Swingin' teens take time out from having fun in the sun to try to foil a group of crooks searching for a stolen scroll.
A beach movie. A scroll is stolen from an art gallery and taken to Catalina Island, where the thieves plan to use it to swindle Lakopolous, a Greek art collector. They plan to show him the real scroll, then deliver a fake. Lakopolous, however, turns out not to be rock-stupid, and tries to steal the scroll himself. Meanwhile, the thieves' son figures out what his folks are up to and cooks up an improbable scheme that will allow him to steal the scroll back and return it. During this, the whole troupe are under surveillance from a mysterious guy who keeps pulling pratfalls. All of which is *completely incidental* to the story of the love interest between Don and Katrina, the blond guy who always has women flocking to him for no perceptible reason, and the "spontaneous" music and dance numbers.—Leo L. Schwab <[email protected]>
College chums Don Pringle and Charlie Moss head to Charlie's home of Catalina Island for the summer, which is Don's first experience with the ocean as he grew up in the deserts of Arizona. They want the summer to be full of water activities, but more importantly girls. While Charlie's old harem flocks around him as soon as they board the Catalina ferry, Don catches the eye of Charlie's sister, Tina. While he likes Tina, he is attracted primarily to Katrina, who is visiting the island with her fiancé, Angelo. What Don, Charlie, and their group of friends are initially unaware of is that Arthur and Anne Duval, the upscale parents of their new friend Tad, are the masterminds behind a recent theft of an ancient scroll from a Los Angeles museum. They have a buyer for the scroll, the cutthroat art collector Lakopolous, who has among his henchmen Angelo. Using Anne's artistic skills, they however are planning on making a duplicate, selling the duplicate to Lakopolous, returning the original, and thus pocketing the $500,000 sale price. Complications ensue when the scroll, in a watertight canister, gets lost in the ocean. The Duvals try to use their son's unwitting new friends to scuba-dive for "lost treasure"; the kids having no idea what they are diving for. But their lives are placed in danger as Lakopolous' men, including Angelo, are also searching for the lost scroll and will kill anyone who gets in their way. But another party, who gets into one scrape after another, seems to be watching every move the Duvals in particular make regarding the scroll.—Huggo
In a mansion overlooking a beachfront, a man named Lawrence (Jim Begg) sneaks through an elaborate art collection, and makes off with an ancient scroll.
The next day, Charlie Moss (Brian Cutler) and Don Pringle (Tommy Kirk) arrive in California after finishing their University classes in Arizona. Charlie is bringing Don to visit Catalina Island, as Don has spent his entire life among the desert setting.
While on the boat, Don soon becomes enamored with a dark-haired girl staring off into the ocean. Don attempts to get to know her better, when Charlie takes him aside with some other teenagers, and they dance and listen to Little Richard sing a song on board.
Eventually, the ship arrives at Catalina Island. As Charlie disembarks, three girls immediately accost him a romantic fashion. Don watches the dark-haired girl depart, and goes to the arms of another boy. Lawrence departs and presents a cane to a man with a sailor's hat. The two depart soon after when a man in a grey suit appears right behind Lawrence.
Lawrence and the man in the sailor's hat depart for a boat in the Catalina Island harbor. the sailor-hatted man is Arthur Duval (Peter Duryea), who has come to Catalina with his wife Anne (Sue Casey), and their son Tad (Del Moore). Though Tad doesn't know it, Arthur and Anne have hired Lawrence to steal the scroll. Their plan is to have Anne make a copy of the scroll, and pass it off as the original to a Greek man named Lakopolous (Lee Deane). Once he has purchased the fake scroll, Lawrence will return the real one back to the art collection he stole it from.
Arthur, Anne, and Lawrence's moment is spoiled when a young woman in a boat almost sideswipes their yacht. The young woman it turns out is Charlie's sister, Tina (Venita Wolf). After the close-call, Tina meets up with Don and her brother, and the three then meet Arthur, Anne, and Lawrence, along with the Duval's son Tad. Charlie invites Tad to join them on a scuba diving party, but Tad declines. Even Arthur tries to get Tad to go, but the young man suspects his father may be up to some crazy scheme on Catalina.
Afterward, Charlie, Don, and Tina go scuba diving not far from the Duval's yacht. However, trouble brews aboard the yacht when a man in a scuba suit comes aboard, claiming to come for the scroll for Mr Lakopolous. A scuffle ensues between Arthur and the man, and the scroll in a watertight case ends up falling into the water. The man attempts to escape, but Don and Charlie see what has happened, and attempt to subdue him. Their efforts are for naught, and the man gets away.
Don and Charlie board Arthur's yacht, as well as a member of the harbor patrol. Arthur claims the man was after his wallet, and the others accept this explanation. Once they leave, Lawrence voices his concern that they've lost the real scroll, but Arthur says that he's confident they can get it back before Lakopolous sends his divers to retrieve it.
After the excursion, Tina, Don, and Charlie go to a beach party along with Arthur's son Tad. However, the party atmosphere changes when the dark-haired girl Don saw on the boat appears, enchanting almost every other man on the beach. Tina then attempts to hook up with Tad to make Don jealous.
Soon after, everyone heads off the beach to another function, but Don stays behind. As he watches the water, he sees the dark-haired girl calling for help. It soon becomes apparent that she has lost her bikini top, and Don gives her his jacket to cover-up with. Upon thanking him, the girl explains that her name is Katrina Corelli.
Don attempts to get her to join the others, but she claims she's waiting for her boyfriend, Angelo. When she asks Don to help her, the two venture down the beach where they find Angelo. Angelo is upset to see Katrina with another man, and Don takes his leave. When Katrina asks Angelo what he has been doing, he dismisses her questions, claiming he should not have brought her to Catalina. This causes Katrina to leave him, and return to Don.
Don has returned to the others, but when Katrina shows up, Tina gets jealous and wanders off. As Don's talk turns to what happened to Angelo, Katrina reveals that he came to Catalina to help a man named Lakopolous, as well as being hired for his sea-diving abilities. The group then begins to wonder if Angelo may have attacked Tad on his yacht, when Tina is heard crying for help out in the water. However, instead of Don saving her (as she expected), the man with a hat who was trailing Lawrence off the boat does. This leads to every other girl on the beach growing jealous of Katrina, and marching off. Soon afterwards, the teens reconcile on a boat to the sound of a grooving tune.
Later on in the day, Arthur and Lawrence find our gang, and proposes a scuba contest, promising a $100 reward if they can find the watertight cases at the bottom of the harbor. The gang goes for it, but during the 'contest,' the previous diver along with Angelo shows up. Another scuffle breaks out, and the two divers get away, but not before Arthur finally confesses to his son why they are really on Catalina.
Afterwards, Tad, Don, Charlie and the harbor patrolman discuss a plan to catch Angelo and the other man who attempted to assault Arthur. Their plan soon leads to Angelo being arrested, but not before his accomplice takes off with a container that should contain the scroll. The chase finally ends when the man with the hat from before knocks the accomplice into the water, but manages to retrieve the scrollcase.
The man with the hat then identifies himself as Fingers O'Toole, who has been trailing Lawrence and Arthur. He attempts to arrest Arthur, but upon looking in the case, finds the scroll inside is gone! With no evidence against Arthur, Fingers sadly loses his man.
The real scroll it seems has been safely taken away by Tad, who has managed to sneak back into the mansion and return it.
In the aftermath, Lakopolous leaves Catalina Island, sad that his attempted art treasure has gotten away from him. Back on the island, everyone else is dancing down by the docks to a swingin' tune.
