I'll admit that my feelings about "Catalina Caper" (also known as "Never Steal Anything Wet") are colored by the fact that this was one of the very first MST3K episodes I saw some years ago, and I was so delighted by the cotton candy giddiness and whimsy dispensed by Joel and the Bots that I probably made some sort of Pavlovian/Garcia effect association with that delight and this movie. Maybe not though, since I still think "Lost Continent" is an utter dog.
Anyway, I watched the 'original' version (on the 'back' of the MST3K DVD in their first big collection) just to be fair, and well, it's pretty lame. The plot is just an excuse to string together a series of musical numbers and dancing scenes, and the filmmakers make the big mistake of using Little Richard's contribution 5 minutes in. Even when he's obviously high as a kite and phoning it in, he's still way better than anything else in the film, and it's all downhill from there; every other singer and performance suffers by comparison. It's like having Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band open for Ace Of Bass, Kajagoogoo and Mister Mister. You keep looking at your watch and wondering - will the real star will make another appearance, or was that it for good music in this film? Nope, that was it...
As for the acting performances...oh geez, it's probably not fair to take issue with the performances when the direction and the script obviously forced all these actors to perform as if their frontal lobes had been surgically removed. Casey Adams, who was decent enough in a 2nd-rate-Republic-serial way in "Indestructible Man" is utterly annoying here, and poor Tommy Kirk (whose career was in a death spiral by this point) flounders hopelessly without his Mouseketeer posse. Even the guy who played "Exidor" in "Mork And Mindy" is wasted here, forced to perform one uninspired pratfall after another in an disastrous attempt at comic relief. And anyway, wasn't that what the chubby guy in the Crayola hat was for?? Of course, he wasn't funny either...
But the girls are pretty in their bikinis, and they shake their hinders with enthusiasm. Some of the incidental music is appropriate, and there's plenty of sunshine and sea and beautiful scenery. If you'd never seen a beach party movie with Frankie and Annette, or never watched a Disney juvenile romantic comedy like "The Monkey's Uncle" or "Flubber", you might enjoy the mood and the sentiments. As it is, if you pound several shots and squint a little and don't think about it too hard, "Catalina Caper" goes down reasonably smoothly. I would never watch it again without the MST3K coverage, but at least I didn't want to gouge out my eyes.
Anyway, I watched the 'original' version (on the 'back' of the MST3K DVD in their first big collection) just to be fair, and well, it's pretty lame. The plot is just an excuse to string together a series of musical numbers and dancing scenes, and the filmmakers make the big mistake of using Little Richard's contribution 5 minutes in. Even when he's obviously high as a kite and phoning it in, he's still way better than anything else in the film, and it's all downhill from there; every other singer and performance suffers by comparison. It's like having Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band open for Ace Of Bass, Kajagoogoo and Mister Mister. You keep looking at your watch and wondering - will the real star will make another appearance, or was that it for good music in this film? Nope, that was it...
As for the acting performances...oh geez, it's probably not fair to take issue with the performances when the direction and the script obviously forced all these actors to perform as if their frontal lobes had been surgically removed. Casey Adams, who was decent enough in a 2nd-rate-Republic-serial way in "Indestructible Man" is utterly annoying here, and poor Tommy Kirk (whose career was in a death spiral by this point) flounders hopelessly without his Mouseketeer posse. Even the guy who played "Exidor" in "Mork And Mindy" is wasted here, forced to perform one uninspired pratfall after another in an disastrous attempt at comic relief. And anyway, wasn't that what the chubby guy in the Crayola hat was for?? Of course, he wasn't funny either...
But the girls are pretty in their bikinis, and they shake their hinders with enthusiasm. Some of the incidental music is appropriate, and there's plenty of sunshine and sea and beautiful scenery. If you'd never seen a beach party movie with Frankie and Annette, or never watched a Disney juvenile romantic comedy like "The Monkey's Uncle" or "Flubber", you might enjoy the mood and the sentiments. As it is, if you pound several shots and squint a little and don't think about it too hard, "Catalina Caper" goes down reasonably smoothly. I would never watch it again without the MST3K coverage, but at least I didn't want to gouge out my eyes.