Movie review: ‘Back to the Beach’

FloridaGator80

I’ve always liked beach flicks and beach music. Unless you think “Surf Nazis Must Die” is part of the genre, you’ll find mostly happy films with somewhat innocent, over-sexed teenagers pursuing PG-rated fun. The biggest names ever on the beach are Frankie and Annette from carving their names in the sand with five beach films together in the 1960s. While critics and real surfers heaped scorn on them, the duo is synonymous with the surf culture of the 1960s. Thankfully, it was all brought back in 1987 with “Back to the Beach,” which reunited the two with surf and sand – and a lot of cameos making it a trip down memory lane – mostly from TV veterans long past their best days. So, grab and wax your board and hop into your Woodie … we’re going “Back to the Beach.”

‘Back to the Beach’
(1987; 92 minutes; rated PG; directed by Lyndall Hobbs and starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and Lori Laughlin)

FRANKIE AND ANNETTE … AND MANY FAMILIAR FACES

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some comments and updated some links on Oct. 18, 2015. None of the original opinion has changed – just more of it. I again expanded the review with more opinion, updated links and additional trivia on Sept. 3, 2017. I further updated the review with more links and fixing some typos on April 21, 2018. I again expanded the review on May 16,2021. I again expanded the review on Aug. 31, 2024.)

It’s simple: You just can’t beat Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in a beach movie. Some have tried, but the old “Beach Party” gang (click here for my review) is still tops for many in the surf and fun genre. They are the trademark, the signature and, of course, the stereotype. You’ll find references to them in “Grease” (click here for my look at “Grease(s)”) and every beach bum and beach bunny mourned Annette’s passing at 70 in 2013 of complications of multiple sclerosis.

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I’m now taking a look at the 1987 sequel called “Back to the Beach,” which probably should have been called “Bringing Back Classic Stars to the Beach.” I can only call this a tremendous revival of the original – not really a sequel (although it has all the components of a sequel … Such as: Where did they go? What did they do? What happened to them?) as “the gang” wasn’t reunited with all surviving original cast members.

The film has a very thin veneer calling itself a plot (no kidding): Frankie and Annette’s marriage is stale, is basically on the rocks and she hopes to use the old beach scene to reignite their passion. Toss in their daughter falling for the son of the woman who still holds a big flame for Frankie and a big end-of-film surfing contest and you’ve got it.

In the end it’s campy, stupid and not very well-acted (unless you compare to the originals) …

… and that’s what makes it so special!

I like to pull this one out of the DVD vault a couple of time each year (you really don’t see it much on the cable grids) and just have a great old time thinking about being on the beach or with your old, long-passed friends from classic TV. It’s a wonderful mind-candy pleasure to enjoy.

Let’s get right to the cast that you know best …

  • Avalon plays “The Big Kahuna” (he’s “Annette’s Husband” in the credits – see the notes at the end explaining why he couldn’t be called “Frankie”) and he’s now a hyper, motor-mouth car salesman from Ohio, who hasn’t been on the sand for decades. It’s totally obvious that he needs to get back on a surfboard to reestablish himself. Avalon, who has also been in “Grease” and “Pajama Party,” does a perfect job of playing himself here: he’s affable, engaging and he loves Annette. No one else could have played the part and he has fun with it as well as doing a decent job on screen (although I’m one of the few that would say it about this about “Back to the Beach”).
  • Funicello plays “Annette” (of course) and she’s the eternally cheerful housewife and mother. Funicello, like Avalon, does a great job playing herself. She’s spot-on while puncturing Frankie’s ego and sailing through the cast with a dense, self-assurance that only her career could bring. Funicello was also in “Babes in Toyland,” “Pajama Party” and a number of TV shows including “Fantasy Island” and was most famously one of Walt Disney’s “Mouseketeers.” As I already noted, Annette died in 2013 at 70 of complications from MLS.
  • Connie Stevens roars through her scenes as “Connie” (no surprise) and was beamingly beautiful at age 48 (she turned 49 on the day after the film’s premiere on Aug. 7, 1987). In the film, she’s still the fun girl who wants to have more fun and Stevens pulls it off with panache and five-stars of watchability. Stevens is vivacious as well as vibrant and she allows a touch of maturity to peek out every once-in-awhile for her character. Stevens wants to have fun, but she not going to poach Avalon (naturally). She was also in the dreary “Grease 2” as well as “ Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
  • As Annette’s and Frankie’s daughter “Sandi” (“Grease,” anyone?), Lori Laughlin is competent without straining to do more with her lines than was necessary. Laughlin eases through the role and is best known for TV’s “Full House” and has been in “Old Dogs,” “Secret Admirer” and a variety of other TV’s programs such as “Psych” and “When Calls the Heart.” Ooops … Lori went to the pokey for two months in 2020 for a college admissions scam for bribery to get her daughter into college. A naughty-naughty for the “daughter” of “Frankie” and “Annette!”
  • Laughlin’s fiancé in the movie, “Michael,” is played capably but not noteworthy by Tommy Hinkley, who has also been in “The Cable Guy” and “Lethal Weapon 2.” Hinkley manages to be quietly solid without elevating his character. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in other films, too. After his last acting credit in 2013, Hinkley was in a short in 2020 and completed another short in 2021.

Most of the story line (Annette makes Frankie jealous, etc.) comes straight from their other films, so I’ll skip through the hefty supporting cast and let you figure out who does what:

  • TV’s “Leave it to Beaver” is well-represented with Barbara Billingsley (“Mrs. Cleaver” on TV), Tony Dow (“Wally”) and Jerry Mathers (“The Beaver”) as the surf contest’s announcer and two judges. Billingsley is nearly as funny as her small role in deciphering jive-speak in “Airplane!” (click here to see the clip) while the other two mail this one in. Barbara passed at 94 in 2010 of polymyalgia, while Dow died at 77 in 2022 of cancer.
  • For both top stars of TV’s “Gilligan’s Island,” this would be their last feature film. Bob “Gilligan” Denver plays “The Bartender” and Alan “The Skipper” Hale Jr. plays “Bartender’s Buddy,” who comes at the end to take Denver on a “three-hour tour.” Denver died in 2005 at the age of 70 after Hale had died in 1990 at the age of 68 (both from complications from cancer). It’s fun seeing them here and Denver has the biggest role and handles it well.
  • Guitarist Dick Dale was back on the beach, too, and this time also has Stevie Ray Vaughn with him. Dale does a song (“California Sun”) with Avalon and then is on dual guitars with Vaughn for “Pipeline.” Really good musical follow-up to some good beach music in “Beach Party” by Dale and his Del-Tones (nice spoof of them on the nightclub sign). Dale died at 81 in 2019.
  • Congenital lowlife O.J. Simpson has an uncredited role as a celebrity running through an airport (this was before the arrogant sleazeball’s murder trial, acquittal and later prison time in another case). No one should case about this criminal dirtbag and I’ve already spent too much time on this piece of garbage. He died at 76 in 2024 of cancer.
  • Paul Reubens is billed here as “Pee-Wee Herman” and plays himself (watch those puns, now) and sings his version of the “Surfin’ Bird” song. Reubens went to find his own level of sleaziness in a theater in Southwest Florida. Still, he was absolutely pitch-perfect as the oddball comic store owner in an episode of TV’s “Everybody Loves Raymond” called “Hackidu.” Reubens died at 70 in 2023 of acute hypoxic respiratory failure.
  • Edd Byrnes (another “Grease” veteran) plays the “Valet” while TV’s “Maxwell Smart” from “Get Smart,” Don Adams, plays the “Harbor Master” who gives the gang a permit for a beach party (get it?). Byrnes died at 87 in 2020 at the beachside city of Santa Monica, Calif., while Adams died at 82 in 2005 a little further inland at Beverly Grove, Calif. (actually, 9.7 miles according to Wiki), of a lung infection.
  • Demian Slade, who plays the son “Bobby” and is the film’s narrator, was also in “Better Off Dead …” and TV shows such as “The Wonder Years,” but doesn’t have an acting credit since 2013. He is OK here and his off-beat acting will grow on you.
  • Joe Holland, who plays bad-guy surfer “Zed,” was Johnny Carson’s stepson and died very young of a heart ailment in 1992 at the age of 32.

One of the funniest lines in “Back to the Beach” is when Stevens is talking with Funicello after saying that she won’t get Avalon because she’s the “bad girl.” Funicello says she always wanted to be the “bad girl” and Stevens replies, no but “you sure have wasted an incredible set of hooters.” It’s similar to the line “Kenickie” uses in “Grease” when talking about Annette’s anatomy.

All in all, you didn’t go wrong with Frankie and Annette on the beach in the 1960s (unless you were a real surfer and offended by the young stars of the day) and you certainly can’t go wrong watching “Back to the Beach” today (if you can find it).

“Back to the Beach” was the 79th ranked film at the U.S. box office for 1987 and brought in $13.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo. I’m not really sure why it didn’t do better, especially since the No. 1 film was “Three Men and a Baby” with $167.7 million. However, “Back to the Beach” did manage to do better than “Less Than Zero” and “Disorderlies.” The other films from that year I have reviewed are:

Additional cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Frankie and Annette were in “Beach Party” and then reprised their roles in “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), “Bikini Beach” (1964), “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965) and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” (1965).
  • A number of cast members of “Back to the Beach” also shipped out on many episodes of “The Love Boat” (click here for my look at that series). The primary cast members taking a cruise were Avalon, Funicello (two episodes), Stevens (eight episodes!), Adams (five episodes), Billingsley (two episodes), Byrnes, Denver (three episodes), Dow (two episodes) and Mathers.
  • Any film can have stupid ideas, but, according to Wiki, here’s a really depressing thought: “Paramount wanted to make (in the words of one spokesperson) ‘an entirely original screenplay not based on any prior beach movies. It parodies all beach movies.’” I’m not sure if they did this, but “Back to the Beach” is true to the originals.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Throughout the movie, Frankie Avalon’s character is only referred to as ‘The Big Kahuna,’ and never once is called by his first name. He is listed as ‘Annette’s Husband’ in the end credits. The name ‘Frankie’ could not be used anywhere in the film, because Avalon played ‘Frankie’ in the 1960s beach movies and legal issues were involved since this film was made by a different studio and with different producers. However, ‘’The Big Kahuna’ was actually a character from Gidget (1959),’ rather than from the Beach Party series. The same thing is said for Annette Funicello’s character because her character’s name in the Beach Party films was named Delores, or Dee Dee for short.”
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s surprisingly small amount of trivia about the film.

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