Todd Armstrong (Avalon) and Craig Gamble (Hickman) are college undergraduates from California, whose romantic relationships with students Linda Hughes (Deborah Walley) and Barbara Norris (Yvonne Craig) are rocky. Arrogant, handsome, athletic classmate Freddie (Aron Kincaid) has no such problems and chooses not to resist all the women chasing after him. As president of the Ski Club, Freddie organizes a midterm vacation trip to ski country (in Sawtooth National Forest) in Idaho. Although they know nothing about skiing, Todd and Craig follow Linda and Barbara on this bus trip to try to learn "the secret of Freddie's technique".
Once at the rustic ski resort, Todd and Craig pose as frumpy, non-threatening, young English women, Jane and Nora. When not interrupted by a mysterious ice-skating, yodeling polar bear or toying with psychologically imbalanced and lederhosen-clad lodge manager Mr. Pevney (Robert Q. Lewis), they observe the women in their group to learn how they have gone wrong.
To make Linda jealous, Todd attracts the attention of gorgeous, curvy Swedish ski instructor Nita (Bobbi Shaw) when he's dressed as himself. However, Freddie becomes obsessed with Craig when Craig is dressed as a woman, not accustomed to women who play "hard to get". Nita persuades Todd, over Freddie's goading, to compete in a ski jump against Freddie. Todd's jump forces Craig to shoot him down, resulting in a broken leg.
Todd crawls through miles of deep snow late at night with his broken leg covered in a plaster cast, to Nita's house. Toting a bottle, he learns that Nita is not the exotic minx she pretends to be, but aspires to be treated like an "American girl", that is, with much "talk" and little "action".
Back at the lodge, Freddie, still obsessed with Craig's "female" Nora tries to break down Nora's room door. Stuck inside, Todd and Craig contemplate their next move as they escape through a window. Somehow, they hail a taxi and rack up an enormous fare to Santa Monica, California. Freddie follows on a moped that is piloted by fur-coated lodge manager Pevney. The rest of the group abruptly ends its spring break and follows behind on the bus.
Todd, Linda, Craig, and Barbara arrive, with the rest of the group and Pevney, at Todd's parents' beachfront house. There, the two couples share their true feelings, and the boys surprise the women with their ruse.
Delusional Freddie runs into the Pacific Ocean, calling to his beloved Nora, after Craig tells him that when she heard Freddie was coming, she started swimming: By now, she is "somewhere between here and Japan." Craig encourages Freddie to hurry; maybe he can catch her "somewhere near Guam".
"Pretty mean thing to do," Craig says to the audience, reassuring us that they will tell Freddie everything tomorrow. "If he comes back..."
Dwayne Hickman made the film immediately after Cat Ballou and for the same salary. He later wrote "it may have seemed like a strange career decision to go from a classic comedy Western like Cat Ballou to an AIP date movie like Ski Party but at the time Cat was really just a B movie for Columbia."[3]
Hickman says he "hit it off immediately" with co star Avalon "and decided that we should play the characters like Hope and Crosby. Frankie would be the Crosby-like character, smart, in-charge and slick, while I would play the Hope role and be the bumbler. We added a lot of physical business which helped a not very imaginative script."[4]
AIP wanted John Ashley to play Freddy, but Corman felt he looked too much like Avalon. The producer instead cast Aron Kincaid, who had been in Corman's previous two beach films.[5]
Los Angeles City College (a two-year institution in East Hollywood) was the location used for the unnamed university in the film. The outdoor snow scenes were filmed in and around Sun Valley, Idaho over three weeks, and the film gives screen credit to Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest. Ski instructor Siegfried Engl has a cameo.[6] There were also some scenes shot at the beach.[7]
In March 1965, one week into filming, AIP were so happy with the rushes that they announced Kaufman, Corman and Rafkin would make Cruise Party immediately.[8]Cruise Party never was produced.
James Brown said he "felt like [he] was in a straitjacket" during his appearance.[9]
Hickman said making the film "was a totally enjoyable experience",[10] and AIP offered him a lead role in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. The studio reunited him and Avalon in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine with Hickman's playing Armstrong and Avalon's playing Gamble.
The Hondells sing two songs written by Gary Usher and Roger Christian – the title track, off-camera, then appearing in beach attire for the closing track, "The Gasser", on Sorrento Beach in Santa Monica].
Avalon sings the surf-rock "Lots, Lots More" (by Richie Adams and Larry Kusik), and is joined by Hickman, Walley and Craig for the Holiday-styled "Paintin' the Town" (written by Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons).
Walley and Craig sing "We'll Never Change Them", a song by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner, originally written as "I'll Never Change Him" and sung by Annette Funicello in a scene cut from Beach Blanket Bingo.
This is the only AIP beach party film not scored by Les Baxter. Edwin Norton is credited as the film's music editor and Al Simms as music supervisor.
Reception
Critical
The Los Angeles Times wrote the dialogue "seems awfully childish even for teenagers", but liked the musical acts.[11]
Box office
Samuel Arkoff of AIP stated the film was a commercial disappointment. A follow-up film announced in the credits, Cruise Party, never was made.[12]
Dell Comics published a 12-cent comic book version of Ski Party in conjunction with the movie's release.[13][14]
Home media
Ski Party was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 15, 2003 as part of a double-sided disc, with Ski Party on side two of the disc and on July 10, 2007 as part of the box set The Frankie and Annette Collection, with Ski Party on the fourth disc.
