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Grade: C+

Verdict: An affectionate but awkward campy spoof of beach movies.

Details: Starring Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson and Nicholas Brendon. Unrated. 1 hour, 35 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for [an error occurred while processing this directive] Psycho Beach Party

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Review: It's hard to parody something that was goofy to start with. Or maybe it's too easy. That's the problem with "Psycho Beach Party," playwright Charles Busch's affectionate but muddled tribute to 1950s surfer-boy-and-
bikini-babe movies, spiced with dollops of Freudian psychology and campy humor.

The original Frankie-and-Annette movies (and their clones) were cartoons to begin with. Spoofing them is redundant.

"Psycho" starts off pleasantly silly, as 16-year-old Florence (Lauren Ambrose) tests her mettle with the cool surfing crowd, led by Starcat (Nicholas Brendan) and hep senior sun god Kanaka (Thomas Gibson), who spouts rhyming beatnik aphorisms. Lauren learns to hang 10 and earns the nickname "Chicklet," because she's not quite a full-fledged chick.

And every now and then, Chicklet channels a second personality, the diva Ann Bowman, a man-hungry dominatrix (much to the secretly masochistic Kanaka's delight). Could the girl's split personality be connected with the serial killing of surf-happy teens?

It's up to police captain Monica Stark to find out, as played by cross-dressing Busch, channeling Susan Hayward. Busch starred as li'l Chicklet on the New York stage, and while Ambrose is perky and game as the multiple-personality teen queen (especially in a third persona, sassy homegirl Tylene), the part really begs for a guy in a dress: Ann Bowman is a classic drag-queen role, a gay man's construct of a martini-fueled madonna-monster.

The game cast includes Matt Keeslar working a heavy accent as a Swedish exchange student staying with Chicklet and her mother (Beth Broderick, doing a lethal Donna Reed impression). Nick Cornish and Andrew Levitas play a couple of buff, repressed surfers whose constant horseplay increasingly looks like foreplay. There's also a sharp turn by Kimberley Davies as a baby-voiced, Monroe-like starlet, whose films include such drive-in wonders as "The Pizza Waitress With Three Heads" and "Sex Kittens Go Bossa Nova."

"Psycho Beach Party" is sometimes more fun to describe than to watch. Its middle section feels soft and aimless. Director Robert Lee King shoots most of the scenes as master shots, with no intercutting, no reaction shots or closeups. You can't tell if he's paying homage to slack '50s cinematography or being slack himself. The actors appear physically uneasy as scenes tick on without a cut or a change of camera. Busch, adapting his play, has tweaked some of the script, adding a nifty trick ending. But "Psycho" never really slays.

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