Plot
A mostly-deserted island, which is believed to be the home to the fountain of youth, is off the coast of Florida. The island gets some visitors in the form of a teenage rock band, The Wild Ones, and their gang of swimsuit-clad young people, including Frankie (Jordan Christopher) and Nanette (Lauree Berger) and their sidekick Dodo (Johnny Tillotson). The gang heads there in a crowded powerboat ostensibly for a scavenger hunt. However, they spend about half their screen time crooning to each other, or dancing on the beach.
The island's wealthy owner, George Wellington (Brian Donlevy), recruits his daughter, Junior (a then-pregnant Jayne Mansfield), [2] to remove the teenagers from the island. Junior is eager to see her love interest (and the island's only resident), rotund toupee-wearing botanist Irving (Jack E. Leonard). However, Irving is more interested in flowers and his bicycle than in the amorous Junior. Wellington asks Irving to spy on the teenagers, which he does by donning a sweatshirt that reads "Fink University", and "getting their trust" by joining them in dancing the Turtle. Meanwhile, Irving's twin brother Herman (also Jack E. Leonard, without a toupee), Wellington's trusted employee, plots with his love interest, the scheming Camille Salamander (Phyllis Diller), to find the fountain of youth first.
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events. The Bridge on the River Kwai topped the year's box office in North America, France, and Germany, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress and Playboy Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s, Mansfield was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. Although her film career was short-lived, she had several box-office successes, and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award, and soon gained the nickname of Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde."
Dragon is a New Zealand rock band which was formed in Auckland in January 1972, and, from 1975, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The band was originally fronted by singer Graeme Collins, but rose to fame with singer Marc Hunter and is currently led by his brother, bass player and co-founder Todd Hunter. The group performed, and released material, under the name Hunter in Europe and the United States during 1987.
Waldo Brian Donlevy was an American actor, who was noted for playing dangerous and tough characters. Usually appearing in supporting roles, among his best-known films are Beau Geste (1939), The Great McGinty (1940) and Wake Island (1942). For his role as the sadistic Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The 5.6.7.8's are a Japanese rock band from Tokyo with a retro-inspired sound that draws heavily from the 1960s garage rock scene. They first started performing as a quartet in Tokyo, and recruited guest performers during their Australian tour. They became a trio in 1992, before touring Australia.
Johnny Tillotson is an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary Billboard charts, including "Poetry in Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'" and "Without You".
The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 American musical comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield in the lead role, Tom Ewell, Edmond O'Brien, Henry Jones, and Julie London. The picture was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay adapted by Tashlin and Herbert Baker from an uncredited 1955 short story, "Do Re Mi" by Garson Kanin. Filmed in DeLuxe Color, the production was originally intended as a vehicle for the American sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, with a satirical subplot involving teenagers and rock 'n' roll music. The unintended result has been called the "most potent" celebration of rock music ever captured on film.
She Shot Me Down is a 1981 album by American singer Frank Sinatra.
Jack Watson was an English actor who appeared in many British films and television dramas from the 1950s onwards.
In English-speaking popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its attributes mostly to the imagined tradition of the 18th-century Caribbean pirate sailing off the Spanish Main and to such celebrated 20th-century depictions as Captain Hook and his crew in the theatrical and film versions of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, and various adaptations of the Middle Eastern pirate, Sinbad the Sailor. In these and countless other books, films, and legends, pirates are portrayed as "swashbucklers" and "plunderers". They are shown on ships, often wearing eyepatches or peg legs, having a parrot perched on their shoulder, speaking in a West Country accent, and saying phrases like "Arr, matey" and "Avast, me hearty". Pirates have retained their image through pirate-themed tourist attractions, film, toys, books and plays.
"Wild One" or "Real Wild Child" is an Australian rock and roll song written by Johnny Greenan, Johnny O'Keefe, and Dave Owens. While most sources state that O'Keefe was directly involved in composing the song, this has been questioned by others. Sydney disc jockey Tony Withers was credited with helping to get radio airplay for the song but writer credits on subsequent versions often omit Withers, who later worked in the United Kingdom on pirate stations Radio Atlanta and, as Tony Windsor, on Radio London.
The Wild Ones were an American rock band from New York City, initially led by singer Jordan Christopher. They are perhaps best known for recording the first version of Chip Taylor's song "Wild Thing", which later was a smash hit for The Troggs.
The Dick Clark Show was an American musical variety show broadcast weekly in the United States on the ABC television network 7:30-8 p.m. on Saturdays from February 15, 1958, through September 10, 1960, sponsored by Beechnut Gum.
The Real Macaw is a 1998 Australian adventure film written by Bruce Hancock and Matthew Perry and directed by Mario Andreacchio. It was produced and distributed by Becker Entertainment in association with the Australian Film Finance Corporation, The South Australian Film Corporation, The New South Wales Film and Television Office and The Queensland Government through Film Queensland, and filmed on location in Brisbane, Queensland. The film was released in Australia on 24 September 1998 and released on VHS in the United States and Canada on 11 July 2000 by Paramount Home Entertainment. It stars Jamie Croft as Sam Girdis, Deborra-Lee Furness as Beth Girdis, Joe Petruzzi as Rick Girdis, John Waters as Dr. Lance Hagen, and Jason Robards as Grandpa Girdis. The voice of Mac the Parrot was performed by Daniel Murphy in the Australian version and by John Goodman in the North American version.
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is an original stage comedy in three acts and four scenes by George Axelrod. After a try-out run at the Plymouth Theatre in Boston from 26 September 1955, it opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway on 13 October, starring Jayne Mansfield, Walter Matthau and Orson Bean. Directed by the author and produced by Jule Styne, it closed on 3 November 1956 after 444 performances.
South of Tahiti is a 1941 American south seas adventure film directed by George Waggner and starring Brian Donlevy, Broderick Crawford and Andy Devine. It helped launch fourth-billed Maria Montez as a pin-up star. The response was such that Universal Pictures then cast her in Arabian Nights.
Jordan Christopher was an American actor and singer. He was the lead singer of The Wild Ones, who recorded the original version of the rock classic "Wild Thing" after Christopher had left the band.
The 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours in New Zealand, celebrating the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, were appointments made by the Queen in her right as Queen of New Zealand, on the advice of the New Zealand government, to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by New Zealanders. They were announced on 6 June 2016.
Giulio Panicali was an Italian actor and voice actor.
