Ski Party

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Ski Party is a B-movie, directed by Alan Rafkin, and released in 1965 by American International Pictures ("AIP"). Ski Party is part of the 1960s Beach Party film genre: college-age girls in bikinis (and guys in trunks) are trotted out at every opportunity. But almost all of Ski Party is set on the slopes, and not on the sand, and AIP mainstay Annette Funicello only has a tiny role. Ski Party was intended for mid-teen audiences in the drive-in theater circuit and this film is delivered with a wink: co-star Dwayne Hickman addresses the camera, as he did in his role as TV's "Dobie Gillis." But in Ski Party, Hickman and co-star Frankie Avalon mock the thinness of the plot by estimating the average audience member to be 15 years old, and unflattering comparison to Some Like It Hot.

[edit] Plot

Todd Armstrong (Avalon) and Craig Gamble (Hickman) play California college undergraduates who unsuccessfully date co-eds Linda Hughes (Deborah Walley) and Barbara Norris (Yvonne Craig). Los Angles City College (a two-year instution in East Hollywood) stood in for their unnamed university. Arrogant, handsome, athletic classmate Freddie (Aron Kincaid) has no such problems and chooses to not fight off all the women chasing after him. As president of the Ski Club, Freddie organizes a midterm vacation trip to ski country (in gorgeous Sawtooth National Forest) in Idaho. Although they know nothing about skiing, Todd and Craig follow Linda and Barbara on this bus trip, to try to learn "the secret of Freddie's technique."

Once at the rustic ski resort, Todd and Craig pose as frumpy, non-threatening, young English women, Jane and Nora, with terrible accents. When not interrupted by a mysterious ice-skating, yodeling polar bear, or toying with psychologically-imbalanced and lederhosen-clad lodge manager Mr. Pevney (Robert Q. Lewis), they observe the girls in their group up close, to learn how to succeed with women, and figure out how they have gone wrong.

To make Linda jealous, Avalon attracts the attention of gorgeous, curvy Swedish ski instructor Nita (Bobbi Shaw) when he's dressed as himself. But Freddie becomes obsessed with Hickman when Hickman is dressed as a woman, not accustomed to girls who play "hard to get." Nita persuades Avalon, over Freddie's goading, to compete in a ski jump against Freddie. Avalon's jump, (after filling his ski outfit with helium) featuring absurdly comical special effects, forces Hickman to shoot him down, breaking Avalon's leg.

Avalon crawls through miles of deep snow, late at night, with his broken leg covered in a plaster cast, to Nita's house. Toting a bottle, he learns that Nita is not the exotic minx she pretends to be but aspires to be treated "like an early 1960s American girl," that is, with much "talk" and little "action."

Back at the lodge, Freddie, still obsessed with Hickman's "female" character, Nora, tries to break down "Nora's" room door. Stuck inside, Avalon and Hickman contemplate their next move as they escape through a window. Somehow they hail a taxi, and rack up an enormous fare to Santa Monica, California. Freddie follows on a moped piloted by fur-coated lodge manager Pevney. The rest of the group abruptly ends its spring break and follows behind on the bus.

Avalon and Walley, and Hickman and Craig arrive, with the rest of the group and Pevney, at Avalon's parents' beachfront house. "Look it's the Hondells!" And the Ski Party Gang begins daning in the sand, reverting back to their old Beach Party ways. There the two couples share their true feelings and the boys surprise the girls with their ruse.

Delusional Freddie swims into the Pacific Ocean convinced that he will catch his beloved brunette-wigged "Nora" who swam off ahead of him and is "somewhere near Guam."

[edit] Special appearances

Ski Party is punctuated by ski-sweatered musical numbers by Lesley Gore (who sings Marvin Hamlisch's "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" on the bus), and James Brown & The Famous Flames (who sing and shimmy through "I Got You (I Feel Good)" in the lodge, having been humorously cast as the "white bread" resort's all-black ski patrol). In beach attire, the Hondells play the closing theme on Serrento Beach in Santa Monica.

A very pregnant Annette Funicello contributes a surprise opening cameo role as the boys' young and sexy (and modestly-dressed) biology professor. AIP player Salli Sachse shows her usual pulchritude as ponytailed and bikini-clad "Indian," and surfing champion Mickey Dora plays a small part.