Sergeant Dead Head

Accidentally fired into space, Sergeant Deadhead (Frankie Avalon) returns to Earth with strange personality changes. This upsets the brass, who hoped to make him a press hero.

"Sergeant Deadhead" isn't as funny as the better Avalon beach movies, nor the spy spoof "Doctor Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine."

Part of the problem is the movie's dated theme: the space race, during the era animals were being sent up in rockets (actually, it was made after that, but we'll have to stretch a point).

The cast is first rate. The top brass of the service include Fred Clark, Cesar Romero, Gale Gordon and Reginald Gardiner. Also on hand are Eve Arden, Buster Keaton and Pat Butram as the president. A great comedy cast.

Unfortunately, a comic is only as good as his material. The aim, apparently, was to turn Avalon into a sort of Jerry Lewis. As if we needed two of them.

With so many old pros in the cast, you'd think one might've risked his contract to stand up and say the material isn't working. It has a few laughs, but no more than you'd squeeze out of a so-so Carol Burnett sketch. Not good for a comedy running an hour and a half.

Too bad. I hate to see a talented cast go to waste.