The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
Encyclopedia
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh (and last) of the American International Pictures
(AIP) beach party film
s and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming pool. Besides the usual bikini-clad cast, random singing, silly plot line, musical guests, and ridiculous chases and fight scenes, the continuity linking this to the other beach films is the Rat Pack motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck
), as well as the appearance of previous beach party alumni Tommy Kirk
, Deborah Walley
, Bobbi Shaw, Jesse White
, Aron Kincaid
and Boris Karloff
.
Pop singer Nancy Sinatra
, who was on the rise at the time just before the film was released, has a supporting role and performs one song written for the film; and the Bobby Fuller Four appear as themselves and sing two songs. The briefly famous Italian starlet Piccola Pupa appears as herself and also sings a song.
) finds that he has 24 hours to perform one good deed to get into Heaven. He enlists the help of his long dead girlfriend, Cecily, to stop his lawyer, Reginald Ripper (Basil Rathbone
), and a henchman from claiming the estate for themselves. The real heirs, Chuck, Lili, Hiram's cousin Myrtle, and her son bring their beach party friends to the mansion for a pool party while Reginald Ripper also employs his daughter Sinistra, and J. Sinister Hulk's slow-witted associates Chicken Feather and Yolanda to help them terrorize the teens, while dopey biker Eric Von Zipper and his Malibu Rat Pack bikers also get involved in pursuing Yolanda for a share of the Stokley estate.
and Annette Funicello
in the roles that went to Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley, and this is the only film in the series that doesn't feature either one of them. The movie was produced as The Girl in the Glass Bikini (the title was changed before release), and this early title can be seen in the promo in the end credits for Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
, an AIP spy spoof
loosely affiliated with the Beach Party series (with "beach" alumni Avalon, Walley, Dwayne Hickman
, and Susan Hart
).
Boris Karloff's scenes were all filmed in a one-room mausoleum set on a separate soundstage over two days a few months after principal photography ended. Besides Susan Hart, who plays the title role of his invisible-bikini-clad ghostly girlfriend, he has no interaction with the rest of the cast. Karloff previously had a cameo in Bikini Beach
. For his scenes, Karloff is clearly standing in a bottomless coffin, rather than sitting up in it, a necessity given his chronic back problems and leg brace.
The stunt scene of Eric Von Zipper crashing his motorcycle into a pond was used again in the first Billy Jack
film The Born Losers
(1967), also produced by AIP.
composed and conducted the musical score. Al Simms was the musical supervisor, and
Albert Harris composed some additional music and served as the film’s orchestrator.
Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote five songs that appear in the film:
Nancy Sinatra performs “Geronimo;” Quinn O'Hara performs “Don't Try to Fight It Baby;” and Piccola Pupa performs “Stand Up and Fight.”
The Bobby Fuller Four
perform “Swing A-Ma Thing” and “Make the Music Pretty.”
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
(AIP) beach party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...
s and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming pool. Besides the usual bikini-clad cast, random singing, silly plot line, musical guests, and ridiculous chases and fight scenes, the continuity linking this to the other beach films is the Rat Pack motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...
), as well as the appearance of previous beach party alumni Tommy Kirk
Tommy Kirk
Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:Kirk was discovered by talent agents at the age of thirteen in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California...
, Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley was an American actress.-Biographical Information:Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She...
, Bobbi Shaw, Jesse White
Jesse White
Jesse White may refer to:*Jesse White , film and television actor*Jesse White , Illinois politician*Jesse J. White, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives*Jesco White, the West Virginia "Dancing Outlaw"...
, Aron Kincaid
Aron Kincaid
Aron Kincaid was an American actor perhaps best known for playing Killer Croc on Batman: The Animated Series and Sky Lynx on The Transformers. He also voiced characters for The Smurfs, and DuckTales, among others...
and Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
.
Pop singer Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
, who was on the rise at the time just before the film was released, has a supporting role and performs one song written for the film; and the Bobby Fuller Four appear as themselves and sing two songs. The briefly famous Italian starlet Piccola Pupa appears as herself and also sings a song.
Synopsis
The ghost of recently dead Mr. Hiram Stokley (Boris KarloffBoris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
) finds that he has 24 hours to perform one good deed to get into Heaven. He enlists the help of his long dead girlfriend, Cecily, to stop his lawyer, Reginald Ripper (Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
), and a henchman from claiming the estate for themselves. The real heirs, Chuck, Lili, Hiram's cousin Myrtle, and her son bring their beach party friends to the mansion for a pool party while Reginald Ripper also employs his daughter Sinistra, and J. Sinister Hulk's slow-witted associates Chicken Feather and Yolanda to help them terrorize the teens, while dopey biker Eric Von Zipper and his Malibu Rat Pack bikers also get involved in pursuing Yolanda for a share of the Stokley estate.
Production notes
This film was originally intended to star Frankie AvalonFrankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
and Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...
in the roles that went to Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley, and this is the only film in the series that doesn't feature either one of them. The movie was produced as The Girl in the Glass Bikini (the title was changed before release), and this early title can be seen in the promo in the end credits for Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine is a 1965 American International Pictures film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart and Deborah Walley...
, an AIP spy spoof
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
loosely affiliated with the Beach Party series (with "beach" alumni Avalon, Walley, Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Bernard Hickman is a former American actor and television executive at CBS.He is known primarily for his "teenage" actor roles on television sitcoms. The naturally brown-headed Hickman is best known for playing Chuck MacDonald, Bob Collins's crazy teenaged nephew, on the popular 1950s...
, and Susan Hart
Susan Hart
Susan Hart is an American actress, and the widow of American International Pictures co-founder James H...
).
Boris Karloff's scenes were all filmed in a one-room mausoleum set on a separate soundstage over two days a few months after principal photography ended. Besides Susan Hart, who plays the title role of his invisible-bikini-clad ghostly girlfriend, he has no interaction with the rest of the cast. Karloff previously had a cameo in Bikini Beach
Bikini Beach
Bikini Beach is a 1964 teen film directed by William Asher and starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The film belongs to the beach party genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in a series of seven films produced by American International Pictures .-Plot:School is out and...
. For his scenes, Karloff is clearly standing in a bottomless coffin, rather than sitting up in it, a necessity given his chronic back problems and leg brace.
The stunt scene of Eric Von Zipper crashing his motorcycle into a pond was used again in the first Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
film The Born Losers
The Born Losers
This article is about the film. You may be looking for the song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_LosersBorn Losers is a 1967 action film and the first of the Billy Jack movies. The film introduced Tom Laughlin as the half-Indian Green Beret Vietnam veteran Billy Jack...
(1967), also produced by AIP.
Music
Les BaxterLes Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
composed and conducted the musical score. Al Simms was the musical supervisor, and
Albert Harris composed some additional music and served as the film’s orchestrator.
Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote five songs that appear in the film:
Nancy Sinatra performs “Geronimo;” Quinn O'Hara performs “Don't Try to Fight It Baby;” and Piccola Pupa performs “Stand Up and Fight.”
The Bobby Fuller Four
Bobby Fuller
Robert Gaston "Bobby" Fuller was an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitar player best known for his singles "I Fought the Law" and "Love's Made a Fool of You," recorded with his mid-1960s group, the Bobby Fuller Four....
perform “Swing A-Ma Thing” and “Make the Music Pretty.”
Principal cast
- Tommy KirkTommy KirkThomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:Kirk was discovered by talent agents at the age of thirteen in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California...
.... Chuck Phillips - Deborah WalleyDeborah WalleyDeborah Walley was an American actress.-Biographical Information:Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She...
.... Lili Morton - Aron KincaidAron KincaidAron Kincaid was an American actor perhaps best known for playing Killer Croc on Batman: The Animated Series and Sky Lynx on The Transformers. He also voiced characters for The Smurfs, and DuckTales, among others...
.... Bobby - Quinn O'Hara .... Sinistra
- Jesse WhiteJesse WhiteJesse White may refer to:*Jesse White , film and television actor*Jesse White , Illinois politician*Jesse J. White, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives*Jesco White, the West Virginia "Dancing Outlaw"...
.... J. Sinister Hulk - Nancy SinatraNancy SinatraNancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
.... Vicki - Claudia Martin .... Lulu
- Francis X. BushmanFrancis X. BushmanFrancis Xavier Bushman was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. His matinee idol career started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife, but it did not survive the silent screen era....
.... Malcolm - Benny Rubin .... Chicken Feather
- Bobbi Shaw .... Princess Yolanda
- George BarrowsGeorge BarrowsGeorge D. Barrows was an American actor known for playing Ro-Man in the film Robot Monster. He was the son of actor Henry A. Barrows. He often wore a gorilla suit for his film roles...
.... Monstro - Basil RathboneBasil RathboneSir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
.... Reginald Ripper - Patsy KellyPatsy KellyPatsy Kelly was an American stage and film comedic actress.-Early life and career:Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway debut in 1928...
.... Myrtle Forbush - Boris KarloffBoris KarloffWilliam Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
.... Hiram Stokely - Susan Hart .... Cecily the Ghost
- Piccola Pupa .... Piccola
- Luree Holmes .... Luree
- Ed Garner .... Ed
- Frank AlesiaFrank AlesiaFrank Alesia was an American actor and television director. He was best-known for his work in the beach party film genre during the 1960s, including such films as Pajama Party and Riot on Sunset Strip...
.... Frank
The Rat Pack
- Harvey LembeckHarvey LembeckHarvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...
.... Eric Von Zipper - Andy Romano .... J.D.
- Alberta NelsonAlberta NelsonAlberta Nelson was an American television and film actress. She was born on August 14, 1937, and attended Villa Maria Academy and later graduated from Andrews High School for Girls in Willoughby, Ohio...
.... Puss - Myrna Ross .... Boots
- Jerry Brutsche .... Jerome
- Bob Harvey .... Bobby
- John Macchia .... Joey
- Allen Fife .... Beard