The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

Lack of good storyline.

An absolute waste of money

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The kind of movie that makes you a little stupider as you watch it. If you let your IQ drop enough, it's enjoyable. It's cheap drive-in stuff from the mid-60s starring Tommy Kirk (whose 1965 film Village of the Giants I watched early on this month). The story is very poorly cobbled together. Boris Karloff plays a recently deceased man. An old girlfriend who died when she was young (Susan Hart) comes to his coffin to tell him that she'll help him do a good deed to get him into Heaven. Hart goes to Earth as the titular ghost (whose invisible bikini shows not skin, but whatever is behind her, i.e., a blue bikini against a blue screen) to prevent Karloff's evil lawyer (Basil Rathbone) from getting Karloff's treasure before his descendants (Kirk and others) can find it. It's mostly worth watching for the plethora of hot girls in bikinis and the enjoyable 60s pop music they sing. Nancy Sinatra co-stars and sings a song.

Although billed as a guest, Rathbone is actually a major player in this labored farce. Despite ploddingly pedestrian direction and unfunny dialogue, the film still manages to held one's interest, thanks mainly to the game efforts of the players (particularly Quinn O'Hara) and the use of American-International's standing horror sets (which certainly give the movie "class"). The songs also are catchy enough, although it's Nancy Sinatra who provides the stand-out number, "Geronimo". She then, alas, disappears as the spotlight shifts to the nubile Quinn O'Hara. I'm not complaining, but it would have been nice to see more of Nancy as well. Karloff fans will also be disappointed as the king of menace is given little to do but comment on the action from time to time. Oddly, although everything has been thrown into the pot in a desperate attempt to make the picture as appealing as possible, contemporary audiences stayed away. For all its heavy-handedness, however, the movie bears at least a little bemused watching. And, as said, it's an absolute must-see for Nancy Sinatra and Quinn O'Hara fans.

This is a truly terrible film and marked the end of the so-called "Beach" films. And, after seeing it, it was pretty obvious that this one alone killed the genre--though is that really such a great loss?! For once, Annette and Frankie are NOT in the film. Instead, a new cast of "actors" are on hand along with some old familiar Beach actors as well as some once-decent actors who obviously needed the money or were so ego-centric that they'd star in anything just to see themselves on the screen. Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Patsy Kelly all appear out of place here and it's rather sad to see them in such a wretched film. Now I have never been a Patsy Kelly fan, but here I even felt sorry for her! No, after listening to her scream and overact yet again, she's exactly where she should be in this wretched film.The film begins in a crypt. Apparently Boris Karloff has just died and doesn't know it. A long-dead girlfriend appears and informs his of this AND the stipulation that he must do one good deed before being allowed to go to Heaven. This plot is right from a Tom & Jerry cartoon--seriously. But instead of an 8 minute short, here it's stretched to almost an hour and a half!! And, in an odd twist, Karloff is NOT allowed to do anything to help do this good deed but must send this dead lady in his place. Why? Well, because obviously Karloff wasn't interested in anything other than a walk-on! And, even more oddly, when you do see this ghost lady, she looks like a ghost BUT her bikini is totally invisible. With her magic powers, she returns to Earth and manipulates things to the betterment of Karloff's heirs--the ubiquitous Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley. These two actors (Kirk and Walley) seem to be available in practically every kooky teen film of the era whenever more talented actors refused the roles! Do an IMDb search if you don't believe me, as their films include IT'S ALIVE (1969), SPINOUT, MARS NEEDS WOMEN and SERGEANT DEAD HEAD.Back on Earth, there's a swinging party where Nancy Sinatra and dozens of bikini-clad teens (at least the girls) all have a ring-a-ding good time. Into this "fun" comes a bad lawyer (wow, that's being redundant), his gang of killers as well a gang of leather-clad idiots led by Eric Von Zipper-- this is the same group of morons who appear in all the other Beach films as comic relief, though they seldom, if ever, are funny. So what do you need to round out this assortment of unfunny jerks? Yep--an escaped gorilla, a culturally insensitive Indian character, a dungeon in this California mansion as well as a mummy! I'm almost surprised they also didn't include pirates and ninjas!!What makes this a particularly bad film is that unlike many of the teen-oriented films of the 50s and 60s, this one had a rather impressive budget. Decent camera work, music and a large cast make it atypical of horrible films of the era. At least with TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, PLAN 9 or THE KILLER SHREWS you could blame the rottenness of the film, at least in part, to minuscule budgets. What's the excuse here with this film?! Bad writing, overacting, cartoon sound effects and a plot that isn't worthy to line a parrot's cage is what you've got with THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI...and to make matters worse, it isn't even that entertaining to bad film fans--it's just stupid. I only recommend this film to people with severe head injuries and those who thought BEACH BLANKET BINGO was too intellectually taxing!!

Ridiculous movie--just the title should tell you something. It's something or other about a ghost (in a bikini of course) trying to revive her dead boyfriend...or make him younger...or something silly. He's played by Boris Karloff who watches the movie from his crypt through a crystal ball. Poor Boris...he was reduced to THIS???? Basically this was the last gasp for the "Beach Party" movies. They were loosing money so they transferred the action to a "haunted" house and some dumb plot about a fortune being hidden. This is chockful of stupid jokes, bad songs, LOUSY acting and some "teenagers" in their 20s who should not be seen with only a skimpy bathing suit.It might be fun if you're in a REALLY silly frame of mind--otherwise this is truly an abomination. Not even bad/good--just BAD!!! Kids might go for it.