Daddy-O

Like a bad scene, daddy...Like every scenes a bad scene in this one. The beat is drummin' but like the vibe don't jive,dig?? ---Anyways this one is a fun bad movie to watch. I saw it a friend's place and though it is painfully bad it's also very funny....Like this cats way old, man for the teen scene, guess that's why they call him "Daddy-O".--- Check it out if you're lookin' for a middle-aged teenager movie.

Oh, Lordie, is this a wonderful movie. The only JD movie that compares is High School Confidential. You'll watch it again and again, consumed with envy at Dick Contino's sheer studliness and convulsed in laughter at some of the worst continuity in modern history.

Hot rods! Well, a T-Bird and a TR-3. Hot sex! Well, more naked Bruno VeSota than is probably good for you to see. Steamy dialogue! Well, "Want some?" was pretty hot in 1959. Juvie crime! Well, Dick Contino was no more a teenager than he was a Soviet cosmonaut, but he WAS running dope for Big Bruno.

And it DOES feature Bruce, the gym rat. Watch this movie, ponder this movie, and remind yourself that someone, the actor, the director, the writer, SOMEONE had to invent the incredible bundle of character twitches that is Bruce.

Daddy-O Notes: Dick Contino is alive, well, still studly in his early seventies, and the living master of the show accordion. You can buy current Dick Contino CD's and promotional merchandise, you can see him live in person. According to one interview, Dick is famous for, and I quote, "humping" his accordion as he plays. Oh, that I should live so long. Does he still hike, hike, hike hike his pants up?

Jack McClure, who played Bruce, was also in "Friendly Persuasion." At one point the poor deluded fellow might actually have thought he had a career going.

When the movie came out, my little brother and I, absolutely forbidden to see this or any other immoral movies about juvies and their chicks, were enthralled by the ads that ran constantly on the radio. One featured a woman's voice shouting, "Daddy-O! Look out BEHIND you!" and a stock sound clip of a skidding car's squealing tires. When MST beat up on Daddy-O I taped it (naturally) and watched it over and over - kids, that line is NOT in their version. Is there a "long" version, a la Wicker Man? A director's cut?

Ghod, when it comes to sheer entertainment value, they just don't make 'em like this any more. All this movie lacks is beatniks, a polar bear on a tricycle, and a coupon for free beer.

This film is extremely dated. It's a typical youth-gone-amok movie that populated drive-ins in the 1950's. Dick Contino, he of the big pecs and mediocre singing voice, does the best he can to save this film. however, it's not enough. Sandra Giles, who played Jana, was definitely chosen for her large chest and blonde locks, and not her acting ability. The guy with the coke-bottle thick glasses really was an offensive stereotype. The main problem is that Daddy-O's character really doesn't give you a lot to like him; the heroine Jana gives you even less to like her.

Avoid this one unless you're watching the MST3K version. "got to keep your pants up!"

Truck driver, singer and high trouser enthusiast Daddy-o is a real hip cat. He hangs out at a pizza parlour where he acts moody, sings deep songs like rock candy and dances aggressively with women while repeatedly pointing out to them that if they weren't a woman he would punch them, right in the face. Because their driving is substandard.

While Daddy-o is racing against a pointy breasted stranger his best friend gets run off the road and killed. How close were they? Some people have brothers, daddy-o had this guy. That's how close these two were, though they are only seen to exchange five lines of dialog in the entire movie.

Naturally Daddy-o isn't best pleased and after a run in with a myopic gym manager he drifts into some shady business delivering dope for a fat man who inexplicably spends all his time in the gym. Maybe he isn't getting any thinner because the gym doesn't have any actual gym equipment that I could see.

There are two reasons that I can think of to watch this movie, hence the two star rating. The first is that the songs are just so crap they have to be heard to be believed, most of them just have the same line repeated endlessly like Rock Candy which goes "rock candy, rock, rock, rock candy, rock, rock candy." (repeat 50 times).

The other reason for tuning in to this highly dated yarn is the way the script can't decide if Daddy-o is a mean moody type or a fun loving hipster liable to burst into song at any moment. It probably doesn't help that the teenage rebel looks about 40 either.

Pretty funny, pretty awful too though.

This is a fun movie. It's bad enough to laugh at but not so incomprehensible as to be completely frustrated by it. Contino is a hoot as the lead and VeSota is actually pretty decent. A staple of Corman films, VeSota is not really a terrible actor, just is laden down with flat, character roles. The Guy who runs the gym though, Bruce, is just so GOOFY that it defies belief. It seems his permanent expression is to squint through thick glasses with a gawking mouth.

Has a pretty bad soundtrack too, filled with Contino songs. The rest of the score was done by John Williams. Yes, THAT John Williams, the same who did Jaws, ET, and Star Wars.