The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini * (1966, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, Nancy Sinatra, Quinn O’Hara) – Classic Movie Review 5952

The great horror stars Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone are embarrassed to be playing The Corpse and Reginald Ripper in director Don Weis’s potty 1966 Beach Party comedy horror movie about bikers, bikini-clad girls and a body in a spook house.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini also stars Patsy Kelly as Myrtle Forbush, Tommy Kirk as Chuck Phillips, Deborah Walley as Lili Morton, Aron Kincaid as Bobby, Nancy Sinatra as Vicki and Quinn O’Hara as Reginald Ripper’s daughter Sinistra.

Also in the cast are Harvey Lembeck as dopey biker Eric Von Zipper, Francis X Bushman as Malcolm, Claudia Martin as Lulu, Jesse White as J Sinister Hulk, Bobbie Shaw Chance as Princess Yolanda, Benny Rubin as Chicken Feather and George Barrows as Monstro the Gorilla.

The cast camp about in and around a haunted house and its swimming pool – and, though it is a Beach Party film, hilariously no beach appears in the film! Fortunately, there are plenty of bikinis, though, and there is a ghost. The film is also treasured for its so-bad-it’s-good random continuity, random singing, silly plot line, equally random musical guests, ridiculous chases and daft fight scenes.

And now for the random singing. Nancy Sinatra, whose career was just taking off, has a supporting role and performs one song written for the film. The Bobby Fuller Four appear as themselves and sing two songs. Claudia Martin, daughter of Dean Martin, appears as Lulu. Italian starlet Piccola Pupa appears as herself and sings a song. After filming was completed, some cast members went to the Golden Oak Ranch to film the opening number, Bikini Party in a Haunted House, sung by Aron Kincaid and Piccola Pupa.

Its link to the other Beach Party films is the Rat Pack motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck), as well as appearances by Beach Party alumni Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Bobbi Shaw, Jesse White, Aron Kincaid, Quinn O’Hara and Boris Karloff. But where are Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon? Although they had been announced as the stars, neither actually appear and it is the only movie in the series to feature neither of them.

Thankfully, American International Pictures stopped the series here at number seven.

Les Baxter composed and conducted the score and Al Simms was the musical supervisor.

AIP bosses James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff were unhappy with the original cut of the film and ordered reshoots several weeks after principal photography, including the addition of a new unconnected plot involving an old man who has to perform a good deed to gain eternal youth, and a sexy ghost in an invisible bikini who helps him. The old man is played by Boris Karloff and the ghost by Nicholson’s wife Susan Hart.

Hart shot her scenes in a blonde wig and black velvet bathing suit, shot against a black velvet backdrop. She worked for two weeks on her own, then for a week with Karloff, who shot his scenes in a one-room mausoleum set on a separate soundstage. Karloff, with back problems and leg brace, stands in a bottomless coffin. Their scenes were edited then into the existing footage.

It is said to be veteran actor Francis X Bushman’s 435th movie.

Edinburgh-born Quinn O’Hara died at 76 on 5 May 2017.

 © Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5952

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