Taking Disney style comedy and adding an adult twist to it, American International purposely went way over the top and succeeded. Deliberate humor often lands like a cow patty in a pasture, but here, the patty is filled with gold nuggets. Escaping from doomed barons and vicious monsters, Vincent Price is having a gay old time as an effete mad scientist who creates beautiful robots to seduce and marry vulnerable rich men in hopes of getting his hands on their estates. With an idiotic assistant named Igor, Price continues to bungle each scheme thanks to the interference of the love struck Frankie Avalon who falls in love with bikini clad #11 (Susan Hart), set up by the complete dunce Igor (Jack Mullaney) who makes Gilligan seem like the professor.
This greatly uses the streets of San Francisco for location shooting, starting off the film on Lombard Street and ending up in Dr. Goldfoot's lair returning to the streets for a wacky chase similar to those in "What's Up, Doc?" and "Foul Play". Avalon works for his eccentric uncle (Fred Clark) who keeps falling prey to Avalon's clumsiness. Avalon joins forces with Dwayne Hickman who made the unfortunate decision to marry the lovely but unloving Hart.
Often, deliberate camp does not come off well, especially when the actor's tongues are so far in their cheek that they could drill oil. But everybody seems to be having so much fun that it becomes generally hard not to root them on, especially when Price returns to the pit and the pendulum. While this gets a rather high rating from me, I could hardly call this award worthy, but I could have gobbled down two large popcorns with this at the drive-in and drink a super large coke and never want to leave my car to go to the restroom or take a break on the outdoor slides. A fun title song sung by the Supremes (unseen) helps get the show started.
This greatly uses the streets of San Francisco for location shooting, starting off the film on Lombard Street and ending up in Dr. Goldfoot's lair returning to the streets for a wacky chase similar to those in "What's Up, Doc?" and "Foul Play". Avalon works for his eccentric uncle (Fred Clark) who keeps falling prey to Avalon's clumsiness. Avalon joins forces with Dwayne Hickman who made the unfortunate decision to marry the lovely but unloving Hart.
Often, deliberate camp does not come off well, especially when the actor's tongues are so far in their cheek that they could drill oil. But everybody seems to be having so much fun that it becomes generally hard not to root them on, especially when Price returns to the pit and the pendulum. While this gets a rather high rating from me, I could hardly call this award worthy, but I could have gobbled down two large popcorns with this at the drive-in and drink a super large coke and never want to leave my car to go to the restroom or take a break on the outdoor slides. A fun title song sung by the Supremes (unseen) helps get the show started.