Operation Bikini * (1963, Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Scott Brady) – Classic Movie Review 9380

‘TEMPTATION in PARADISE… Neither hell nor high heels could stop them!’

Debut director Anthony Carras’s 1963 World War Two war film Operation Bikini [The Seafighter] stars Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon and Scott Brady, and is made by Alta Vista and released by American International Pictures, who aimed hopefully at a varied audience with a varied cast and varied genres, with submarine movie, comedy, musical, war and South Sea island elements. And all in 77 minutes! Needless to say, but we will, it doesn’t do any of these jobs very well.

It is set in 1944, when an American submarine’s commander Captain Emmett Carey (Scott Brady) is ordered to pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lieutenant Morgan Hayes (Hunter), whose secret mission is to destroy a US submarine sunk in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese can raise it and capture its advanced radar system.

The cheap production and writer John Tomerlin’s poor dialogue more or less sinks it. There is nothing wrong with the game cast though. For youth appeal, it shares cast members — Avalon, Jody McCrea (son of Joel) and Eva Six — with Beach Party. Alas, poor Tab Hunter, now described as ‘former screen heartthrob’, starring in his first film in Hollywood since The Pleasure of His Company (1961). He took over from Rory Calhoun, who was originally announced as star. Also in the cast are character actor Jim Backus, Scott Brady, Michael Dante and Gary Crosby (son of Bing),

Avalon sings in a dream sequence featuring a song with a group of young women, shot in colour, though the rest of the movie is shot in black and white. The song is The Girl Back Home Written by Robert P Marcucci (as Bob Marcucci) and Russell Faith (as Russ Faith).

Filming started in December 1962 at Republic Studios.

AIP released it in a double bill with The Mind Benders.

The main cast are Tab Hunter as Lieutenant Morgan Hayes, Frankie Avalon as Seaman Joseph Malzone, Scott Brady as Captain Emmett Carey, Jim Backus as Bosun’s Mate Ed Fennelly, Gary Crosby as Seaman Floyd Givens, Michael Dante as Lieutenant William Fourtney, Jody McCrea as Seaman William Sherman, Eva Six as Reiko, Aki Aleong as Seaman Ronald Davayo, David Landfield as Lieutenant Cale, Richard Bakalyan as Seaman Hiller, Joe Finnegan as Seaman Morris, Vernon Scott as Seaman Fowler, Raymond Guth as Seaman Rich, Tony Scott as CPO Perez, Steve Mitchell as Seaman Nolan, Mickey McDermott as Seaman Fairly, Wayne Winton as Seaman Patterson, Duane Ament as Seaman Kingsley, Jody Daniels as Seaman Jones, Marc Cavell as Paul, Raynum K Tsukamoto as Kawai, Lan Nam Tuttle as Mika, Alicia Li as third native girl, Nancy Dusina as Dream girl back home and Judy Lewis as Dream siren.

It is narrated by William Shatner.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9380

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