Commando Bikini (1963) Online

Out of mild curiosity and boredom, I just watched OPERATION BIKINI. I'm still trying to get my brain back to semi-rational thought after seeing this train wreck. All I can think is-- the producers had a bunch of stock WW2 footage and a few rooms of a borrowed submarine set. Then they threw in a bunch of folks they had under contract. What the heck is Jim Backus doing in this thing????? The man was already a well-known character actor, from tragic roles like the father in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE to the voice of MISTER MAGOO. For no apparent reason he's a member of the UDT team that also has Tab Hunter and Franky Avalon; I'm guessing he's the naval equivalent of a sergeant, as Hunter's character is in charge but Backus seems to be the one who runs the squad. That is, when he actually has any lines. Mostly he just stands there. In fact, much of the cast just stands there. It's like the producers only had a budget for a very limited amount of dialogue and figured that if the actors simply stood there and filled the frame, that would count as acting. Scott Brady had never been a major player but, like Backus, he seems to have come in for a few days work and a paycheck. Gary Crosby was trying to make a go of it, playing off his derelict father's name and the family resemblance. Like Backus, he also mostly stands there.

Oh, man.... this film is just so very wrong in so many ways..... It's like a bunch of students trying to perform a high school production of UP PERISCOPE and then they decide to rewrite the second act!

And worst of all, the producers destroyed what little merit the film might have had. As it looked on paper, the film would have been a modest sub adventure, suitable for a double bill. But then they added Frankie Avalon and decided to give him musical numbers! AND THEY WERE IN COLOR!!!!!! The rest of the movie is in black and white and all of a sudden along comes this bizarre COLOR musical interlude?!?!?!?!?!? And 20 minutes later, HERE IT COMES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankie Avalon also had a gratuitous musical number in his other 1963 sub adventure, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, but at least there it made sense!

Oh, and for a final totally unrelated finale, the film ends with COLOR footage of two 1963 starlets in bikinis playing on a beach while the credits roll. Looking at that made me realize how little the producers thought of the film. OPERATION BIKINI is not a good film-- hell, it's barely adequate!-- but the color sequences show a mindset of cynical desperation or Ed-Wood-level incompetence.

new words need to be invented to adequately describe just how bad this film is. to call it stupid is a compliment. i just watched this on turner classic movies. my god what an embarrassment, the most profound sentiment it raised in me was to hope that all involved with making it were severely beaten afterward. i was rooting for the japs. i'm having trouble filling ten lines of text for this review because lets face it how many different ways can you say horrible? three more lines to go. this movie is terrible, this movie is an insult to ed wood, this movie should be burned and every participant still alive should be hunted down like simon wiesenthal on a nazi then have their DNA eradicated from the gene pool. stick a sharp pencil in your eye before watching this horrid crapulence

Operation Bikini is a unique entry in filmmaking history. AIP knew they had a bankable star in Frankie Avalon, but they hadn't quite found the right formula for him, so they stuck him in this war programmer about the Submarine Service. Also along for the ride are Jim Backus, Jody McCrea, Tab Hunter, and a bunch of other familiar faces. The film is basically Beach Party At Sea, and is surely the only film bold enough to feature Frankie singing schlocky pop songs in between explosions and two fisted action. Not only does Frankie sing, he does it whilst projected in black and white against a proto-psychedelic colour background of nubiles and nymphets. Your jaw will drop. Save one last gasp of indignation for the truly tasteless ending which could only have come from the over-heated imagination of Samuel Z. Arkoff.

Someone once wrote a fascinating essay on the subject of abject incompetence as unintentional surrealism, and anyone intrigued enough to want to see proof of that need look no further than Operation Bikini, a film that's so woefully awful it just may be the work of a genius none of us can understand and the world won't fully appreciate for decades. The film's stars are Frankie Avalon and Eva Six, who that same year made a film called Beach Party, and a number of teenagers went to see this low-budget WWII 'action' flick thinking that they were heading for surf city. Surprised there were no riots in the theatre. Though the film is in black and white, whenever Frankie, aboard a Naval ship heading to bikini atoll for an attack, dreams about his girl back home (why isn't she played by Annette?), the image is suddenly in color. He's tempted away from virginal purity by an island girl, but she's a California blonde! There's no reason why his character would sing (except that the non-singing character is played by a singer), but then again, Frankie broke into song in the middle of The Alamo, a far more prestigious picture, so why not here? There's another color sequence at the end, by the way, in which two California girls stroll along the beach in bikinis - which has nothing to do with the film other than the bathing suit was named after the atoll. All the big shooting scenes, on the sea and on land, are stock footage, and the black and white of them doesn't match with the film itself. Tab Hunter is the rugged (?!) commander who falls in love with the island girl they DO meet, Hungarian born Eva Six. She bites his hand, makes love to him at night, then dies (while nude, though you can't see anything) at the hands of Japanese soldiers who would rather machine gun her and three other lovelies than defend themselves from attacking Americans. This is either the most awful WWII movie ever made or some experimental form of avant garde cinema that, to date, no one has yet 'gotten.'

Richard Bakalyan

I agree pretty much with what everyone else wrote, so I won't reiterate the confusion, sadness and astonishment this movie subjected me to but I'm certainly relieved that other people seem to share my impression of the movie.

But I am curious if anyone else agrees with me that the voice-over narration at the end (while the girls in bikinis are prancing around) sounds like a young William Shatner?

Another thing that has me a little confused is why the Underwater Demolition Team ("UDT") that Tab Hunter's character was in charge of was a USMC unit, as opposed to a Navy UDT (precursor to SEALs, which didn't come around until the 1960s).

1st watched 6/16/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Anthony Carras): Unfocused war movie that tries to throw in video clips from Frankie Avalon and dancing girls in bikini's at the end to lighten it up? If it would have been a war adventure from beginning to end it would have been better. This film is basically about a special mission being sent to Bikini Island in the south Pacific to rescue a sunken U.S. submarine(for what reason I wasn't sure). A miniature romance begins with Tab Hunter and an island girl, but she gets killed in the next scene, and supposedly Frankie is enticed in his dreams by a seductive island girl and is tempted by her in his song while his girl is at home waiting for him(of course this is just a setup for his singing - he never encounters the temptation). Silly little things like this, and Jim Backus trying to throw in lame humor when his character really doesn't seem like he should have any, is also silly. This movie reminds me of something the studio chopped up and sold for what it wasn't about, to try and make some money(which I hope it didn't). Bottom line this is a lame attempt at a war movie with a couple of lame songs song by Mr. Avalon.

I love awful movies, and this is one of the most bizarre, awful movies I've seen in awhile. And to think it was set during WW II, the one we won. The director must have been an Ed Wood devotee because the sets are cheesy, the acting is over the top, there's lots of stock footage, and everyone is taking the whole thing very seriously. I was waiting for the overlay of Bela Lugosi and stampeding buffalo. Tab Hunter is very manly, Frankie Avalon has repeated Wizard of Oz style dream sequences where he sings about his girl "with the apple pie eyes", and Jim Backus is always telling everyone to get some sleep. I love this movie and I want to add it to my collection!

An insult to any veteran of WWII or any other military campaign, this lame-brained action flick is both preposterous and unintentionally amusing. When the Japanese sink a U.S. submarine of the coast of a Philippine island, a crack team of divers is sent in to destroy the remains, lest the enemy gets its hands on state of the art equipment located in the wreckage. Brady is the captain of a different sub whose mission is to transport the divers to the scene. He and Dante reservedly welcome the men on board. Hunter leads the team which consists of Avalon, Backus, Crosby, McCrea and Aleong (no reason is given for the exclusion of Don Rickles and Michael Nader!) These mismatched, unlikely buffoons take part in various painfully-unfunny misadventures while on the sub including Avalon pouring hot coffee into Backus' crotch! (Backus was light years away from co-starring with James Dean by now!) Avalon pastes his girlfriend's picture onto a torpedo and then sings to it (TWICE!) while color travelogue footage is shown with his black & white face superimposed on it and two contrasting women emote and gesture in turn. Gritty war drama... Later, the divers move ashore and are greeted by Filipino guerrillas including the producer's girlfriend Six, who was introduced to the world in this film (and forgotten by most of the world very soon after!) With the island teeming with enemy Japanese, it's up to Hunter to find a way to complete the job, even if it turns into a suicide mission. The film has a cheap, pasted-together look with stark and unimaginatively filmed scenes on the submarine set and the "Gilligan's Island"-esquire jungle set mixed with stock footage of battle scenes and water-logged seamen drowning. Hunter, looking handsome as usual, has many close-ups of his face just staring blankly as if he was photographed without being fed any lines. Brady plays the whole thing as if this is his own personal "Run Silent, Run Deep". McCrea takes part in a ridiculous underwater scene in which he holds his breath indefinitely and swims all over the ocean before finally someone thinks of the idea of "buddy-breathing". Six is unbelievable. She's shown flailing around on the fake, moss-covered ground while a huge, fluffy, Roseanne Roseannadanna wig straddles her head. Later, she's part of a diversionary tactic in which the Japanese would rather shoot at nude swimming women than at the U.S. officers who are picking them off from above!! Apart from a few campy, ludicrous moments, the film comes to life only once and briefly. Before heading out to battle, Hunter is awakened in the night by Six, who crawls on top of him and begins rubbing him down with special oils, ripping apart his shirt and forcing him to turn over onto his belly!! When it's all said and done, the movie isn't quite finished assaulting the senses. It saves it's biggest surprise for the finale as it unleashes the tackiest, most surreal end credits sequence ever filmed. Two curvy chicks in bikinis (which have nothing, by the way, to do with this film's prior content) cavort playfully, awkwardly and goofily on the beach while a narrator fervently hopes that the horrors of what happened on Bikini Island will be displaced by the new connotation for the word "bikini"!! That little tribute surely warmed the veterans' hearts who watched this all the way to the end. Both of them!!

When I saw this in the cable listings, I thought, 'OMG, Tab Hunter AND Frankie Avalon in the same *serious* war movie?!' I just had to watch it. I was going to give it a few minutes till I read BrunoCat's amusing review and decided to slog through the whole thing. A mini-time capsule of a sad era in Hollywood, when actors' kids and slack-jawed pretty boys kept talented actors out of work. The double-digit IQ fairly oozes from poor Michael Dante's pores. This is the time when Sinatra's ultra cool Vegas persona was in full swing, and an attempt is made to fit Frankie into this mold. Fuhgedaboudit! Only the divine Bobby Darin could do that, and he out-cooled Sinatra most of the time. I still miss him! Another historical aspect is the view of women: the sexy/gorgeous ones are for sex, the wholesome/pretty ones for love, and the non-white ones can be sort of loved but mostly coerced, as their true purpose is to sacrifice for the white lover's success. Sadly this is still a frequent theme; "El Mariachi" (1992) comes to mind. Anyway, I agree with BrunoCat: this is something you've never seen before and should watch just for the experience!

When I tune in to watch a movie with Frankie Avalon entitled "Operation Bikini" I immediately expect two things. (1) Frankie singing and (2) some beach bunnies prancing around in bikini swim wear. I was a bit dismayed at the start of the film to discover that "Operation Bikini" was a WWII submarine yarn with dramatic intentions. Would I get to see/hear Frankie sing and see those bikini clad gals? Happily the answer was in the affirmative. This film did not let genre conventions prevent it from incorporating these key visual elements into the narrative structure of the film. A lesser film with more minor aspirations would not have been up to the task leaving the viewer in an entertainment vacuum. The film is far from perfect however. Tab Hunter's acting style seems to be based on his having just awaken from a deep slumber. His groggy acting method while perhaps revolutionary in its day just doesn't hold up over the years. And Jim Backus is woefully underutilized if not way too old for his part.

As if the really fake submarine deck scenes and awful dialog wasn't bad enough, we then have to contend with the Eva Six character falling in love with Tab Hunter, right after he HITS HER. I guess that's what defined male/female relationships in 60's cinema. "Beat me up and I will immediately fall for you." Thankfully, she dies before the end of the movie, so we don't have to imagine them going back to the States to continue this ugliness as a married couple.

Jim Backus looked so bad in this movie that I had to infer that he was preparing for his role in "Gilligan's Island." His delivery was stilted, slow and terrible - as though he had to be prompted from off-camera before each line. The whole production must have consisted of scenes wrapped after the first take.

It was raining outside and I thought I would watch a movie on one of the cable stations. Not really reading the storyline I saw this movie called 'Operation Bikini'. Hey, a war movie about submarines- thats interesting, think I will watch. WHAT THE .........

This movie was down right terrible. I understood the plot but had no idea what was happening on the TV screen. It felt more like it should have been a bad script from 'McHale's Navy' than a WW2 action movie.

I will not even progress to the bad acting but what about the casting. Why in God's name is Jim Backus in this movie? Why would anyone want Frankie Avalon singing in a picture about World War? I step out of the room a minute and upon returning thought a commercial was on. But it was Frankie Avalon singing in color with the rest of the movie in black and white. I never understood that dreamy scene.

At one point in the film they were trying to show that many Japeneese were giving chase to the American. They showed a patch of dirt and all you see is feet running. They used that clip over and over again but never showed any people. Now that was cheap.

The only thing good about the movie was the ending. Not only because the film was ending but they had girls frolicking on a beach in bikini's. Oh yes, that was in color also.

Just poor overall.

Where to start -- a singing war movie? well they do have FrankieAvelon, so why not.

Thurston Howell III as a Navy Chief? That's Jim Backus playing the tough guy.

The Wrong Sub... The target of the UDT is the Grayfish, SS-342. Except the SS342 was the Beleo class sub The Chopper. It never served in the Second World War (although commissioned during it) and was on active duty when the movie was made.

The Grayfish was also the star of perhaps the best WW2 Submarine movie ever made - Torpedo Run (made only five years before this stinker). In reality there never was a USS Grayfish

I could go on but what's the point.

Frankie Avalon and bikinis...what could go wrong?

Uh...this turned out to be a war movie aboard a submarine headed for Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific.

It's adequate entertainment, although the sudden Frankie Avalon musical dream sequence within the first fifteen minutes kinda took me off guard. Is this a war movie or a Frankie Avalon beach movie, make up your mind?!

Before Frankie Avalon was dealing with the kind of bikinis one sees on the beach in those Beach Party films, his agent got him to this turkey of a film where before the Bikini atoll was a site for the atomic bomb testing it was a small contested bit of real estate in the Pacific War.

Tab Hunter leads a squad of marines including Avalon with Jim Backus as a gunnery sergeant on Captain Scott Brady's submarine on a mission. Said mission is to find a sunken American submarine near Bikini Atoll and blow it up before the Japanese take it and find that newfangled sonar it has.

Among the perks are some lovely Polynesian beauties that some of the men indulge. Avalon does not, instead he has these silly out of place dream sequences where we get a couple of songs.

It all gets done after a fashion. Operation Bikini was made on the cheap in black and white, the better to take advantage of some real Pacific combat footage.

One really silly excuse for a war film.

I prefer films that are not good and do not pretend to be anything else, than many overblown pretentious productions financed by big companies that try to pass for more than what they really are: little bad motion pictures in disguise, behind big names, expensive sets, costumes and make-up. "Operation Bikini" does not pretend to be anything else than a routine, low- budget war programmer made by American International Pictures, with some actors who once were in better vehicles (Scott Brady, Tab Hunter, Gary Crosby), new talent used in AIP productions that would fare much better in later "beach party" movies (Frankie Avalon, Jody McCrea), reliable professionals as Michael Dante and even Jim Backus, plus an Hungarian "Miss Whatever" (Eva Six, playing a Japanese woman) and a bunch of California blondes to spice things up a bit, and a map of Mexico passing for some location on the Asian Pacific. Do not expect much from this, it is certainly not good, so just take it for what it is. Now, it sure did help to have a film editor as director, for Anthony Carras really did wonders combining the scenes he shot with stock footage of war action. Proceed at your own risk, but believe me: there are really worst things than this pretending to be "masterpieces".

1. the new B&W sequences are sharp and clear 2. Bachus is repulsive as usual 3. Tab's dialog laughable: "That's what he said when we left-like 3 hours ago." 4. some location work showing a seaplane entering the water and taking off is credible. Then the Jap soldiers get rousted out of a tent and march into the jungle. 5. Showing Frankie in his berth sans shirt while dreaming was cool. 6. Some Japanese extras got some work. 7. Tab's girlie-fight was wasted in costume. 8. The blocking and dialog is so bad it makes the acting seem OK (kidding). ("Watch out for the girls") 9. Frankie is a knockout in A shirt listening to Crosby doing an impression of his dad. 10. the songs are forgettable-thank God.

10. But the cinematography is great !