Operation Bikini

Operation Bikini, also released as The Seafighter, is a war film released in 1963 by American International Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Carras and starred Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, and Scott Brady.

Operation Bikini
Directed byAnthony Carras
Produced byLou Rusoff
James H. Nicholson
executive
Samuel Z. Arkoff
Written byJohn Tomerlin
StarringTab Hunter
Frankie Avalon
Scott Brady
Jim Backus
Gary Crosby
Music byLes Baxter
CinematographyGil Warrenton
Edited byAnthony Carras
Homer Powell
Production
company
Alta Vista
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • March 26, 1963 (1963-03-26)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The casting was aimed to capture a varied audience. While Operation Bikini was nominally a World War II war movie, it shared a number of cast members—Avalon, Jody McCrea, and Eva Six—with American International's Beach Party (soon to become a franchise), and thrown into the mix were character actor Jim Backus, former screen heartthrob Tab Hunter, and Gary Crosby (son of Bing). Avalon even sings in two musical interludes—which were shot in color, despite the rest of the movie's being shot in black and white.

Plot

The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander (Brady) is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes (Hunter), whose mission is to locate and destroy a U.S. submarine that sank in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.

The members of the demolitions team include Seaman Joseph Malzone (Avalon), Will Sherman (McCrea), and Ronald Davayo (Aki Aleong), the only member of the team who speaks Japanese. Malzone carries a photo of his girl, which he affixes to the torpedo above his bunk. In two musical (and colorful) dream sequences, Malzone expresses his devotion to "The Girl Back Home".

Upon arriving at the atoll, the demolitions team meet up with a local band of (historically non-existent) guerrillas, including native interpreter Paul (Marc Cavell) and the buxom Reiko (Eva Six). After Paul is killed by a Japanese patrol, some kind of romance seems to germinate between Reiko and Hayes, or possibly Malzone. Before anything can come of it, a Japanese cutter comes up the (geographically non-existent) river on patrol, and in the resulting skirmish Reiko is killed. The gruff but good-hearted bosun's mate (Backus) is wounded in the same fight, and Sherman has to take him back to Carey's sub, where he reports the team's discovery that the lagoon where the radar sub sank is full of Japanese vessels. Carey relays this news to the nearest American carrier.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team uses the captured Japanese cutter to sail straight into the lagoon. Malzone and Hayes dive to the sunken sub, but when the crew of a Japanese salvage boat opens fire on the cutter, Davayo rams the boat in a suicide attack. After setting their explosive charges, Malzone and Hayes are guided back to Carey's sub by Sherman (possessor of the "finest pair of lungs in the Navy"), just as a fleet of American dive bombers arrive to finish off the Japanese vessels in the lagoon.

Cast
  • Tab Hunter as Lieut. Morgan Hayes
  • Frankie Avalon as Seaman Joseph Malzone
  • Scott Brady as Capt. Emmett Carey
  • Jim Backus as Bosun's Mate Ed Fennelly
  • Gary Crosby as Seaman Floyd Givens
  • Michael Dante as Lieut. William Fourtney
  • Jody McCrea as Seaman William Sherman
  • Eva Six as Reiko
  • Aki Aleong as Seaman Ronald Davayo
  • David Landfield as Lieutenant Cale
  • Richard Bakalyan as Seaman Hiller
  • Joe Finnegan as Seaman Morris
  • Vernon Scott as Seaman Fowler
  • Raymond Guth as Seaman Rich
  • Tony Scott as C. P. O. Perez
  • Steve Mitchell as Seaman Nolan
  • Mickey McDermott as Seaman Fairly
  • Wayne Winton as Seaman Patterson
  • Duane Ament as Seaman Kingsley
  • Jody Daniels as Seaman Jones
  • Marc Cavell as Paul
  • Raynum K. Tsukamoto as Kawai
  • Lan Nam Tuttle as Mika
  • Alicia Li as 3d native girl
  • Nancy Dusina as Dream girl back home
  • Judy Lewis as Dream siren

Production

The film was originally known as The Seafighters or The Sea Fighter. AIP announced it in March 1962.[1] It was the directorial debut of editor Anthony Carras.[2][3]

Rory Calhoun was originally announced as star.[4] Eventually the lead went to Tab Hunter. It was his first film in Hollywood since The Pleasure of His Company (1960).[5]

Filming started in December 1962 and took place at Republic Studios.[6]

In November 1962 the film was retitled Bikini.[7]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin said "for the most part this is a conventional but competent production... the acting as a whole is never less than competent" but had issues with the final scenes which involved a nuclear blast "then a whole series of shots of a couple of girls playing on the seashore in bikinis."[8]

The Los Angeles Times said the film "might be titled 'Operation Smorgasboard' since it's a combination of South Sea Island melodrama, war story and comedy."[9]

Comic book adaption
gollark: Something something declarative versus procedural memory.
gollark: If you're trying to actually do techniques at a reasonable pace, you probably need to practice them rather than just memorise the steps anyway.
gollark: I feel like you would run quite hard into diminishing returns of some sort.
gollark: 7 hours is literally approximately half your available time per day.
gollark: That sounds incredibly time-inefficient.

References
  1. "Film notes". Chicago Daily Tribune. Mar 25, 1962. ProQuest 183166413.
  2. Stafford, Jeff. "Operation Bikini". Turner Classic Movies.
  3. Scheuer, P. K. (Jun 8, 1962). "Short-story films seek new foothold". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 168115843.
  4. H. T. (Jul 14, 1962). "MONTREAL LISTS 13 LANDS' FILMS". New York Times. ProQuest 116173051.
  5. "Tab Hunter Returns for 'Seafighters'". Los Angeles Times. 21 Nov 1962. p. D6.
  6. "Noted stars to team in bard's works". Los Angeles Times. Dec 3, 1962. ProQuest 168288060.
  7. "Milestone film to star randall". Los Angeles Times. Nov 30, 1962. ProQuest 168184233.
  8. "OPERATION BIKINI". Monthly Film Bulletin. 30. 1963. p. 132. ProQuest 1305823119.
  9. Scott, J. L. (May 17, 1963). "'Bikini' turns out potpourri". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 168415621.
  10. Dell Movie Classic: Operation Bikini at the Grand Comics Database
  11. Dell Movie Classic: Operation Bikini at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
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