Catalina Caper: Lee Sholem

Catalina Caper was one of the very last films of the beach party genre. And thank goodness, too. I shiver to think of where the genre could have possibly gone after this film. I guess producers realized that watching "teens" dance around in bikinis to obnoxious music for 90 minutes was getting old fast. So they decided that Catalina Caper would be half beach party and half crime-comedy thriller. The two genres mix together about as well as you might think: horribly. For one, I can't remember the name of a single character in this film. All of the people are either partying teenagers, musicians, or odd old people. As it stands, the odd old people are somehow involved in the theft of an ancient Chinese scroll from a Los Angeles museum. In between vicious pelvic gyration sessions, the teens run around trying to solve the mystery...or at least I think that's what they are doing. And the musicians, including a strange appearance by Little Richard, have this mystical ability to spontaneously materialize whenever the teens get bored.  The film was directed by Lee Sholem, a man infamous for being one of the most incessantly productive directors in Hollywood history. The man literally had over 1,000 directing credits. And his preference for speed over quality is apparent from the first few shots of the film. He uses extremely saturated cinematography that eliminates almost every single shadow. The result is that everything looks flat, lifeless, and garish. The music is also grating and annoying. Even Little Richard's number is uninspired and aggravating. Catalina Caper is one party that you're gonna want to miss.

3/10