Moviegoers of today are now familiarized with coming-of-age films targeted at teenagers and young adults, but for many years the idea of creating films specifically for young people was not commonplace. Many of us associate the rise in media created specifically for teenage consumption with the teen comedies of the '80s. Rightfully so, as teen movies were at their peak in the '80s, thanks to directors such as John Hughes who revolutionized the genre and made it what it is today. Films such as The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off have remained staples in the coming-of-age genre for nearly 40 years and paved the way for popular teen movies such as Clueless, She's the Man, and Easy A that we know and love today. In the '50s and '60s, however, the concept of the teenager was just beginning to be understood by adults, and movies geared toward young adults were scarce.
Prior to the 1950s, adults did not quite grasp that there was a stage of adolescence between young childhood and early adulthood. When they finally did, studios saw an opportunity to create films catered to young people and their problems. It was then that classic films such as Rebel Without a Cause and Teenage Rebel were made. By the time the '60s rolled around, teen movies were frequently produced, but by then they lacked the more serious tone of teenage films from the '50s. In the '60s, anything to do with the beach and beach parties was all the rage, thanks to Gidget, which kicked off the craze in 1959.
The decade saw a multitude of beach-themed films made for high schoolers and college students that explored partying, friends, and relationships. Many of these movies tried to blend the teen coming-of-age genre with other genres such as comedy or drama, and even horror or fantasy on occasion. These beach party films were wildly popular among young people at the time despite some of the silly premises and titles. Now, these films may seem a tad ridiculous to us, but back then teen movies were in their infancy. In case you were curious, here are ten classic beach party films from the '60s:
10 How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
The 1965 film How to Stuff a Wild Bikini was the last Beach Party movie to feature two of the most prominent actors in these beach-centric films, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. The two had been in five of these beach party films together, although in this film Avalon only had about six minutes of screen time due to filming another movie for American International Pictures called Sergeant Deadhead.
In the film, Frankie (Avalon) is on reserve in Tahiti and doesn't trust Dee Dee (Funicello) to be faithful to him. He hires a witch doctor named Bwana, played by silent film star Buster Keaton, to help him. Bwana conjures up a floating bikini and stuffs it with Cassandra (Beverly Adams) so she can lure advertising executive Ricky (Dwayne Hickman) away from Dee Dee.
Set against the backdrop of Malibu's Paradise Cove, the movie featured numerous dance numbers in between its potion mixing and schemes developed by jealous partners and also featured songs such as "Better Be Ready" by The Kingsmen.
9 Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
Beach Blanket Bingo is the fifth installment of the Beach Party movies and the second to last of the movies that starred both Avalon and Funicello.
The movie follows Frankie, Dee Dee, and their friends as they meet famous singer Sugar Kane in a publicity stunt conceived by her manager to promote her latest song. The stunt involves having an experienced skydiver Bonnie (Deborah Walley) disguise herself as Sugar Kane and skydive into the ocean in front of unsuspecting surfers who would then have to save her. This leads to a newfound interest in skydiving by the surfers, especially Dee Dee until she thinks Bonnie is trying to steal Frankie from her. In reality, Bonnie just wants to make the pilot Steve (John Ashley) jealous.
This rom-com musical also featured a mermaid storyline and a jealous biker gang leader who wanted to steal Sugar Kane because she is his idol.
8 Surf Party (1964)
Arizonian teens Terry (Patricia Morrow), Sylvia (Lory Patrick), and Junior (Jackie DeShannon) travel to Malibu Beach in California for vacation, so they can learn to surf and find Terry's brother Skeet (Jerry Summers). As their summer begins, all three girls fall in love with different boys, and Sylvia falls in love with Skeet. They soon attract the attention of the local anti-surfing police sergeant and realize that Skeet's reputation in Malibu is far from what it seems.
Surf Party pays homage to the '60s surf scene by following this group of teenagers who just want to enjoy their summer vacation and live at the beach. The classic beach film also features two of its stars, Jackie DeShannon and Bobby Vinton, who lend their vocal talent to the film's theme, also titled "Surf Party."
7 Beach Party (1963)
The first of the five official Beach Party films and often credited for popularizing the beach-themed genre of film, Beach Party follows Frankie and Dee Dee in their first on-screen outing. The film revolves around an anthropology professor named Robert Sutwell (Robert Cummings) and his secretary Marianne (Dorothy Malone) as they study the sexual habits of Southern Californian teenagers who spend their time at the beach. Meanwhile, Frankie and Dee Dee have other teens spending the summer at the beach house with them due to Dee Dee's dissatisfaction with their relationship. To combat this, Frankie listens to his friends and decides to flirt with a waitress named Ava (Eva Six), which leads Dee Dee to stumble into the lap of Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and be rescued by none other than Professor Sutwell, who she then develops a crush on.
The movie features a convoluted love triangle that is more like a love pentagon between Frankie, Dee Dee, Ava, Sutwell, and Marianne. The musical rom-com also involves a rivalry between the surfers and the bikers, who all happen to sing and dance.
6 Ride the Wild Surf (1964)
Swapping the beaches of California for the beaches of Hawaii's Oahu Island, Ride the Wild Surf follows surfers Jody (Fabian), Steamer (Tab Hunter), and Chase (Peter Brown) who come to the island in order to compete with other surfers and ride the world's biggest waves. Each boy falls in love with a different girl while on the island, with each girl having contrasting personalities from the boys. While navigating their rocky romances, the three boys attempt to fit in among the champion surfers and take on the monster waves at Waimea Bay and be the last ones to ride the highest wave. Ride the Wild Surf actually features real-life surfing footage of surfers Greg Noll and Mickey Dora to add some legitimacy to the many surf scenes in the film. This is also one of the few beach-themed movies of the time that actually balanced the romantic storylines with the surfing storyline rather than letting the romance overshadow the surf time.
5 Where the Boys Are (1960)
This coming-of-age story follows four very different college girls from a mid-western university on their journey to the sunny beaches of Fort Lauderdale for spring break. Each girl finds their own relationships with visiting boys from other universities and discover their own relationships with sex. While many beach movies of the '60s were campy comedies, Where the Boys Are took a more dramatic approach to its comedy and explored areas of female friendship, self-discovery, and intimacy in the turbulent '60s.
The film manages to explore these important topics without sacrificing its humor and without making a mockery of what teenagers consider to be important by having the young characters learn important life lessons.
4 The Girls on the Beach (1965)
In this beach comedy, the girls of Alpha Beta need to earn $10,000 in two weeks to save their sorority house. They come up with a variety of ways to make money, including a beauty content, a baking contest, and a newspaper puzzle. When three handsome boys arrive at the beach claiming to know The Beatles, the girls plan a concert with the band as the headliner. While The Girls on the Beach does not actually feature The Beatles, it does feature an appearance by another famous band. The Beach Boys performed three songs for this film, including the titular "Girls on the Beach", "Lonely Sea", and "Little Honda." The movie also has Lesley Gore sing three songs, including "It's Gotta Be You", as well and also has an appearance from the band The Crickets.
3 The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)
Technically the seventh installment of the Beach Party movie series as it has some appearances by some characters in the previous films, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini includes the same random singing and ridiculous plot lines as other beach-themed films of the time. Except with the added addition of a haunted house with a swimming pool this time around. A corpse named Hiram Stokley (Boris Karloff) realizes that he only has 24 hours to perform one good deed in order to enter Heaven. He enlists the help of his ghost girlfriend Cecily (Susan Hart) to stop his lawyer from taking his estate from the true heirs. When Hiram's nephew brings his beach friends to the estate for a pool party, the lawyer's associates terrorize the teens while Eric Von Zipper's biker gang tries to get part of the estate.
The movie incorporates spooky elements into the comedy for a silly, campy tone. The movie also had Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy Sinatra in a supporting role where she performed a song for the film.
2 Wild on the Beach (1965)
After her uncle passes away, college student Lee Sullivan (Sherry Jackson) inherits a beach house from him that she decides she wants to use as a boarding house for girls to alleviate the student housing shortage and finance her education. Another college student named Adam Miller (Frankie Randall) claims he received permission from Lee's uncle while he was alive to use the house, and obtains a permit before she does. Soon, both Lee and Adam are renting out the house and avoiding university authorities.
Wild on the Beach was of course a typical humorous beach party flick with musical numbers, but it also happened to be the film debut of the iconic singing duo Sonny & Cher. It is also one of the few beach films of the era to be filmed in black and white.
1 Bikini Beach (1964)
The third installment of the popular American International Pictures produced series sees high schoolers out of school for the summer and ready to hit the beach. All is well until millionaire Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Keenan Wynn) arrives convinced that his chimpanzee has a higher level of intellect than the beach-obsessed teenagers and plans to turn the beach into a retirement home.
Bikini Beach once again involves a love triangle revolving around Dee Dee and Frankie, this time with British drag racer Peter Royce Bentley after Dee Dee's affections. If the character names in this installment weren't funny enough, Peter Bentley is also played by Frankie Avalon, making the love triangle a competition between Annette Funicello and two versions of Avalon. Of course, it wouldn't be a true beach party movie without biker gang leader Eric Von Zipper swooping in to try to ruin the surfer's summer.