98You Pay Only: $31.99 You Save: $7.99 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
EAN: 0027616081292
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: American International Pictures (AIP)
Manufacturer: American International Pictures (AIP)
Number Of Items: 4
Publisher: American International Pictures (AIP)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 10, 2007
Running Time: 755 minutes
Sales Rank: 5081
Studio: American International Pictures (AIP)
Theatrical Release Date: July 22, 1964
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Enjoy the sand and the waves with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in this collection of sun-drenched favorites: BEACH BLANKET BINGO HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI BEACH PARTY BIKINI BEACH FIREBALL 500 THUNDER ALLEY MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and SKI PARTY. See individual titles for synopsis information.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 027616081292 Manufacturer No: M108129
Amazon.com:
The sun will never set on Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, The recording star from Philadelphia and the former Mouseketeer give a master class in chemistry in five Beach Party films that make up the bulk of this swinging eight-film box set. Beach Party (1963) helped to usher in a new wave of teen exploitation films that were far more fun and frolicsome than the rock and roll and juvenile delinquent films that preceded it. Frankie rents a beach house for himself and Annette's Dolores. He is stunned to learn that she has gotten cold feet and allowed the whole gang to hang out there. So Frankie decides to 'dig somebody else,' and Delores takes up with Robert Cummings, an anthropologist studying the sex lives of teens. All ends happily, and chastely. Harvey Lembeck, whose credits include Billy Wilder's Stalag 17, introduced his recurring series role as bumbling biker Eric Von Zipper. Surf guitar god Dick Dale provides accompaniment. Vincent Price pops up as Big Daddy to say, 'Bring me my pendulum, kiddies. I feel like swinging.' Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) is the magnum Party opus as Frankie goes sky-diving, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid, Linda Evans sings, Paul Lynde is snide, Don Rickles insults, and Frankie and Annette sing their classic, 'I Think, You Think.' Bikini Beach (1964) takes a swipe at the upstart Beatles with Frankie in a dual role as British pop star Potato Bug. Muscle Beach Party (1964) was Stevie Wonder's first film, and Peter Lorre's last.
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) marks the end of an era, with Frankie, off in the Naval Reserves, getting help from witch doctor Buster Keaton in keeping interloper Dwayne Hickman away from Annette. Annette's absence is keenly felt in Ski Party, but James Brown performs, 'I Feel Good' and Lesley Gore sings her top-40 hit, 'Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.' Frankie and Annette were reunited at the racetrack in Fireball 500 (1966), but Fabian is a third wheel as a rival for Annette. Thunder Alley (1967) (from Richard Rush, director of the cult classic, The Stunt Man), is another car-racing vehicle that pairs Annette and Fabian, but by now the thrill is gone. Frankie and Annette are as indelible a screen couple and as inseparable in the public's imagination as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. What is the secret to their enduring appeal? The last line of Back to the Beach (1987), an unsung gem unfortunately not included in this set, sums it up. Frankie and Annette walk together along the beach for the last time. Frankie turns to the camera and asks, 'Are we the corniest couple in the world, or what?' --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Love the beach movies!
I love all of the beach movies! They are basically dumb entertainment but really fun, dumb entertainment! I also enjoyed the Ski Party movie. I really didn't enjoy Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley. They took the innocence away from Frankie and Annette and made them hardened sinning characters. I prefer more of an innocent act like with the beach movies. Pretty good pack of movies but no special features. I would be just fine if the pack left out the two car movies.
Rating:  - These films are not as much fun as I remember them
This box set contains eight movies produced by American International Pictures (AIP) from 1963-67, five of them "Beach Party" movies--four of them starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello (BEACH PARTY, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY, BIKINI BEACH, BEACH BLANKET BINGO) and one starring Annette, with Frankie in an extended cameo (HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI). There's a Beach Party offshoot in SKI PARTY, starring Frankie, but with Annette in a cameo, and two southern-set stock car racing dramas, one starring Frankie and Annette (FIREBALL 500) and one starring Annette, but no Frankie (THUNDER ALLEY). Frankie's fellow South Philly teen idol, Fabian, co-stars in both of the racing movies. Given this lineup, I'm more than a little annoyed that two of the better Beach Party spin-offs, PAJAMA PARTY (1964), which starred Annette but no Frankie, and SERGEANT DEADHEAD (1965), which starred Frankie but no Annette, were not included here. They would have been a better fit than the two racing movies.
BEACH PARTY, the oldest film here, is the only one of the eight that truly holds up well. It's got the strongest plot, some interesting adult characters in an anthropologist and his pretty assistant, played by Hollywood veterans Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone, and the best music and song score of any of these films. The other Beach Party films don't age well at all. The comedy isn't terribly funny anymore and the songs are generally awful. The only pleasures come from some of the guest stars, particularly ... Read More
Rating:  - Frankie & Annette Junkie Must Have
I love the old movies and these are great for late night scrapbooking - I know them by heart in the first place but they're just feel good make you happy movies!
Rating:  - You Can't Keep a Good Zipper Down... uh.. Up... uh... Let's Skip this Metaphor
7/25/08 [Beach Party, 1963]: Hey you Stupids listen up. When Eric Von Zipper likes a movie, it stays liked! Not really a surfing movie, not really a Frankie Avalon movie, not really a movie the producers wanted to entrust to young talent. Gidget [THE MOVIE!] must have tempted the producers to come up with their own beach style movie. Most of the movie starred Robert Cummings who was about 55 years old by then. His character unknowingly charms Annette Funicello who was about 20 years old then. [The review writer stage whispers to the reader: (Now you tell me, was this plot development a calculated ego treat for the studio producers to secure production funding?)] So was this a good movie? Let's just say that it fit the bill for my family's dumb movie night. I particularly enjoyed watching Harvey Lembeck (the only guy who ends up in the bedroom with Annette hey, it was an innocent accident, honest!). Morey Amsterdam and Dick Dale were additional value shots for this movie. Stay tuned for Muscle Beach Party, I know I will.
8/17/08 [Muscle Beach Party, 1964]: Pops tosses the keys to Frankie and Annette and lets them power a greater share of the screen time than in Beach Party. Dick Dale, still looking like a tiger on a leash, lends "surf creds" to the Party. Don Rickles, spouting dumb liners while sporting his muscle men upon Frankie's beach , takes over for Erik Von Zipper. Further plot complications (I'm sorry, did I just use the word "plot" regarding this movie?) arise when the Contessa ... Read More
Rating: - beach blanket bingo
it is a very good collection of my early years and brings back memories of my youth
larry j. maynard
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