Retro Hound

EDIT: I’d like to state that I was sick as pig when I watched these movies and wrote the review. Two movies in one pack: The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Almost nothing similar about them except they both are about teenagers, have some element of the supernatural, and, interestingly, they both have a song called “Geronimo.” Two completely different songs, one an instrumental with gunshots and the name Geronimo shouted out occasionally, and the other is sung by Nancy Sinatra. Full review below the ton of pictures.

The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) begins interestingly enough with a pair of female hotrodders street racing. One good girl and one troublemaker. Then there is a cool scene inside a hot rod garage with several cool old 1950s hot rods and “TV” Tommy Ivo, the drag racer. There are good clean-cut kids explaining to the adult reporter that most hotrodders are just good clean-cut kids and only a small minority are troublemakers. Then to the hangout, where there is some horrible lip-synching and instrument-synching. And the music only mediocre at best.

The good female hotrodder has a good family with a dad who worries too much and mother who seems to understand the kids. The girl gets grounded for being in the race, but her mom works out that she can still have a bash at her house, followed by a slumber party. During the party, the dad goes out on the porch and sees a couple kissing, the young man says “We just came out to get some fresh air.” The dad: “Where did you think you’d find it? Down her neck?” Then during the slumber party there is more dancing, just this time the girls are in pajamas. A lot of this movie is dancing teens, not much in the way of story, drag racing, or horror.

At 40 minutes into the movie we finally hear about a ghost and Dragstrip Hollow. They of course have a dance at the haunted mansion in Dragstrip Hollow and an implied drag race. For some reason what could have been a great climax is nothing because they were too cheap to film another race. There is some artificial intelligence (AI), which is very interesting for a show this old. All in all, watching The Ghost of Dragsrip Hollow is not a bad way to spend Sunday morning when you’re sick on the couch.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) has Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Nancy Sinatra! What more could you ask of a horror movie? Well how about introducing The Bobby Fuller Four (of “I Fought The Law” fame) playing some very unusual Vox instruments. Actually, The Invisible Bikini is not a horror movie, more like a spoof of horror. It has Eric Von Zipper and the Rats motorcycle gang from the Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello beach movies, so that tells you what level this movie is aiming at.

Boris Karloff is a dead circus performer who has to do one good dead to go “up there” with his old girl who died 30 years ago. She wore an invisible bikini. Not a see-through bikini, but a bikini that shows whatever is behind her. So, if she’s standing in front of a wall then you the wall where her bikini is. Kinda pointless except it makes a very interesting title for a movie. Anyway, she has to go out and accomplish his good deed, which is to make sure the kids of some people he swindled become his heirs. The lawyer, Rathbone, is trying to do away with all the heirs so that he can become the sole benefactor.
That’s about the plot. This one has lots of dancing also, only now they are in swim suits. And there is a scene with girls in pajamas again.

Actually both movies were enjoyable in their own way. Ghost Of Dragstrip Hollow/The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (Midnite Movies Double Feature)