The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini in '60s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini

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Rakshasa	The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	Lead	[-]
Apr 8 07 1:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I finally got around to watching this splendidly silly mess of a movie! Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Tommy Kirk, Nancy Sinatra, Susan Hart, Harvey Lembeck, George Barrows (as Monstro The Gorilla), and a cast of zanies. This was the most dated, corny, and insane thing I've ever enjoyed! Anybody?
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thebrainfollower	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#1	[-]
Apr 8 07 3:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yes it's pretty funny. Basil Rathbone gives a good performance surprisingly but I think Quinn O'Hara steals the show.
Red Gargon	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#2	[-]
Apr 8 07 7:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yeah, this is pretty scrambled and incoherent even by the minimal standards of a beach party film. But, while it's not by any stretch of the imagination well-crafted, I really like it. The cast is great even if they have nothing at all to work with. Plus, who doesn't like saying "Piccola Pupa"? This movie is like being inside an A-I-P exec's hallucination ... I wonder if Arkoff and Nicholson had fever dreams like this after heavy dinners and worries about profit margins?
TomWeaver999	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#3	[-]
Apr 9 07 6:15 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< Yeah, this is pretty scrambled and incoherent even by the minimal standards of a beach party film. << It came out SO incoherent (I've heard that the director liked his nips) that AIP had to get a new director and put it back into production a couple weeks after it was "done." That's the point at which Karloff and Susan Hart were first hired, to play characters who spout dialogue that helped make sense of things.
Rakshasa	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#4	[-]
Apr 9 07 6:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* That's the point at which Karloff and Susan Hart were first hired, to play characters who spout dialogue that helped make sense of things. That makes sense, as those scenes totally appear to be there solely to explain what the HECK is going on with the "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-esque" proceedings. The opening scene in the crypt with Boris and Susan is really good. Maybe the best scene in the picture!
TomWeaver999	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#5	[-]
Apr 9 07 8:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The new director was a former kid actor -- one of the kids that Karloff and his henchmen murder in the 1939 TOWER OF LONDON. I wonder if he mentioned that to Karloff ("Do you remember killing me when I was a little boy?").
Plastic Sam	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#6	[-]
Apr 9 07 10:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When I was a kid, I hoped the title meant that her bikini was going to be transparent.
Rakshasa	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#7	[-]
Apr 9 07 10:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I was hoping that the other night!
BijouBob8mm	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#8	[-]
Apr 9 07 12:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In preproduction, was this going to be called something like THE GHOST IN THE GLASS BIKINI? In DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE, there is a theater in the background of one scene showing a film by that title (or very close to that title) with Annette Funicello and, as GOLDFOOT ends, we're told that movie will be coming our way soon. (Although, obviously, Annette was not on hand, here.) Since there was no other film close to that, I wonder if that project became this.
TomWeaver999	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#9	[-]
Apr 9 07 1:40 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The first pre-production title I'm aware of is "Pajama Party in a Haunted House." Then it was "Slumber Party in Horror House." When it went into production, it was "Bikini Party in a Haunted House." A couple months after it was completed, AIP announced that the title would be "Ghost in the Glass Bikini." The book REFERENCE GUIDE TO FANTASTIC FILMS says it was also called "Beach Party in a Haunted House" somewhere along the line.
BijouBob8mm	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#10	[-]
Apr 9 07 3:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* A couple months after it was completed, AIP announced that the title would be "Ghost in the Glass Bikini." Thanks, Tom. Apparently the GOLDFOOT plug mentioning Annette in conjunction with the film was either premature, or simple optimism. One summer, back in the Seventies, our local Nightmare Theatre (with horror host Sammy Terry on Channel 4) vanished from the Friday night airwaves for a couple of months. Can't recall what the replacement show was called, but they ran the Beach movies instead of the usual horror fare. No host, but the "beach bijou" always started with the song "Wipe Out" being played while a group of guys & gals in swimwear were dancing around burgers on a grill in a rather skimpy-looking beach set.
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TomWeaver999	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#11	[-]
Apr 9 07 3:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm being a broken record here, 'cause I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but: Lost in the mists of time is the fact that AIP had two separate series in the 1960s, the BEACH series and the PARTY series. The PARTY series took in PAJAMA PARTY, SKI PARTY, GHOST/INVISIBLE BIKINI, etc. It seems like ev-er-y-bod-y writing about AIP nowadays says they had a "BEACH PARTY series" and lumps together (under that nonexistent-'til-these-writers-came-along umbrella title) all of the movies in both series, but that's not the way it was.
BijouBob8mm	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#12	[-]
Apr 9 07 5:29 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* AIP had two separate series in the 1960s, the BEACH series and the PARTY series Would such titles as BEACH PARTY and MUSCLE BEACH PARTY be considered cross-overs? ;) Actually, I wonder if TV has not helped blur the two series together. When a couple of channels over the years ran the Beach and Party films on a weekly basis, they pretty much lumped them together. I mentioned up above the Seventies summer broadcast of these on Friday nights. In the Eighties, another local affiliate would run them late on Saturday nights, with no distinction between Party and Beach titles.
Red Gargon	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#13	[-]
Apr 9 07 6:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* AIP had two separate series in the 1960s, the BEACH series and the PARTY series. The PARTY series took in PAJAMA PARTY, SKI PARTY, GHOST/INVISIBLE BIKINI, etc. It seems like ev-er-y-bod-y writing about AIP nowadays says they had a "BEACH PARTY series" and lumps together (under that nonexistent-'til-these-writers-came-along umbrella title) all of the movies in both series, but that's not the way it was. I'd consider those (for want of a better term) non-William Asher-directed movies more a loose collection of spin-offs than a separate series. PAJAMA PARTY and INVISIBLE BIKINI both feature Harvey Lembeck and his gang as Eric Von Zipper and the Rats and Mice from the Asher series - so there is continuity there, and PAJAMA PARTY features the whole rest of the "Beach" gang, albeit under different character names. But the three "non-official" Beach films otherwise don't connect with each other (e.g., Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley and Frankie Avalon play different characters in each). It's more analagous to the handful of "Poe" films done after Roger Corman gave up.
Tim Lucas VW	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#14	[-]
Apr 9 07 7:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* PAJAMA PARTY and INVISIBLE BIKINI both feature Harvey Lembeck and his gang as Eric Von Zipper and the Rats and Mice from the Asher series - so there is continuity there I've got to agree. I saw David Bradley's earlier AIP release DRAGSTRIP RIOT recently and it contains all the elements Lou Rusoff would later develop in the "Beach" and "Party" or "Beach Party" films: the beach kids versus the bikers, the kooky hangout, the guest star parent figure (in this case, Fay Wray). The only thing missing was the sense of humor, which seems to have been branched in from THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW.
Rakshasa	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#15	[-]
Apr 9 07 7:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	While watching Nancy Sinatra sing "Geranimo", I couldn't help thinking of that Magilla Gorilla beach party episode where the pretty girl dances and sings "Do The Magilla" while all the other beach kids are dancing and shaking along! Does anybody remember that? hahaha
Red Gargon	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#16	[-]
Apr 9 07 8:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I haven't seen that one but will bet you a swing-a-ma-thing that it can't top the hilarity of the LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP episode "Missile Beach Party". Real chimps in wigs and bikinis, the mind boggles. Is it coincidence that both this and GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW feature songs titled "Geronimo"?
Rakshasa	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#17	[-]
Apr 9 07 8:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Is it coincidence that both this and GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW feature songs titled "Geronimo"? I have yet to watch the flip side of my Midnight Movie Double Feature DVD, THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW. Didn't know there was a tune called "Geranimo" in that as well. Nice! BTW, I don't think girls ever looked at appealingly sexy as they do in these flicks. I love those 50's/6o's beach party gals ~
Zombie Dad	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#18	[-]
Apr 9 07 8:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Quote--I love those 50s/60s beach party gals.-- Yeah, baby yeah! ZD
BijouBob8mm	Re: The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini	#19	[-]
Apr 10 07 11:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* PAJAMA PARTY and INVISIBLE BIKINI both feature Harvey Lembeck And he, along with Annette, pop up in cameos in the first GOLDFOOT film. *Quote:* I don't think girls ever looked as appealingly sexy as they do in these flicks. You know, to me there was something about girls of the Sixties that can't be touched by most of today's "flavors of the month." (You know what I mean, the whole injection-molded plastic and/or anorexic look.)
brianalbright	the Ghost in the Invisible Bikini	#20	[-]
Apr 10 07 3:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here are some interesting bits from a June 1964 Variety interview with William Asher that may shed some light on how these films was viewed by the creators (and Variety) at the time. Article was titled "Tanned Beach Youth Not Ultimate in Film Activity for Bill Asher." The article opened by noting the success of BEACH PARTY and MUSCLE BEACH PARTY, and announced the release of BIKINI BEACH (which was completed the previous week, and had 400 dates booked for that upcoming August. "Variations on the beach idea are many, Asher said, and he'll use many of them adding such 'sports' as drag-strip racing and free-fall parachuting. He isn't worried by imitators who have already hit the amrket with variations on the 'beach party' theme or are in process of completing same." "According to AIP, 'Beach Party,' elder statesman of the series, has already produced $3,000,000 net in the U.S. alone, and "Muscle Beach Party" is running as high as 30% ahead of the parent pic.' "Next trip to the beach (and final film in his two-pix pact with AIP) goes in November with working title of 'Malibu Madness.' Whether there'll be a 'Beach Party' tele-series next year is still in conversation stage." Note that PAJAMA PARTY, released that winter, is not mentioned in this article. I assume MALIBU MADNESS was turned into BEACH BLANKET BINGO or something. And a possible television series? Eric von Zipper in your living room every week? If only ... I loved GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI when I was a kid, although I find it pretty muddled now. I always lumped it together with THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN and THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, because all of those movies used to play pretty regularly on weekend afternoons in the 1970s when I was growing up.
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