Catalina Caper (1967)

An ancient Chinese scroll is stolen from a museum in Los Angeles. The thief, Larry Colvis (Jim Begg), and a teenager, Don Pringle (Tommy Kirk), arrive on Catalina Island on the same boat. Fingers O'Toole (Robert Donner) is a pratfalling agent who tails Larry to Catalina Island. Charlie Moss (Brian Cutler), a friend of Don's, whom he met in college and a resident of Catalina happily takes Don to have fun. Charlie is also a popular ladies' man, and has a group of three young women fawning over him the moment he returns to the island. Arthur Duval (Del Moore) is a businessman vacationing with his wife and son. Arthur's wife, Anne Duval (Sue Casey), plans to duplicate the stolen scroll. Arthur plans to pass the fake scroll off to Lakopolous (Lee Deane), a wealthy foreign man with a thick accent, who is known to collect rare antiquities. He comes to Catalina to retrieve the scroll from Arthur Duval. Larry is Duvals' incompetent henchman. He stole the scroll that Arthur and Anne plan to create a duplicate of. Fingers O'Toole is hoping to catch Arthur Duval red-handed with the stolen scroll. Vaguely threatening Angelo (Lyle Waggoner) is on Catalina under the employ of Lakopolous and his assistant, Borman (Peter Mamakos). Angelo has a quick temper, and is willing to kill to obtain the scroll for his employer. Borman tries to steal the scroll from Duval. Don is used to living in a desert environment in Phoenix and has never seen the Pacific Ocean. He develops a crush on a mysteriously depressed young woman, Katrina Corelli (Ulla Strömstedt), Angelo's fiancé and a visitor to Catalina. Something about her also makes her appealing to a number of guys on the island. Charlie's sister, Tina Moss (Venita Wolf), shows Don a good time. She takes him scuba-diving, and develops a crush on Don. She grows jealous about his affections toward Katrina. The kids get involved in the case, Pringle and his friends investigate the scroll's theft and discover that the parents of one of the boys are responsible. Arthur and Anne's son, Tad Duval (Peter Duryea), suspects that his parents are on Catalina as part of a shady scheme, even though his parents deny it. When the real scroll falls overboard during a scuffle on Duval's rented yacht, Don and Charlie take time out from having fun in the sun, and are enlisted to recover the stolen scroll. Bob Draper (Mike Blodgett) is a member of the Catalina Island Harbor Patrol who is caught up in the scheme of the Duval's. He works with Don and Tad to hatch a plan. After wrestling the scroll away from Angelo and his cohorts, bent on more dangerous results (in an exciting underwater scuba-diving action scene), the boys secretly return the scroll safely to the museum to the relief of the repentant parents. A 1967 musical comedy crime-caper mystery film directed by Lee Sholem, produced by Jack Bartlett and Bond Blackman, screenplay by Clyde Ware from a story by Sam Pierce, starring Tommy Kirk, Del Moore, Peter Duryea, Robert Donner, Ulla Strömstedt, Jim Begg, Mike Blodgett, Venita Wolf, Peter Mamakos, and Lyle Waggoner. About half of the film involves swimsuit-clad adolescents "spontaneous" dancing on yachts in various montages set to the music of Little Richard, Carol Connors and The Cascades who make cameo appearances as themselves. Produced by Executive Pictures Corporation, both "Never Steal Anything We"t and "Scuba Party" were working titles. Tommy Kirk was signed to a four-picture contract, of which this was to be the first. Kirk was announced for Scuba Party in August 1965, but he did not wind up making any of the other films. He did appear in four other films in the beach party genre: "Village of the Giants" (1965), "Pajama Party" (1965), "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966), and It's a Bikini World (1967). Sue Casey was in another beach party film, "The Beach Girls and the Monster" (1965). When filming began, Tommy Kirk was on probation with Walt Disney Studios due to an arrest on a marijuana possession charge from Christmas Eve of 1964. Although later cleared by the District Attorney's office, he was replaced after the arrest by Michael Anderson Jr. for the role of the youngest son in the John Wayne movie, "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965). Composer Jerry Long also wrote the music for another beach party film, "Wild Wild Winter" (1966). The two films are his only onscreen credits. The Cascades, three years past their only hit, "Rhythm of the Rain", perform an early song written by Ray Davies, of The Kinks. By the film's release, original members were leaving the group. Soundtrack music: Scuba Party - Music & lyrics by Jerry Long & Little Richard (as Richard Penniman) Performed by Little Richard There's a New World - Music & lyrics by Ray Davies Performed by The Cascades Book of Love - Music & lyrics by Carol Connors & Roger Christian Performed by Carol Connors Never Steal Anything Wet - Music & lyrics by Jerry Long Performed by Mary Wells [over the opening and end credits]