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Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine

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Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Taurog
Screenplay by
Story byJames Hartford
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySam Leavitt
Edited by
Music byLes Baxter
Color processPathécolor
Production
company
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • November 6, 1965 (1965-11-06) (United States)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million[1]
Box office$1.9 million (est. US/Canada rentals)[2]

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine is a 1965 Pathécolor comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and distributed by American International Pictures. Starring Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart and Jack Mullaney, and featuring Fred Clark, the film is a parody of the then-popular spy trend (the title is a spoof of two James Bond films: the 1962 film Dr. No and the 1964 hit Goldfinger), made using actors from AIP's beach party and Edgar Allan Poe films. The film was retitled Dr G. and the Bikini Machine in England due to a threatened lawsuit from Eon, holder of the rights to the James Bond series.

Hickman called it "AIP's attempt to combine horror, bikini babe and secret agents and take advantage of the popularity of the James Bond pictures."[3]

Despite its low production values, the film has achieved a certain cult status[4] for the appearance of horror legend Price and AIP's beach party film alumni, its in-jokes and over-the-top sexuality, the claymation title sequence designed by Art Clokey, and a title song performed by The Supremes.[5] Its success led to a sequel, produced in 1966, entitled Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs.[6]

Plot

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Price plays the titular mad scientist who, with the questionable assistance of his resurrected flunky Igor, builds a gang of female robots who are then dispatched to seduce and rob wealthy men.[6] Avalon and Hickman play the bumbling heroes who attempt to thwart Goldfoot's scheme. The film's climax is an extended chase through the streets of San Francisco.

Cast

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Robots

Cameos

Cast notes

  • Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman play the same characters they did in the previous year's Ski Party, except that the characters' names were swapped.
  • Deborah Walley, who appeared with Avalon and Hickman in Ski Party and with Avalon in Beach Blanket Bingo, plays Avalon's date at the beginning.
  • Annette Funicello makes a brief cameo appearance as a girl locked in medieval stocks in Dr. Goldfoot's lair. Frankie Avalon lifts her head, then looks at the camera and says, "It can't be!" Pregnant with her first child at the time, Funicello was placed in the stocks in order to hide her stomach.
  • Harvey Lembeck also makes a cameo appearance as his Eric Von Zipper character, enchained along with his motorcycle in Goldfoot's lair. Lembeck also appeared as Goldfoot's assistant, Hugo, in the TV special The Wild Weird World of Dr. Goldfoot.
  • Among the girls who play Goldfoot's robots are Deanna Lund, three years before joining the cast of Irwin Allen's science fiction series Land of the Giants; China Lee, a former Playboy Playmate married to Mort Sahl; Luree Holmes and Laura Nicholson, the daughters of James H. Nicholson; and Alberta Nelson, who was also in all seven of AIP's Beach Party films as a member of Eric Von Zipper's motorcycle gang, The Rat Pack.

Production

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The original idea for this motion picture came from James H. Nicholson, the President of American International Pictures, who wanted to showcase the versatile talents of AIP contract player Susan Hart. Nicholson provided the story, and is credited as "James Hartford". He hired Robert Kaufman, author of Ski Party, to write the first draft.

In March 1965 it was announced Dr Goldfoot and the Sex Machine would star Vincent Price and Frankie Avalon, and would be directed by William Asher, who had made several Beach Party movies for AIP (he was about to start How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in April and then make Jet Set Party (the latter would never be made).[7] However in June, Norman Taurog - who had just made Sergeant Deadhead for AIP - was announced as director.[8]

Director Taurog hired Elwood Ullman to do a rewrite, and Taurog remained intimately involved with the content. Deke Heyward later claimed, without substantiation, that he completely rewrote Robert Kaufman's script.[9]

It was the last of three films Hickman made in succession for AIP, the others being Ski Party and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.[3]

Patti Chandler, Mary Hughes and Salli Sachse were graduates of AIP's "Turn to Youth" program which had begun two years previously.[10]

Shooting

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Filming started 4 August 1965, with one of AIP's largest-ever budgets.[1] It was the first AIP movie to cost over a million dollars.[11]

Vincent Price stated in a 1987 interview with David Del Valle that the original script was a camp musical, but AIP "cut out all of the music! They got scared of it. It could have been terribly funny. I think it would have been almost like Little Shop of Horrors. It was a wonderful, witty script, with wonderful witty music and they cut it all out."[12]

According to Susan Hart:

One of the best scenes I've seen on film was Vincent Price singing about the bikini machine – it was excellent. And I was told it was taken out because Sam Arkoff thought that Vincent Price looked too fey. But his character was fey! By taking that particular scene out, I believe they took the explanation and the meat out of that picture... It was a really unique explanatory scene and Vincent Price was beautiful in it, right on the money.[13]

According to Norman Taurog's biographer:

The original plan had been to follow the AIP formula and have songs integrated throughout the film, but Norman brought in Elwood Ullman to do a rewrite ... and the final script read like a good-natured spoof on the James Bond films with no songs. This apparently disappointed Vincent Price, who had been looking forward to singing.[11]

The film is notable for its scenic photography of San Francisco. The streetcar scene was filmed at the West Portal tunnel. Filming went for over 30 days, taking place on location in San Francisco and on the backlots at the Producers Studio and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The day after the company returned from San Francisco, rioting broke out in Watts in South Los Angeles. On August 30, the unit moved to MGM Studios Lot 2 to shoot on their "New York Street" set for a couple of days before returning to the Producers Studio.[11]

The climactic chase sequence was filmed in the Bay Area. The stuntmen included Carey Loftin, Paul Stader, Troy Melton, Jerry Summers, Ronnie Ron-dell, Bob Harris, Louis Elias, David Sharpe, Harvey Parry, and Bill Hickman.[11]

When designing Goldfoot's lair, Daniel Haller re-used some of his designs from 1961's The Pit and the Pendulum. Stock footage of battleships from another AIP release, Godzilla vs. The Thing appears during the climax.

Susan Hart's hair was done by Jon Peters. She recalled filming "was great fun and I felt really good about what I did in that picture" calling Taurog "probably the sweetest man I've ever met in my entire life."[14]

Accident

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During filming in Los Angeles, the city was gripped by a heatwave. Sometimes temperatures on one of the sound stages reached over 100 °F (38 °C) by mid-afternoon. On the afternoon of August 15, 1965, the company was returning from lunch when one of the electricians, Roy Hicks, passed out from the heat and fell to his death from a catwalk.[11]

Theme song

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The theme song was recorded by The Supremes as a single-sided unreleased promotional single.[15][16]

Reception

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The film had its premiere at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco, where Nicholson had been a manager.[17] The key cast members embarked on a 30-day tour of 18 cities in 13 countries to promote the film.[11][18]

Box office

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In December 1965 Sam Arkoff said "the bikini beach style has had it. We've had some real bombs lately." Nicholson felt Goldfoot "could be a winner. We could use one."[19]

According to Norman Taurog's biographer, the film "was a moderate success in the United States, but did quite well in Europe, particularly in Italy".[11] Samuel Z. Arkoff called it "a medium success", sufficient to make a sequel.[20] Hart says the film "made quite a bit of money."[21]

Dwayne Hickman claimed "hardly anyone saw this awful movie."[3]

Critical response

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The Los Angeles Times said the film "has enough fresh, amusing gags to make it entertaining... Price is splendid".[22]

Hickman complained the movie featured "the worst, overdone drunk scene I've ever played. Even now I shudden when I think how bad I was." He called Goldfoot "a truly terrible picture but Frankie, Vincent and I had such a great time that it somehow made it all worthwhile".[3]

Sequel

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AIP Television produced a musical TV special episode promoting Doctor Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine that appeared for one night in temporary place of the ABC scheduled show Shindig! This show, called The Wild Weird World of Dr. Goldfoot, starred Vincent Price, Tommy Kirk and Susan Hart, and featured many songs that may have been cut from the cinema release.[23] Louis M. Heyward and Stanley Ross wrote the 30-minute short comedy musical TV special which aired November 18, 1965 on the ABC network.

In July 1965, a sequel was announced to be made the following year called Dr. Goldfoot for President, to begin filming on May 14, 1966, for a September 14 release.[24]

Eventually, Vincent Price returned for the 1966 sequel, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, directed by Mario Bava, with Frankie Avalon replaced by Fabian.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Dorothy Kilgallen (Nov 8, 1965). "Chris Noel Seeks Break In Jack Jones Musical". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. C9.
  2. ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1966". Variety. 4 January 1967. p. 8.
  3. ^ a b c d Hickman, Dwayne; Hickman, Joan Roberts (994). Forever Dobie : the many lives of Dwayne Hickman. Carol Publishing. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-55972-252-0.
  4. ^ "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine". Archived from the original on 2016-10-25.
  5. ^ "Three Little Girls From Cool Are We". Los Angeles Times. Sep 27, 1965. p. C18.
  6. ^ a b Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 94–95. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  7. ^ "MOVIE CALL SHEET: SPIEGEL TO FILM 'SWIMMER'". Los Angeles Times. Mar 19, 1965. p. D13.
  8. ^ "Movie call sheet". The Los Angeles Times. 11 June 1965. p. 23 Part v.
  9. ^ Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, John Brunas, "Louis M. Heyward" Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s through 1960s McFarland (1991) pp.157–158, 166
  10. ^ "Paul Flowers talks on Hollywood". Evening Vanguard. 3 September 1965. p. 7.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Michael A. Hoey, Elvis' Favorite Director: The Amazing 52-Film Career of Norman Taurog, Bear Manor Media 2013
  12. ^ Del Valle, David (May–June 1992). "A conversation with Vincent Price". Video Watchdog. No. 11. p. 46.
  13. ^ Weaver, Tom. "Susan Hart", Double Feature Creature Attack: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews, McFarland, 2003. p.138
  14. ^ pp. 137 Weaver
  15. ^ Ribowsky, M. (2009), The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success, and Betrayal, Da Capo Press, ISBN 978-0-306-81586-7, p.417
  16. ^ The Supremes
  17. ^ Irene Can't Wait for 'Heaven Train' Los Angeles Times (September 20, 1965)
  18. ^ Weaver p 140
  19. ^ "Beach pictures are out". The Times-Transcript. 11 December 1965. p. 15.
  20. ^ Lucas, Tim. Mario Bava All The Colors Of The Dark. p. 691.
  21. ^ Weaver p 137
  22. ^ Harford, Margaret. "'Goldfoot' Sparkling Comedy" Los Angeles Times (November 13, 1965)
  23. ^ The title of the television show may have been inspired by the November 1965 The Incredible World of James Bond designed to give publicity to the upcoming release of Thunderball.
  24. ^ "AIP to Discontinue Second Features", Box Office (July 5, 1965)
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