Monday, February 6, 2023

Catalina Caper (1967)

Swinging teens foil a gang of crooks, not as bad as you might fear but not far off...

A criminal couple (Del Moore and Sue Casey) steal a valuable painting and take it to Catalina island where they plan to swindle a dodgy Greek art collector by showing him the real one then selling him a fake. The collector Lakapolous (Lee Deane) however, has his own scheme to steal the painting off the gang. The couple's son Tad (Peter Duryea) finds out what his folks are up to and plans to steal the painting himself and return it. Other kids including Don (Tommy Kirk) also get involved.

If thats not enough there is a mysterious guy who is watching them but keeps falling into the water, oh and Catalina island is full of teens in their swimwear dancing about in that swinging 1960s pop manner soon to be made obsolete by psychedelia.

This is light fare really, and quite ridiculous too. Basically a 1960s beach movie with a bit of crime added. The frequent musical interludes take any momentum away from any other part of the story, one of these interludes does include a cameo from Little Richard though so thats quite cool and probably the movie's best bit.