One slightly odd thing about this one is that it looks ahead to a lot of little or big things. In one scene, Tommy Kirk (meaning it literally) says, "I'm from Mars." Annette Funicello says facetiously, "Really? I'm from Venus." When you see that scene now, you can hardly help thinking of self-help books. Also, it has a wall safe that works just like an ATM (though this idea has probably appeared elsewhere ; I don't know). When Elsa Lanchester "withdraws" a lot of money from it, she looks at her late husband's portrait, and says very sweetly, "You always were a thoughtful husband." Then for just a moment, she gives a "knowing" look at the camera. Also, ages before "observational" comedians (as far as I know) seized on this, it had a scene about a perfume saleswoman bothering someone by spraying perfume at them. Buster Keaton and the actress in the scene (I can't think of her name) had perfect "timing" (hardly surprising in his case) when they acted out this relatively tiny joke. The movie even has a tiny bit of what would have to be called satirical humor. In each of the "Beach Movies", the motorcycle gang didn't wear those "Wehrmacht" items, like so many movie Hell's Angels, but each movie showed, at their hangout, pictures of Hitler and Mussolini, and in between them, a picture of "Von Zipper" (evidently to make him look extra scary). When Ben Lessy goes looking for teenagers to plant in the wealthy widow's home (as part of their scheme),he finds the "Rats and Mice." He says something like, "You look like typical wholesome kids," and as he says this, you see them in their leather jackets and those photos on the wall behind them. And on a completely different level, there's Susan Hart's dancing scenes. I don't know about the rest of the movie, but I would challenge anyone to find anything remotely "dated" about the titillation in those. And of course, instead of "AIP" horror actors, this movie's cameo at the end was even more of an inside joke - Frankie Avalon himself. Even if I weren't completely prejudiced IN FAVOR of beach movies, I would still say this one has a lot going for it.

Gogo (Tommy Kirk),a Martian teenager, is sent to Earth to prepare the way for an invasion. The first Earthling he meets, one Aunt Wendy, is a rich widow who runs a dress shop catering to teenagers...

We have some great stars here: Buster Keaton as an Indian, complete with jokes about scalps and such. Don Rickles as a Martian. And then, you know... Annette Funicello.

This film is like the very definition of campy -- girls dancing in such a way to make flowers die and Dr Pepper bottles pop open. Regarding dancing in the 1960s, apparently it required no skills whatsoever -- just shake a lot and you are good to go.

In his autobiography, Sam Arkoff says that none of AIP's beach movies lost money. I love his way with words. Other producers would either say they made a fortune, or the returns were disappointing. Arkoff is just happy if he makes money -- it might be ten dollars and he considers it a success. How well this film did is not known, but I guess it did not fail by Arkoff standards.

Walt Disney refugees Annette Funicello and Tommy Kirk star in this Beach Party sequel where you can tell by the title, the action moves in doors. No, not that kind of action, we were still under the influence of the Code.

These plots almost defy description but Tommy Kirk is a Martian teenager named Gogo which seems like a perfectly good name to use in the California beach environment. Nevertheless when he teleports to Elsa Lanchester's house, she greets him with Gracie Allen type blasé and renames him George. She likes him better than her late husband's nephew Jody McCrea who cares about volleyball more than women and that's putting a crimp into a relationship with Annette.

Add to this a trio of con-men living next door who know Elsa keeps her money, not in banks played by Jesse White, Ben Lessy, and Buster Keaton in an Indian suit. And of course Harvey Lembeck and his brain dead motorcycle gang and you've got a Beach Party film.

Frankie Avalon appears here too, but only to communicate with Kirk with Don Rickles playing Avalon's assistant. Dorothy Lamour is here to, a women familiar enough with beach settings in her films as Lanchester's dress shop manager. Lanchester's only weakness is operating a dress shop where she sells the latest trendy teen styles at a loss.

It's kind of fun to laugh at how dumb the Beach Party films are, but their enduring popularity is proved out by Baywatch and its long run in the Eighties and Nineties. And I'm sure we'll see something similar in the next generation.

But this one will not tax the brain cells too much.