Frankie Avalon Movies

Ray Milland both starred in and directed the morose, minimalist sci-fier Panic in the Year Zero! (original title: Panic in Year Zero!). En route from Los Angeles to a vacation in the mountains, Harry Baldwin (Milland), his wife, Ann (Jean Hagen), and his teen-aged children, Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchell), are appalled to see a mushroom cloud forming over the L.A. skyline. With the highways clogged by panicking motorists, Milland and his family decide to head to the shelter of their fishing spot, there to wait until more news about the nuclear disaster is available. Everywhere they drive, however, the family is confronted by rampaging looters, heavily armed survivalists, and doped-up motorcycle punks. Attempting to remain calm and collected in the face of Armageddon, Milland ends up as violent and animalistic as everyone else. Though it avoids proselytizing for the most part, Panic in the Year Zero! does fall back on the old reliable "The Beginning" fadeout title. The most powerful aspect of the film is the "normalcy" of Milland's family: we are made to feel throughout that what happens to them could very well happen to us, and how then would we react? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy caper based on a novel by Nathaniel Benchley, a gang of crooks begin exploiting an innocent ex-Navy officer who, wanting to impress his employer's daughter, is sailing a fleet of ramshackle scows. One of the crooks cons the fellow into believing he is a shipwright. The thief then plots to use the vessel for a bank robbery. The hero is then forced to sail the ship himself after he and his girlfriend are captured. Meanwhile another villain tries to commandeer the vessel, but the officer is able to signal the Coast Guard by using his girl friend's bra as a slingshot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ski Party is essentially a beach-party flick with snow and capri pants replacing the surf and bikinis. Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman decide to crash a girls-only party at a skiing lodge. You know what happens next--and boy, are Avalon and Hickman a sight in lipstick and high heels. Avalon's usual vis-a-vis Annette Funicello has a mere guest role here, allowing Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig to supply the pulchritude. All that's really missing are the usual Beach Party guest stars: Robert Q. Lewis is hardly a fair exchange for Buster Keaton and Don Rickles. One of the songs in Ski Party was co-written by no less than Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Amazing Dr. G is an alternate title for the Italian-American spoof Dr. Goldfoot and His Girl Bombs. Vincent Price repeats his characterization of the megalomaniac Goldfoot from 1965's Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, and also plays a secondary role as a kidnapped US general. This time, Dr. G. intends to undermine America by unleashing an army of voluptuous, exploding female robots. The detonation device is located in the girls' belly buttons, which should indicate the level of humor around these parts. The popular Italian comedy team of Franco and Ciccio do their frenetic best to raise a few yocks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Singer Frankie Avalon guests in this episode as Thomas Cheever, the nephew of Mooney's boss Mr. Cheever (Roy Roberts). Although the elder Cheever wants Thomas to give up his dreams of a showbiz career and go into the banking business, Lucy (Lucille Ball) becomes convinced that the boy has star potential--and to prove it, she arranges an "accidental" meeting between Thomas and talent scout Mr. Penrose (Lew Parker). Frankie Avalon sings "Walking Happy" and a spoof of "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover", then shows off his skill as a trumpeter in the ensemble number "When the Feeling Hits You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though it was also released as Tack's Chicks, The Stoned Age is a more accurate summation of this engagingly sloppy "head" movie. The protagonists are Joe (Michael Kopelow) and Hubbs (Bradford Tatum), who are obsessed with an unending quest for beautiful girls and nonstop sex. In the course of a single night, the boys are introduced to several willing lovelies by a fella named Tack (Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez). Making enjoyable-if pointless-guest appearances in Stoned Age are Frankie Avalon, Taylor Negron, and two members of the Blue Oyster Cult. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fast-paced world of stock-car racing provides the backdrop for this drama that centers upon a driver who is forced to retire after a blackout causes the death of another driver. He then begins working at a "Thrill Circus" as a stunt driver. There he meets the proprietor's daughter, who also drives there, and her lover. The professional driver is bored by his new job and so begins training the girl's beau to be a professional. The training is good and the young man wins his first race. This causes the banished driver's gold-digging ex-girl friend to try to steal the hot young driver away from the daughter which creates some problems between the younger and the older drivers. They reconcile when they are paired up during a crucial 500-mile race. In the midst of the race, the older pro feels another blackout coming on. By the end of the film, he realizes that the fainting spells are a psychological reaction to a childhood trauma. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Walter Pidgeon is the nominal star of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, portraying Admiral Harriman Nelson, the designer of the submarine Seaview, a glass-nosed research submarine. The sub embarks on her shakedown cruise under the polar ice cap as the movie begins. Upon surfacing, however, the crew discovers that the entire sky is on fire -- the Van Allen radiation belt has been ignited by a freak meteor shower, and the Earth is being slowly burnt to a cinder. Nelson and his colleague, Commodore Lucius Emery (Peter Lorre), devise a plan to extinguish the belt using one of the Seaview's nuclear missiles, but they are denounced at an emergency meeting of the United Nations. Disregarding the UN vote against him, Nelson decides to go forward with his plan before the Earth is destroyed, hoping to get the approval of the president of the United States while his ship races from New York to the Marianas in the Pacific to launch its missile on time and target, with the world's navies hunting her down and communication with Washington impossible because of the fire in the sky. Nelson must combat not only the threats from other ships but also the doubts of his own protégé, Commander Lee Crane (Robert Sterling), the captain of the Seaview, about his plan and his methods, and the growing suspicion -- being spread by Dr. Susan Hiller (Joan Fontaine), a psychiatrist who was visiting the vessel -- about his sanity, as well as the growing discontent of the crew, who would like to see their families before the end of the world, and the presence of one religious fanatic (Michael Ansara) who thinks the fire in the sky is God's will. Worse still, there appears to be a saboteur -- and possibly more than one -- aboard. The plot is episodic in pacing and features elements that were clearly derived in inspiration from Disney's 1954 production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, such as Nelson's eccentricity and the "outlaw" status of his ship; but the undersea maneuvers to tap the trans-Atlantic telephone cable (in order to reach Washington), the battle with a giant squid, a duel with an attack submarine, and a harrowing tangle with a WWII mine field would become standard elements of the series of the same name that followed this movie two years later. Pidgeon brings dignity if not a huge amount of energy to the role of the admiral, and Lorre, Fontaine, Ansara, and Henry Daniell (playing Nelson's scientific nemesis) add some colorful performances, and Barbara Eden, as Nelson's secretary, is pretty to look at; and there are some excellent supporting performances by Delbert Monroe (aka Del Monroe, who appeared later in the series, as Kowalsky), Mark Slade, John Litel, Howard McNear, and Robert Easton. The real "star" of the movie, however, is the submarine Seaview and the special effects by L.B. Abbott, which, to be fully appreciated, should be seen in a letterboxed presentation of the movie. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide