Operation Bikini

The commander of an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II, is ordered to stop to pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes. Hayes' mission is to locate and destroy an American submarine sunk in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.

The members of the demolition team include Seaman Joseph Malzone, Will Sherman and Ronald Davayo, the only member of the team who speaks Japanese. Malzone carries a photo of his girl, which he affixes to the torpedo above his bunk. In two musical dream sequences, Malzone expresses his devotion to "The Girl Back Home."

Upon arriving at the atoll, the demolition team meets up with a local band of guerrillas, including native interpreter Paul and the buxom Reiko. After Paul is killed by a Japanese patrol, a romance develops between Reiko and Hayes, or possibly Malzone. Before anything can come of it, a Japanese cutter comes up the river on patrol, and in the resulting skirmish, Reiko is killed. The gruff but good-hearted bosun's mate is wounded in the same fight, and Sherman has to take him back to Carey's sub, where he reports the team's discovery that the lagoon where the radar sub had sunk is full of Japanese vessels. Carey relays this news to the nearest American aircraft carrier.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team uses the captured Japanese cutter to sail straight into the lagoon. Malzone and Hayes dive to the sunken sub, but when the crew of a Japanese salvage boat opens fire on the cutter, Davayo rams the boat in a suicide attack. After setting their explosive charges, Malzone and Hayes are guided back to Carey's sub by Sherman (possessor of the "finest pair of lungs in the Navy"), just as a fleet of American dive bombers arrive to finish off the Japanese vessels in the lagoon.

• Tab Hunter as Lieutenant Morgan Hayes
• Frankie Avalon as Seaman Joseph Malzone
• Scott Brady as Captain Emmett Carey
• Jim Backus as First Mate Ed Fennelly
• Gary Crosby as Seaman Floyd Givens
• Michael Dante as Lieutenant William Fourtney
• Jody McCrea as Seaman William Sherman
• Eva Six as Reiko
• Aki Aleong as Seaman Ronald Davayo
• David Landfield as Lieutenant Cale
• Richard Bakalyan as Seaman Hiller
• Joe Finnegan as Seaman Morris
• Vernon Scott as Seaman Fowler
• Raymond Guth as Seaman Rich
• Tony Scott as Chief Petty Officer Perez
• Steve Mitchell as Seaman Nolan
• Mickey McDermott as Seaman Fairly
• Wayne Winton as Seaman Patterson
• Duane Ament as Seaman Kingsley
• Jody Daniels as Seaman Jones
• Marc Cavell as Paul
• Raynum K. Tsukamoto as Kawai
• Lan Nam Tuttle as Mika
• Alicia Li as Native Girl #3
• Nancy Dusina as Dream Girl Back Home
• Judy Lewis as Dream Siren

American International Pictures announced the film, originally known as The Seafighters or The Sea Fighter, in March 1962.{{Cite news|title=Film notes. |date=Mar 25, 1962|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|id={{ProQuest|183166413}}}} It marked the directorial debut of editor Anthony Carras.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/118111|website=Turner Classic Movies|title=Operation Bikini|first=Jeff|last=Stafford}}{{Cite news|author=Scheuer, P. K.|title=Short-story films seek new foothold.|date=Jun 8, 1962|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|168115843}}}}

Rory Calhoun was originally announced as the film's star,{{Cite news|title=MONTREAL LISTS 13 LANDS' FILMS|author=H. T.|date=Jul 14, 1962|work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|116173051}}}} but the lead eventually went to Tab Hunter. It was Hunter's first Hollywood film since The Pleasure of His Company (1960).{{cite news|title=Tab Hunter Returns for 'Seafighters'|work=Los Angeles Times|date=21 Nov 1962|page=D6}}

Filming started in December 1962 and took place at Republic Studios.{{Cite news|title=Noted stars to team in bard's works. |date=Dec 3, 1962|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|168288060}}}}

In November 1962, the film was retitled Bikini.{{Cite news|title=Milestone film to star randall. |date=Nov 30, 1962|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|168184233}}}}

The Monthly Film Bulletin said, "... for the most part this is a conventional but competent production... the acting as a whole is never less than competent" but had issues with the final scenes which involved a nuclear blast "then a whole series of shots of a couple of girls playing on the seashore in bikinis."{{Cite news|title=OPERATION BIKINI|date=1963|work=Monthly Film Bulletin|volume=30|page=132|id={{ProQuest|1305823119}}}}

The Los Angeles Times said that the film "... might be titled 'Operation Smorgasboard' since it's a combination of South Sea Island melodrama, war story and comedy."{{cite news|author=Scott, J. L.|date=May 17, 1963|title='Bikini' turns out potpourri|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|168415621}}}}

Filmink wrote "it feels like a picture that began as a stock war story but then AIP panicked at some stage and ordered all this other stuff put in, like Frankie Avalon songs and scenes of Bikini Atoll. It’s not very good."{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=The movie stardom of Frankie Avalon|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-movie-stardom-of-frankie-avalon/|date=28 December 2024|access-date=28 December 2024}}

• Dell Movie Classic: Operation Bikini (October 1963){{gcdb series|id=74218|title=Dell Movie Classic: Operation Bikini}}{{comicbookdb|type=issue|id=248231|title=Dell Movie Classic: Operation Bikini}}

{{reflist}}

• {{TCMDb title|85813|Operation Bikini}}
• {{IMDb title|id=0057387}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|operation-bikini}}
• [https://letterboxd.com/film/operation-bikini/ Operation Bikini] at Letterbox DVD

Category:1963 films

Category:1963 drama films

Category:American International Pictures films

Category:Films about the United States Navy in World War II

Category:Pacific War films

Category:Films set in the Marshall Islands

Category:Bikini Atoll

Category:World War II submarine films

Category:Films adapted into comics

Category:1960s English-language films