Operation Bikini

Operation Bikini also released as The Seafighter is a film released in 1963 by American International Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Carras and starred Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, and Scott Brady.

The casting was aimed to capture a varied audience. While Operation Bikini was nominally a World War II war movie, it shared a number of cast members — Avalon, Jody McCrea, and Eva Six — with American International's Beach Party (soon to become a franchise), and thrown into the mix were character actor Jim Backus, former screen heartthrob Tab Hunter, and Gary Crosby (son of Bing). Avalon even sings in two musical interludes — which were shot in color, despite the rest of the movie's being shot in black and white.

Plot summary

The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander (Brady) is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes (Hunter), whose mission is to locate and destroy a U.S. submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.