CAPE CORAL – So many movies have been filmed in Florida. One oddball comedy is The Fat Spy, a comedy starring Phylis Diller.
It not only functioned as a movie but a promotion for the then growing Southwest Florida city of Cape Coral.
A bit about the comedy:
Off the coast of Florida, a nearly-deserted island is rumored to have the fountain of youth. A boatload of teenage kids are headed there for a scavenger hunt. Wellington, the island’s wealthy owner, is none too happy about that, so he dispatches his daughter, Junior, to get rid of them. She’s happy to go because her sweetie, Irving, is the island’s only resident.
The movie starred Phyllis Diller and Jayne Mansfield, and was a production of Marshall Naify and Joseph Cates. It was meant to be a sort of parody of beach movies, but have the sort of wacky caper kind of feel that so many other Sixties movies had.
It was filmed in Cape Coral, which was then in development and still a quiet place at the time. Some really good boats and scenes of the beach around Lee County.
Below, a Youtube of clips of the movie. Comments and history about the filming invited below.
