Catalina Caper (also known as Never Steal Anything Wet) is a 1967 comedy musicalmystery film starring Tommy Kirk. It is one of the last (if not the last) in the beach party film genre. This entry blends the beach format with a standard crime-caper comedy. It was shot on and around Santa Catalina Island, California.
The film was also featured in the second season (episode 4) of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).
Carol connors the book of love from the catalina caper 1967
Plot
An ancient Chinese scroll is stolen from a museum in Los Angeles and teenage Don Pringle (Kirk) arrives on Catalina Island simultaneously. Although approximately half of the film involves swimsuit-clad adolescents dancing on yachts in several different dance montages, Pringle and his friends investigate the scroll's theft and discover that the parents of one of the boys are responsible—also while attempting to woo a mysteriously depressed young woman Katrina Corelli (Ulla Strömstedt) from her vaguely threatening boyfriend Angelo (Lyle Waggoner). After wrestling the scroll away from Angelo and his cohorts, bent on more dangerous results (in an underwater scuba diving action scene), the boys secretly return the scroll to the museum to the relief of the repentant parents.
Don Pringle is a friend of Charlie Moss' from college. Don is used to living in a desert environment, and Charlie's decision to bring him to Catalina Island is the first time he's seen the Pacific Ocean. He develops a crush on Katrina.
Charlie Moss is a friend of Don's, whom he met in college. A resident of Catalina, Charlie happily takes Don to have fun. Charlie is also a rather popular ladies' man, and has a group of 3 girls fawning over him the moment he returns to the island.
Tina Moss is Charlie's sister. Assigned to show Don a good time, she takes him scuba-diving, and develops a crush on Don. Grows jealous about his affections toward Katrina.
Katrina Corelli visits Catalina to be with her boyfriend, Angelo. Don meets her on the boat ride over. Something about her also makes her appealing to a number of guys on the island.
Angelo is Katrina's boyfriend who is on Catalina under the employ of Borman and Lakopolous. Has a quick temper, and is willing to kill to get the scroll for his employer.
Arthur Duval vacations on Catalina with his wife and son. Plans to pass a fake scroll off to Lakopolous.
Anne Duval is Arthur's wife. Plans to use her art skills to duplicate the stolen scroll.
Tad Duval is Arthur and Anne's son. Suspects that his parents are on Catalina as part of a shady scheme, even though his parents deny it.
Larry is the Duvals' henchman. A baseball fanatic who steals the scroll that Arthur and Anne plan to create a duplicate of.
Bob Draper is a member of the Catalina Island Harbor Patrol who is caught up in the scheme of the Duval's. Works with Don and Tad to hatch a plan.
Fingers O'Toole is a pratfalling agent who tails Larry to Catalina Island, hoping to catch Arthur Duval red-handed with the stolen scroll.
Lakopolous is a wealthy foreign man with a thick accent, who is known to collect plenty of rare antiquities. Comes to Catalina to retrieve the scroll from Arthur Duval.
Borman is Lakopolous' assistant. Tries to obtain the scroll from Duval without taking payment.
DVD releases
The MST3K version of the film (accompanied by the uncut version, included as a bonus feature) was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the Collection, Volume 1 DVD set, which is now out-of-print as of January 2010. The set was reissued by Shout! Factory with additional features (but without the uncut version of the film) in September 2015.
