Ski Party (1965)

One of my all time favorites.

Fantastic!

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Ski Party (1965)* (out of 4) College buddies Todd (Frankie Avalon) and Craig (Dwayne Hickman) are constantly wondering how one of their classmates is constantly able to bring in the ladies. They decide to follow him to a ski resort where they hope to learn but instead they both end up in drag.SKI PARTY is, apparently, connected to the BEACH PARTY series but I personally find that to be somewhat of a stretch. Either way, this is a really awful movie on many levels and it has only a few things that keeps it from being a complete disaster. The highlight of the film is a sequence where James Brown shows up to sing "I Feel Fine" and it's like a shot of energy because up until then the movie was a real drag. There are also a couple fine jokes but that's about it.The rest of the movie is a complete mess that seems to have been thrown together using leftover jokes from previous movies. The entire premise is a rip-off of SOME LIKE IT HOT but it just doesn't work. Avalon and Hickman contain no chemistry together and their comic timing is just awful. Neither Deborah Walley or Yvonne Craig bring much to the picture and the supporting players are just as bland.The entire movie has a very cheap feel to it but the biggest problem is that it's just never funny. The movie is a complete bore from start to finish and should be avoided.

TCM must have been feeling in a strange mood on January 14, 2014. Consecutively they played a string of bad as in really bad musical comedies from the 1960's. OK what was I doing watching this nonsense. Well I was working on an article and I prefer having some noise in the background and it might as well be a movie even if my attention to it is sporadic at best. Of the lot Ski Party had to be the worst of the lot. Take Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman disguising themselves as girls ala Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon in Some Like it Hot but not to escape but instead just to get into the girls dorm. Of course there had to be some guy after one of them. Instead of Joe E. Brown we had some hunk making a fool of himself. But the real knee slapper came when James Brown and the Flames came out in bad, really bad ski sweaters and sang. Unfortunately for James Brown it was all so contrived it was more laughable then it was anything else. Anyway add in some absolutely atrocious special effects along with the bad lines and contrived idiotic situations and you have a - well one really bad movie. Albeit somewhat amusingly entertaining.

Little did I know the beach blanket movie genre had a spin-off that took place on snow instead of sandy beaches. I kick myself after watching one of these flicks because I should know better, but I'm trying to be a well rounded movie watcher for the purpose of these reviews. I kind of get the Frankie Avalon team up with Dwayne Hickman, but gee, who did Annette tick off to warrant a mere cameo here? I didn't understand that one at all.You need a reason to tune in to this one? It would be Lesley Gore singing one of her minor hits "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows", and at the other end of the musical spectrum, James Brown belting out "I Feel Good". I'm a little surprised actually that Brown didn't screw himself into the floor with the gyrating footwork, man it was hard to keep up with. And you know something, I can't even remember him ever being backed up by The Flames. So at least I learned something today.As for the story, don't even ask. Frankie Avalon had no qualms inquiring about the average audience age for this flick, so when his partner answered '15', that said it all. Actually, Dwayne Hickman put everything in perspective when as his female character Nora, he stated to Jane (also Avalon), "Listen, have a piece of fruit. You'll feel better." That's the best advice for this movie I can think of.

The "Beach Party" series taking one of its last gasps: Frankie Avalon and sniggering Dwayne Hickman hit the ski slopes and get stuck doing Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon routines from "Some Like It Hot", and the comparison isn't favorable. Avalon is actually game, but Hickman has no screen presence and the comic hijinks are mostly juvenile. The script isn't as clever as the ones for the "Beach" flicks, and everyone just seems piqued. Avalon's main squeeze is no longer Annette Funicello, who has an unbilled cameo as a college professor (her two brief scenes are beauties). James Brown and Lesley Gore are both terrific in musical support, Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig are pretty ski-bunnies, but this fractured gang is obviously a lackluster substitute. A.I.P. continued the following year not with "Cruise Party"--as advertised--but "Ghost In The Invisible Bikini". *1/2 from ****