The Cool Ones

The Cool Ones is about a pair of singers, Gil Peterson and Debbie Watson who are looking for different things from the music business. Peterson is an already passe rock and roll idol and Watson is a young hopeful. Some elements of A Star Is Born are present as you see.

An egotistical promoter Roddy McDowall gets a hold of them and decides to team them. McDowall's own manipulation cause the road to success and romance to be a bit bumpier than normal.

But McDowall gives a Whiz Bang performance and the goal for both is a debut as a duo on the rock and roll variety show Whiz Bang. Back in the 60s there were such shows as Shindig, Hullabaloo, and Where The Action Is on TV. The culture changed after Woodstock.

Some original rock and roll numbers are about half the soundtrack. But it also includes such standards like Cole Porter's Just One Of Those Things and What Is This Thing Called Love? are there too done in rock and roll style. What Cole Porter might have thought of it we won't know without a seance. But I'm of the opinion that any exposure to Cole Porter is good.

Peterson and Watson are an attractive couple and such other Hollywood veterans like Phil Harris, Robert Coote, Nita Talbot and Phil Arnold give good support. But this is Roddy McDowall's picture like no other.

"The Cool Ones" is definitely a second-string musical but it's more entertaining than many of the A-list musicals of the decade and doesn't deserve the obscurity to which it's consigned. It's well-paced, with lots of song and dance numbers, directed by Gene Nelson, who has a great feel for these elements. The real standout in this film is Gil Peterson who greatly resembles Grant Williams. He has enough charisma and talent to pull the whole thing together with a convincing performance and wonderful vocals. If his songs were dubbed, it is incredible how synchronized they were and how appropriately they matched his speaking voice. It's a mystery why this talented, handsome and energetic performer didn't achieve a more successful career.

Unfortunately there is far too much screen time and energy devoted to Roddy McDowall's annoying and overly fey portrayal of the promoter. Could this be an earlier incarnation of Simon Cowell?

This is a great movie - yes it is a bad movie, but it is great. A stellar cast, a great score and wonderful location shots all over Los Angeles and Palm Springs, circa 1966. Any movie that boasts a musical dance number in the Palm Springs Tramway can't be all bad.

The cast: Debbie Watson and Gil Peterson are perfect. Don't know where they came from, except that Debbie had her own TV series briefly, "Karen". And Gil has a great bod! Roddy McDowell - great as always. Phil Harris is wonderful. Nita Talbot all but steals the show as Roddy's Girl Friday. I mean, this woman is fierce! She shamelessly tries to steal every scene she is in - and does too. She should have been used much more in films. And you even get Terri Garr as one of the dancers. And I didn't even mention Mrs. Miller. This must be her only big screen appearance, so that alone is worth the price of admission.

The plot is a little hackneyed, but who cares. The original songs by Lee Hazelwood are fantastic. Hey, both Frank and Nancy covered "This Town" on their albums. As a spoof of the Hullaballo-type dance programs of the era as well as Roddys apeing of Phil Spector - this movie does try to say something. But that is not what it is about - it is just plain fun!!!

If you get the chance to watch this movie-just relax and enjoy-don't have to think hard here-just good clean fun! As you can see I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

I enjoyed this hilariously uncool attempt to be cool. I was left with the impression that the actors knew this was bad and decided to have as much fun as possible with it. I think I've also developed a crush on Nita Talbot.

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 ****