The Cool Ones

You hear that "The Cool Ones" is "The groovy movie with the hip hit tunes" (an official tagline), so you want to dig the scene, right? Not really. The scene is a confusing mixture of pop cultural references as written by a committee of older businessmen. If you were not around in 1967, when the movie was released, you will probably have difficulty knowing what references really were "cool" in 1967 and which were manufactured, or warmed over fare from years before. If you were around in 1967, the movie is somewhat fun--despite being bad--to pick apart and reminisce about.

In my opinion, this film is a musical. Musical numbers are staged in the middle of scenes, and the characters break out in song when not on a stage. Trying to create a teen movie musical is a bold undertaking, but this is no "Bye Bye Birdie". It features a young go-go dancer(Debbie Watson playing Hallie Rogers) and a former singing idol (Gil Peterson playing Cliff Donner) who meet in a supposedly hip club called "Stan's Cellar" and are persuaded by a young pop music guru (Roddy McDowall) to combine forces to capture the imagination of gullible teen fans. They even create what they hope will be a new dance craze: The Tantrum.

Donner is supposed to be a jaded singer who once had screaming fans. He performs in the "Cellar" with a group called The Leaves. Some of the numbers performed by musical groups in this film are not bad and are authentic to the theme of the movie. But Donner is often stuck singing old tunes that are arranged in a (not so) cool way: "What is This Thing Called Love", "Secret Love", and--incredibly--"The Birth of the Blues". There is one scene where Glen Campbell sings "Just One of Those Things". Not cool. No teen with an edgy persona in 1967 would be embracing those gems. This is three years after the Beatles conquered America!

Surprisingly, the choreography is often of good quality and on a par with other musicals.

Things to look for, even if some seem out of place in a movie about "cool ones":

*The Petula Clark poster on the wall.

*The dance performed to music reminiscent of "The Hand Jive".

*The kids snapping their fingers like the cast of "West Side Story"--cool man!

*The red Mustang. Now that was a cool car!

*The mod look--the colorful London-based chic that some of the kids dress in.

*Small smatterings of psychedelia.

*The "dirty old man" who looks all of 27.

*The "draft board" reference.

*The unexpected occasional lapses into slapstick.

*The laughable computer reference. The public had so little knowledge of computers that anything will flashing lights and beeping sounds could pass. And they often performed feats that are nothing short of mystical.

*Actor Phil Harris who seems to be playing the part of "obligatory adult whose purpose is to thwart the coolness of teens".

*Actress Nita Talbot, who plays Dee Dee Howitzer and somehow manages to have screen presence despite a limited role.

*The proposal scene in the back of a bus. One might be reminded of the iconic back-of-the-bus scene in "The Graduate", also released in 1967.

This is no time capsule of 1967 in particular, but as a reminder of many disparate cultural references from the previous decade or more, it could be a fun watch.

Blonde, impossibly handsome Gil Peterson was one of the stars of "The Cool Ones" (1967), a wacky teen movie that poked fun at the music industry and spoofed TV shows like "Hullabaloo" and "Shindig". Peterson, who plays a washed up singing idol in the film, actually began his own career as a singer. Born and raised in Winona, Mississippi, Gil was an outstanding high school athlete who lettered in four different varsity sports. He was voted Best All Around Athlete, Most Valuable Football Player and received the Winona Sportsmanship Award. After graduation, Gil accepted a football scholarship to Mississippi State University and became star halfback for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. It was during Gil's college days that he started singing professionally. Each summer, he would tour the nightclub circuit in the deep South, doing floor shows and working with combos. Gil has said that one of his most enjoyable experiences was working one summer with a modern vocal-instrumental quintet composed of himself and four other college students. Come fall , he would find himself back on the gridiron, but he'd gotten enough of the show biz lifestyle to decide upon it as his future career. After college, Gil headed straight for Hollywood to give it his best shot. He got some bit parts on TV and made guest appearances in night clubs around the Hollywood and Los Angeles area. His singing gigs were impressive enough that Gil was tapped by Ace Label to record his first LP album, "Gil Peterson Sings Our Last Goodbye" (LP1024).

Then came Gil's big break. He was plucked from relative obscurity and given what amounted to the starring role in "The Cool Ones". Roddy McDowell may be first billed, but his thinly disguised take-off on Phil Spector is more a supporting character. Even the tag line for the film reads: "It's the story of Cliff Donner (Peterson)….a teen-age singing idol who had it all….lost it…..and had to find it all over again".

"The Cool Ones" was originally developed as a showcase for Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood to capitalize on their recording success as a duo. Nancy even pre-recorded some songs, two of which are used in the film, before backing out of the project. Her instincts were right. For every bright, zany scene that would inspire future films like Tom Hank's "That Thing You Do!" (1996), there were awkward, embarrassing ones, and the end result is a mixed bag at best. The movie bombed big time at the box office. The era of the lightweight beach party movies was over, and a new wave of edgy, psychedelic films about hippies, LSD and motorcycle gangs was emerging. It didn't help Gil Peterson that he looked more like a member of The Four Freshman than the Grateful Dead. Reviewers were harsh and merciless, and Peterson was dismissed as the living, breathing prototype for the Ken doll.

After "The Cool Ones" flopped at the box office, Peterson essentially dropped out of sight and has become something of an enigma. He showed up every so often on television, but in small, bit parts. He did make two other movies, a very low-budget independent feature entitled "The Brain Machine" (1977) and, intriguingly, a Japanese film shot in New Caledonia, "The Island Closest to Heaven" (1984). It is known that he became a high school teacher and taught at Hollywood High in the 70's. I personally saw him around this time in a little theater play in Hollywood. I was stunned because I immediately recognized him from "The Cool Ones". I wanted to go backstage afterwards and talk to him about his career, but the actress I was with said he'd think I was making fun of him. The play wasn't very good, but Gil Peterson was. It was just a two-character play and the other actor's name, I think, was Frank Stell and he had some buzz going at the time, but Peterson was the better actor. Regrettably, I never went backstage, but saw the play again a second time, alone. A young actor myself back then, I was completely baffled that someone who had "absolute movie star" written all over him, hadn't made it big after "The Cool Ones", and was doing some dumb little showcase still trying to get noticed like the rest of us wannabes. It gave me some pause then, because he really was such movie star material, and it's still curious today that he had no substantial career after the film. Perhaps like Cliff Donner, the character he played in "The Cool Ones", Gil's brief brush with celebrity left him with a feeling of contempt for the business. "The Cool Ones" continues to attract new audiences today despite no official DVD release. IMDb Users are still commenting on it. You Tube is still playing video clips of it. The one consistent comment seems to be from older women who saw the film when they were young and have never forgotten Gil Peterson's remarkable, impossibly handsome, blonde Ken doll looks.

Jay/James McKenna best role, Policewoman "Merry Christmas, Waldo"

As a fan of 60s pop culture, I wanted to like this movie. Sadly, this wasted opportunity of a film feels like a rejected script for a proposed Elvis/Beach Party movie. (The director did two Elvis vehicles prior to this.) The muddled, meandering screenplay is by a failed, one-time writer and a studio hack who penned "Ski Party" and both "Dr. Goldfoot" flicks. This film doesn't know what it wants to be. It's a little of this, a bit of that, and a whole lot of bland filler in between. At least we have some pretty people, including a young Teri Garr, in colorful mod outfits doing Toni Basil dance numbers now and then.

The promising opener is a take-off on pop music programs like Hullabaloo and Shindig. A cute blonde go-go dancer (Debbie Watson) yearns to be the next Nancy Sinatra (supposedly, Sinatra passed on the lead role but her singing is heard in some songs). Enter scene-chewing Roddy McDowall. He has a few amusing scenes as wildly eccentric music producer Tony Krum -- a likely parody of legendary whack-job Phil Spector. His fawning assistant, played by the wonderful, sadly neglected Nita Talbot, almost steals the film in her one big seduction scene with lunkhead Gil Peterson. She has comic timing and a sophisticated sex appeal that blows everyone else off the screen. Debbie Watson is fine, but she's one of those generic, wholesome starlets who -- like Deborah Walley, Susan Hart, Pat Priest, Chris Noel, et al. -- provided charming eye-candy in countless '60s comedy/musicals but left no lasting impression.

After McDowall's grand entrance, the film almost becomes a zany spoof of absurd pop-music fads and instant stardom. But this only lasts about five minutes. The gutless, aimless script has nothing more to say about the music business and shifts to the sappy romance between Watson and human Ken doll Gil Peterson. They meet cute and cavort about, performing several song-and-dance numbers for the rest of the near-plot less story. Then it just abruptly ends due to a lack of ideas. Or maybe they ran out of film stock. No tension, no drama, no witty parody, and no resolution to speak of.

The hackneyed romance, cornball dialog, and groan-inducing attempts at humor are, as said before, on par with a Beach Party flick or a standard Elvis musical. (Bit players Talbot, Garr, and Angelique Pettyjohn all did Elvis films, by the way.) There's a couple decent rock songs with twangy, Byrds-like guitar riffs and some vocals by Nancy Sinatra. Also surprising to see a segment playing "This Town" while Watson wanders about in her trendy vinyl cap. Sinatra did a near-identical music video for this song in her "Movin' with Nancy" TV special that same year.

Recommendation: The only entertainment value is for lovers of campy 60s fashions. The mod outfits, mostly Mary Quant-style knock-offs, already seem a bit dated for 1967. The Palm Springs dance number that begins in a tram-car and continues on a mountaintop is great fun (and shows off Teri Garr). McDowall and Talbot elevate the weak material they're given. If the film had focused on them and the music industry this could have been a decent comedy instead of a watered-down, girl-meets-boy musical. If you like this genre, you'd be better off watching "Speedway" (with Elvis and Sinatra) or "Movin' with Nancy".

Would-be pop singer Debbie Watson inadvertently creates a dance craze on television, quickly dubbed "The Tantrum"; she pairs up with a has-been rock-and-roll star to form a new act that's sure to wow the teenagers! Gene Nelson directed this instantly-dated piece of overripe nostalgia from writer Joyce Geller, whose pale script was also worked on by Robert Kaufman and by Nelson. Eternally-girlish Watson and Gil Peterson (outfitted like a Ken doll) are a laughably tone-deaf pair. If you can believe them as teen-sensations, you may buy Roddy McDowall as a superstar music producer who has his own jet, sits on a purple throne, and has a lackey pick the dirt off his boots. The most bizarre aspect of the movie may be the depiction of young adults acting as direct copies of their own grandparents: they dance and sing, but what they're really pining for is love and the institution of marriage. ** from ****

Despite the title, there are other aspects of this movie that got me interested in it. One main reason the movie didn't do so well at the box office was because they were making a 1965 movie in 1967. By the time this movie was released, The Beatles had finished doing official concerts in under a year, the hippies were beginning to organize the "Summer of Love" in San Francisco, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" had pushed sleaze into Oscar territory, and "The Graduate" did more to speak for the kids than any leftover wannabe beach party movie.

Cliff Donner (Gil Peterson) was an early '60's swinging sixties pop singer whose career went into the toilet when some managers suggest he performs some old 1940's music. Think Ricky Nelson going Bing Crosby, and you'll get the idea. Years later Cliff is driving to Palm Springs and stops at a night club owned by Stanley Krumley (Robert Coote), a man he knew from England who ran a club there, and talks him into singing along with The Leaves.

Would-be pop singer Hallie Rodgers (played by the uber-cute Debbie Watson), is struggling to make it big in the music business but has to settle for being a go-go dancer on "Whiz-Bam," an obvious imitation of "Hullaballoo." Frustrated with having the powers that be stall her career, she breaks out of her cage and has an unauthorized duet with the lead signer of Patrick and the East Enders (played by Glen Campbell). The producers are pissed at her, but the kids dig it, and the Whiz-Bam dancers noticed this. Even Patrick notices it, and when a stagehand insults their audience, and the girl is fired, both the Whiz-Bam dancers and the band threaten them "West Side Story-"style (I wish I were kidding!).

Though despondent over being fired, some of her fellow Whiz-Bammers take her to that bar in Palm Springs where Cliff and The Leaves are performing. Suddenly, a guy in his late-20's who looks a lot like Iggy Pop (No, really!) decides he wants to put the moves on her, and he won't take no for an answer. The commotion this guy causes stops the show, Cliff comes to the rescue and throws everybody out, until he recognizes her from the show. He decides he wants get her foot in the door with the dance that everyone on in the audience was doing which he dubbed "The Tantrum." However she wants him to make a comeback in return for his promotion of her.

Then there this whole elaborate number where Gil, Debbie and the Whiz-Bam dancers perform the song "High" in the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Leave it to a non-Californian such as myself to be flabergasted over the fact that such a transit system can exist in Southern California, and with a ski lodge too. After it's all over, Krumley tells them that he's about to give the two of them a big break through his brother Tony Krum, a wannabe Phil Spector played by Roddy McDowall. Naturally as expected from these movies, the two fall in love, but Tony Krum wants to be the one who decides when and how they do so. This creates a major kink in their relationship, but Krum doesn't care, and Donner sees what's going on, and poor Miss Rodgers wants to keep both her man and her career. He even goes so far into getting Gil to get involved in a demoltion derby as part of his promotion. One might think this might be more of an attempt to capitalize on movies such as "Fireball 500."

So who else among the dancers are in this movie besides the lovely Ms. Garr? Well, you have a short guy with a goatee, a guy who looks like Howdy-Doody, another guy with a Peter Tork haircut, an Asian-American woman, one token black guy, some other blondes, including one with roots, and a lot of other extras. Sadly I don't recognize them all, although I've heard some names of a few of those people, so maybe I should.

There's a line from the docudrama on the making of "Sweet Sweetback's Badassssss Song" where Mario Van Peebles (playing his father) claimed that in the late-1960's the times were changing, and Hollywood wasn't. Actually there were movies that reflected what was going on (or what people thought was going on), and how people felt about it, and even if this wasn't one of them, it was still farily enjoyable. Let's be honest though; this movie is not only not cool, it's corny, and doesn't know it's corny, unlike, say for instance, "Enchanted." Incidentally, Garr's career started to take off after this movie when she went from being a nobody dancer to roles in a certain episode of "Star Trek," and the 1968 Monkees movie "Head," and the rest is history. So a little art imitating life gives this movie a couple of extra points.