Beach Month continues with no beach, no Frankie, and no Annette, but we do get a corpse in a creepy house who has to perform one last good deed in order to get into heaven, his evil attorney trying to cheat two young people out of a fortune, and the Bobby Fuller Four as the backing band. It's very silly, not remotely beachy, and a far cry from movies like Gidget or Beach Party, with the only continuity coming from the return of Eric Von Zipper and his biker gang. But it also has very strong Scooby-Doo vibes, so who are we to complain?

Starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Basil Rathbone, Nancy Sinatra, Aron Kinkade, Quinn O'Hara, Harvey Lembeck, and Boris Karloff. Written by Louis M. Heyward and Elwood Ullmann. Directed by Don Weis.

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Beach Month continues with one of the weirdest of the Frankie & Annette beach party movies: skydiving, scheming managers, bikers, murderous pool sharks, a silent film star, and a mermaid take over the beach and make things hard for the perennial lovebirds.

Starring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Linda Evans, Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, Buster Keaton, and Earl Wilson. Written by Leo Townsend and William Asher. Directed by William Asher

We kick off a brief series on beach movies with a viewing of the original, the story of a tomboy who takes up surfing thanks to the help of the king of the beach bums, the Big Kahuna, while falling in love with his sidekick Moondoggie.

Starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren. Written by Gabrielle Union. Directed by Paul Wendkos.

It's the 4th of July, which means it's time for baseball, mom, and apple pie. We bring back Mary's sister to talk about one of her favorite movies (that Mary somehow avoided), a story about a bunch of boys playing neighborhood baseball in the summer of 1962. It's all rose-tinted glasses and lemonade, an exercise in nostalgia, and it's a pretty good movie.

Starring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Adams, Grant Gelt, Shane Obedzinski, Victor DiMattia, Denis Leary, Karen Allen, and James Earl Jones. Written by David Mickey Evans and Robert Gunter. Directed by David Mickey Evans

The newly-discovered Scrolls of Merlin have been stolen by a time-traveling MacBeth, so it's up to the Gargoyles to retrieve them. That's right, we check out the Disney fantasy series from the 1990s that combined Shakespeare, fairies, Celtic magic, evil billionaires, and cyberpunk aesthetics.

Gargoyles, season 2, episode 4: "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time"

Starring Keith David, Ed Asner, Bill Fagerbakke, John Rhys Davies, and Paul Winfield. Written by Lydia Marano & Brynne Chandler Reaves. Directed by Frank Paur.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

A mobster's widow is romantically pursued by both the FBI agent trailing her and the don who killed her husband. Oh, and the don's wife wants her dead. What's a girl to do?

Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Alec Baldwin, and Mercedes Ruehl. Written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns. Directed by Jonathan Demme.

Surprise guest Jon Solomon is here to talk about Elaine May's unfairly-maligned buddy comedy about two bumbling songwriters who end up at the center of a revolution in the fictional country of Ishtar. A bomb when it was released, it's now a well-liked cult film whose reputation has grown, and one of the funniest movies we've covered for the show.

Starring Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabella Adjani, and Charles Grodin. Written and directed by Elaine May. Songs by Paul Willams.

We went to see Masters of the Universe, the latest toy-turned-into-a-movie, and honestly had a good time, better than we expected. We briefly compare it to the 1987 film (see episode 79), as well as Flash Gordon, Arthurian romance, and more.

Starring Nicholas Galitzine, Jared Leto, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, and Alison Brie. Directed by Travis Knight.

An engineer is laid off and becomes a stay-at-home dad, and hijinks--and gender--ensue. Not quite as off-putting as it could have been thanks to some very funny performances from Michael Keaton and Teri Garr, but it's still a hackneyed, reactionary premise.

Starring Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Ann Jillian. Written by John Hughes. Directed by Stan Dragoti.

A Greek artisan is commissioned by St. Luke and Joseph of Arimathea to make the Holy Grail, while fending off the the evil Simon Magus and the Emperor Nero. It's a very uneven film, sometimes boring, sometimes visually fascinating, and at least Jack Palance seems to be having fun. These days, it's best known as the movie Paul Newman apologized for making--which is a heck of a thing when it's your debut film.

Starring Paul Newman, Jack Palance, Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, and Lorne Greene. Written by Lesser Samuels. Directed by Victor Saville.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.