Back to the Beach (1987)

Starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Lori Laughlin, Tommy Hinkley, Demian Slade, Connie Stevens, Joe Holland, John Calvin, Dick Dale, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fishbone, Don Adams, Barbara Billingsley, Edd Byrnes, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Alan Hale, Jr., Bob Denver, Paul Reubens and O.J. Simpson. Directed by Lyndall Hobbs. From Paramount Pictures.

Back in 1963, The Big Kahuna (Avalon) and Annette (Funicello) were the coolest couple on the beach. Kahuna had been a champion surfer but, after he suffered a major wipeout, he packed in not only surfing but the whole west coast lifestyle. He moved to Ohio where he and Annette married and started a family; first came Kahuna’s beloved Sandi (Laughlin) and then Bobby (Slade) arrived. Kahuna became a wildly successful car salesman but eventually buried himself so deeply in work that he burned himself out. Annette’s sunny disposition eventually broke down to the point where she became a shopaholic, particularly obsessed with peanut butter. Finally, Kahuna declares that he and Annette and Bobby are taking a vacation – they are going to Hawaii but first they will stop to visit Sandi who lives on the beach on her parents’ old stomping grounds.

The trouble begins as soon as they arrive back in SoCal. Unbeknownst to her folks, Sandi has been living with her surfer boyfriend, Michael (Hinkley) and when Kahuna finds out he goes ballistic and wants to leave. But when he runs into an old flame, Connie (Stevens), he decides he might like to stay awhile. This leads to trouble between Kahuna and Annette, between Sandi and Michael and between Kahuna and a bunch a surf punks. Which is very similar to the old days. Only different. But the same.

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Feel free to consider this an appropriate capper to Frankie Avalon’s career. Conceived by Frank himself, the film was stalled in development for many years. Paramount got interested but didn’t care for the references to previous beach party films that were owned by Orion Pictures. At the time of release, Orion’s studio head mentioned that his company was keeping a close eye on the story and it’s references to Orion-owned properties but that no legal action was being considered. The oddest outcome of this fissure between studios is that Avalon is never referred to as “Frankie” in the movie – though it is his first name and Annette uses her’s – and instead the handle “Big Kahuna” is cribbed from Frederick Kohner’s Gidget tale that was made for Columbia. Even in the closing credits Frank is billed as “Annette’s Husband”. Orion owns the rights to the characters from the beach party movies; so Frankie couldn’t play “Frankie”.

Who wrote the screenplay? Who didn’t. No less than 17 writers were used to construct this complex tale, one of them being our old buddy, B.W.L. Norton, the man who made a game attempt with More American Graffiti. And I was today years old when I learned that our film’s director, Lyndall Hobbs, is a woman. An Australian, Hobbs has led a colourful life, one spent interviewing and hobnobbing with a litany of legendary personages and she spent the bulk of the Nineties with Al Pacino. Back to the Beach is her one and only feature as a director. Looking into Ms. Hobbs lead me on a harrowing ride. In her March, 2023 article on Airmail, Hobbs details her marriage to one of Back to the Beach‘s many writers, Christopher Thompson and the struggles endured by their daughter, Lola Rose. Thompson, as creator of the series Bosom Buddies, is credited with discovering Tom Hanks and worked on many other shows. Sadly, Thompson was also a bipolar drug addict who died in 2015. Hobbs’ article is a challenging read as it describes Lola’s battles. Lola Rose Thompson has – as of this writing – tamed her addiction to fentanyl and is thriving as the talented artist she has been for years.

This just makes sense. Frankie Avalon I have profiled here before and this gives me a chance to sing his praises again. Frank scores points in my book for coming up with this idea, to at once poke fun at and to celebrate his legacy as the unlikely, dark-haired, Italian beach boy from Philly that he was in the great American International beach party movies of the early Sixties. In Back to the Beach, Avalon doesn’t simply glide through the proceedings hoping to get by on nostalgia. He brings a ton of charm to his Kahuna character and infuses him with fun shadings. He does really well portraying the harried car salesman but he really shines when he gets back on his old turf. He plays it just as macho as his youthful self did but with something added. Avalon was 46 when he made this film and he looked great. And he really acts here, playing well the father incensed at his daughter’s co-habitation and he’s quite hilarious in his dealings with his son. Frankie and the lines he’s given provide many of the film’s laughs. He adds to this “Frankie-esque” character a confidence and even a certain menace that he has gained through his years in the corporate world. And he’s cool in this movie; his character is cool. He handles alcohol no sweat and – when it does get the best of him – he rallies easily with the help of an interesting hangover concoction. The surf punks don’t scare him at all and he even heckles them and knocks over their boards, showing no fear. This depiction is an excellent “sequel” to the Frank we have loved in the past. Back to the Beach does not represent the final screen role for Frankie Avalon, though. We all need to seek out Papa from 2018 in which Frank appears alongside Ann-Margret, Paul Sorvino, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah and others.

Annette Funicello is 44 here and is looking good. She also does a fine job lampooning her former self. Footage of her singing as a Mouseketeer is shown (along with Frank on American Bandstand) and her character is the same type of shill for Skippy peanut butter that Annette herself had been starting in 1979. Annette had said that making Back to the Beach was her favourite filmmaking experience since 1961’s Babes in Toyland, which dates from basically the start of her film career. Sadly, it was while making our film that Funicello first began experiencing the onset of multiple sclerosis, a disease she lived with for almost thirty years. Annette finally succumbed in 2013 at age 70. When she died, she was surrounded by family and her best friend, Shelley Fabares.

Lori Laughlin is 22 here at the outset of her career. She had appeared the year before in Rad, the greatest of all the BMX bike movies, one that was directed by Hal Needham. Laughlin would go on to be prolific on TV series’ and TV films and was of course implicated in the college admissions scandal of 2019. Tommy Hinkley made his film debut in our movie and I was surprised to spot him years later as a roulette dealer in Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). A lot of the laughs in Back to the Beach involve Demian Slade’s character, Bobby. That is not to say he is a great actor or an actor at all, really.

Connie Stevens, at 48, is older than both of the stars and she looks spectacular. She understands the tone of this film and is in on the joke, playing her part well. And while she wasn’t involved in the beach party movies of the past, she did show up in teen films – exploitation and melodrama – in the early Sixties while Frankie and Annette frolicked at Malibu. Stevens was also a contract player at Warners during a time that saw her star in TV shows like Hawaiian Eye with Bob Conrad in his tight pants and 77 Sunset Strip. The studio also used her in films like Palm Springs Weekend with Conrad and Connie’s frequent collaborator Troy Donahue. Connie has released many records and staged shows at various resorts in Las Vegas. She was married twice notably; first to troubled actor James Stacy and later to Eddie Fisher, with whom she became the mother of actresses Joely and Tricia Leigh. Born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia, Connie has a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto. She, my man, Franco Nero and Bobby Curtola were among the third group of recipients of this honour.

Joe Holland plays Zed with bug-eyed goofiness but he delivers one epic line. Wikipedia has him appearing in one other feature, Top Gun, no less, while IMDb doesn’t list him among that film’s credits. Johnny Carson became his stepdad when his mom, Joanne, married Johnny. I have read of the poor guy dying of both a pulmonary embolism and complications from AIDS; perhaps both. Sad that he was only 39. Not much to say about John Calvin as Troy though, in 1979, Calvin was in both Norma Rae with Sally and California Dreaming, perhaps the last film of the original era of beach party movies. I talked about it here. Back to the Beach would have been that much less without the presence of Dick Dale. Though his hair is…wrong he still had the chops as evidenced by his stunning and atmospheric duet on “Pipeline” with the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan who’s appearance in this film I cannot explain.

When I first saw this movie I could not understand the inclusion of Fishbone and their bonkers duet with Annette on “Jamaica Ska”; I chalked it up to the kind of lunacy found in these films. Then I learned that Annette had recorded this song back in 1964. But more importantly, in 2015, I attended a music festival with my oldest son. He was keen on seeing the Avett Brothers but I was pumped about Fishbone being on the bill. To top it off, I spotted the “dude from Fishbone” walking the grounds! He may still be scratching his head over the guy in Toronto who thanked him for “Jamaica Ska” in Back to the Beach.

Much of the kicks from this movie come from spotting the cameos. Get Smart‘s Don Adams shows up as The Harbormaster and delivers two hilarious deadpan lines; “how about a broken oar?” and “she has asthma!”. Barbara Billingsley is cool as the announcer at the surfing showdown and butchers Kahuna’s name, calling him the “Big Crapola”. The judges at the contest? Billingsley’s TV sons, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers. Edd Byrnes has the valet concession at Daddy O’s in our film like he did at Dino’s Lodge on 77 Sunset Strip and Bob Denver plays the bartender in his Gilligan costume. He’s actually funny talking about the time he spent lost on an island with two gorgeous women that he wasn’t allowed to touch. Also among his castaway friends was a genius who could make a nuclear reactor out of coconuts but couldn’t fix a two-foot hole in a boat. Near the end of our film, Alan Hale, Jr. shows up – in Skipper regalia – telling Denver they have to head off on a brief boat trip – just a three-hour tour. These players and references add to the charm of this movie. It’s all in good fun.

It would be easy to surmise that all of the appeal of Back to the Beach comes from the films and TV shows of the past that it references. In addition to all this nostalgia, though, is a pretty good movie, one that is engaging in the same lighthearted way that the old beach party movies were. There are certain elements – large and small – that make this movie enjoyable. It is interesting to see Avalon, Funicello and Stevens as older people and to see that they have preserved their looks well and naturally. I must comment on the stellar mid-century modern home that Kahuna and Annette have in Ohio – gorgeous. Frankie and Annette returned to Paradise Cove in Malibu to shoot on their old turf for Back to the Beach and the film looks the better for it. I love the idea of living on the pier – and actually driving on it.

I wrote recently of one of my Top 25, Under the Boardwalk, a film that included the Surf Punks. One of the two leaders of this group was Drew Steele and – somehow – Steele can be seen in Back to the Beach. Makes me think that he was known around town as a somewhat authentic “surfer-type” and he made his way into this movie. Also, you must check out the Harbourmaster’s bar. The Harbourmaster lives – or has his office – in a shack on the beach and inside is a very cool bar made to resemble the bow of a ship. Troy has a nice set-up on the beach, as well, with a generator running his small appliances. Nowadays, of course, a gas-belching generator would be welcome on the beach as much as the gas-powered jet skis we see in the film would be in the water. But I never make these kinds of comparisons.

Back to the Beach was often a part of the Beach Party Weekend Film Festival that my wife and kids would for years enjoy annually in the deepest clutches of wintery February. The movie was a fun addition to all the classic films we also watched. And the comedy – and this is not the jab that it could sound like – was easily assimilated by my children when they were little. We always got lots of laughs from this film. It is aware of its goofiness and that makes it fun.

Watching Back to the Beach is akin to attending a family reunion. Perhaps you’ve been to one. Wonderful memories come rushing back as you embrace aunts, uncles and cousins that you once spent so much time with. Admittedly, sometimes there can be bitterness, seeing those you have clashed with in the past. You often leave these gatherings, though, with a warm, nostalgic glow. Watching this movie is a similar experience. This movie understands you. It knows what you want to see and it depicts all of the wonderful things you have enjoyed in the past and remembrances will return. Memories of the times you’ve spent enjoying these movies, immersing yourself in the goofy characters and idyllic beach scenes. Now, like those family gatherings, while watching this movie you may also feel subjected to the ridiculous things about movies like this that always make you roll your eyes and challenge your ability to defend them. But, dang – that warm glow. Back to the Beach is a welcomed and suitable addendum to the summertime movies that many of us have loved for years.