Beach Blanket Bingo

Released Apr 2, 1965

1h 38m

Musical

Comedy

List

73%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

52%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and the gang are hitting the beach for some good old-fashioned shenanigans. To get the party underway, the manager (Paul Lynde) of pop singer Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) decides a skydiving publicity stunt will really do the trick. As Frankie and the others are pulled into the plan, things get out of control. Throw in Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and a kidnapping biker (Harvey Lembeck), and the party's just getting started.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Fandango at Home

Premiered Jan 02

Buy Now

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Rent Beach Blanket Bingo on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

Denny S

These Beach Party films are really last looks at our pre-Beatle world, where Frankie Avalon would soon be relegated to the fringes and Annette would be doing peanut Butter commercials on TV. But here, oblivious to the changes in the wind, they surf, hang out at the beach, dance in the sand in their bikinis and swimming trunks. It all seems so quaint today. But this specific one in the series is certainly the best of the lot (yah, I know) and the one that I would put in the time capsule.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/26/24

Full Review

dave s

Beyond the undeniable chemistry between Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, Beach Blanket Bingo doesn't really have much to offer, including anything even closely resembling a plot. There are plenty of bikini-clad girls and muscle-bound guys, not to mention surfing, dancing and singing. Throw in some weak storylines involving kidnapping, skydiving, a mermaid and an up-and-coming pop star and you have Beach Blanket Bingo. The humor fails at every turn, consisting exclusively of slapstick and corny one-liners, none of them even remotely funny. The saddest part of the whole thing is the appearance of Buster Keaton, whose character serves absolutely no purpose, leading one to believe that Keaton was in need of a pay cheque. This is a movie that is so dumb it's exhausting.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

robert p

I intensely dislike the actor Paul Lynde, everybody knew that he was gay!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Did you know you can be full blood family and have completely different reactions to sun and sand? My sister wants to be in summer full-time and is permatan. I look like I haven't taken my iron supplement and consider London summery. While she frolicked outside on the beach during our childhood vacations, I sat inside with her friend who was scared of jellyfish and we would watch these dumb movies on TBS during the hours of 10am-4pm. This is the one case where Hollywood was less poisonous than the sun... "Beach Blanket Bingo" was by far our favorite Frankie and Annette movie to mock, especially regarding Bonehead's relationship with the mermaid Lorelei. There are also great little comedic sketches with Buster Keaton and Don Rickles, as they tended to be in all these movies as bit players. Harvey Lembeck was always wonderful at playing the funny bad guy, since no one is truly bad in these Frankie and Annette films. These movies really have the essence of "The Benny Hill Show" as they are all essentially an old man chasing bikini girls around in circles as "Yakety Sax" plays and it's all happening on a gay man's show*... *Summery=London

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is typical of the plotless youth movies of the 60's. Unfortunately today's filmgoers have raised the bar on taste and lowered the bar on tolerance for this type of format.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

William Asher

Director

Frankie Avalon

Frankie

Annette Funicello

Dee Dee

Paul Lynde

Bullets

Deborah Walley

Bonnie Graham

Harvey Lembeck

Eric Von Zipper

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

40%

40%

Bikini Beach

25%

57%

It Happened at the World's Fair

86%

66%

Bye Bye Birdie

33%

49%

Spinout

86%

86%

Help!

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

If this one is considered the best in the series, I'd hate to see the others.

Rated: C-

Jun 15, 2020

Full Review

Austin Kennedy

Film Geek Central

How anyone can be in a bad mood after they watch this would be beyond me. A great cult classic!

Rated: 4/4

May 6, 2014

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Easily the most consistently entertaining movie in the [beach party] series.

Rated: 7/10

Aug 12, 2013

Full Review

David Cornelius

Popcornworld

Bingo never slows down, never misses a beat, never stops being anything but great, great fun.

May 5, 2013

Full Review

Steve Crum

Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers

Silly, but so campy fluff with Annette and Frankie.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 28, 2006

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 1/5

Jun 14, 2005

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and the gang are hitting the beach for some good old-fashioned shenanigans. To get the party underway, the manager (Paul Lynde) of pop singer Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) decides a skydiving publicity stunt will really do the trick. As Frankie and the others are pulled into the plan, things get out of control. Throw in Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and a kidnapping biker (Harvey Lembeck), and the party's just getting started.

Director: William Asher
Screenwriter: William Asher, Leo Townsend
Distributor: American International Pictures
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 2, 1965, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Runtime: 1h 38m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Most Popular at Home Now