Rock Around the Clock

Band leader Steve Hollis sees the end of the big band era. He decides to head off to New York and bassist Corny LaSalle joins him. Along the way, they encounter young kids heading to a Saturday night dance. Steve is intrigued and finds them dancing to the new Rock N Roll with Bill Haley & His Comets. He signs up the band and dancer Lisa Johns. He sweet talks high powered agent Corinne Talbot but she rejects the new sound for personal reasons.

This is one of the first Rock N Roll films. It's the start of a new subgenre. Certainly, this is dated to some extend especially the dialogue. The premise is simplistic. It turns into a woman scorned story. One can't expect it to be ground breaking in every way. It's enough to have The Platters perform on the same stage as other non-black performers. It's good enough to be good enough. The music is great and iconic performed by the real bands. Everything else is filler and they are functional in that light. It's a solid start of this sub-genre and a great slice of music history.

Though it wasn't the first film to mention "rock and roll," this is known as the "first real rock film" and it's a mixed bag. Basically it's a vehicle for rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley and his band, The Comets. In the very thin story, two square music managers realize that their old type of traditional dance music is dying out in favor of the latest "rock 'n' roll" fad. When they see Haley and the Comets perform their classic "See You Later Alligator" at a small town dance and witness all the kids dancing up a storm, they decide to try and get this group to play full-time and make it big. The film's not very interesting when it veers away from the music, but along the way we get several more Bill Haley songs (the famous title hit itself, plus "Razzle Dazzle," "Rock Rock Rock" and others), and we're also treated to The Bellboys. But the main attraction is easily The Platters, who expertly perform two of their big hits - "Only You" and "The Great Pretender". The latter is so fabulous it sends chills up the spine. **1/2 out of ****

It ain't great cinema, folks, but it IS fun. It's also a great reminder of the roots of rock- and-roll (old-fashioned hyphenated spelling intentional), and how far that musical genre has developed in the last (choke) 50 years.

I was only 9 when this film was released, and had never seen it until today (thanks, Turner Classics). Bill Hailey was certainly no Eric Clapton on the guitar, but was definitely a showman...in what would now be considered a cornball sort of way. The whole film is a good display of the fact that choreographing singers' movements didn't start with Madonnna. It also shows modern viewers that the Platters could REALLY sing!

Another thing I really enjoyed was the dancing in this movie. Lisa Gaye and Earl Barton could move! About an hour and 15 minutes into the film (which is only about 1:20 long) there's a number which shows them off well, during which they're joined by a couple of dozen other excellent dancers. It's a fun way to end the film.

Promoter Steve Hollis (Johnny Johnston) is looking for a new act for teenage audiences. He comes upon Bill Haley and the Comets playing in a small town. They drive the teenagers wild and feature a brother/sister team (Earl Barton/Lisa Gaye) who do some incredible dancing to the music. He signs them up and immediately falls in love with Gaye (and vice versa). However the evil Miss Talbot (Alix Talton) loves Hollis herself. He spurns her so she sets out to to make sure that Haley, the Comets, Gaye and Barton can't get a job.

Really silly stuff with lousy dialogue chockful of 50s slang that just sounds ridiculous now. Everybody is so polite and nice to each other--even the "evil" schemes of Talbot are pretty mild. Also Johnston and Gaye fall in love in seconds! It's pretty creepy though--Johnston is easily old enough to be her father! None of this matters though. This shows Bill Hlaey and the Comets and the Platters performing and that alone makes this a valuable time capsule of the 1950s when rock and roll was starting to get popular. The groups ARE lip syncing to their songs (and pretty badly in the case of The Platters) but still... When the Platters sang "Only You" and "The Great pretender" this movie is just magic. The acting is pretty terrible (Bill Haley especially) but the songs are good, the movie is short and the dance routines between Barton and Gaye are really pretty impressive. Hard to believe that this was banned in some cities in the US when it first came out. In other cases some theatre owners told the projectionist to cut the sound when the music numbers came on! Check out the ending which says "The Living End"! Harmless and kind of fun. I give it a 6.

If you cruise by this one while channel surfing, your first instinct might be that this a B-grade science fiction movie. The acting and the script are more wooden than the furniture, but stick with it -- it's a vintage rock and roll gas.

Ignore the corny, predictable plot. Stick with the music of the Comets and the Platters. This music is timeless rock and roll.