Finders Keepers

You get what you expect to get with this film, Cliff and The Shadows, and a bevy of beauties for them to hook up with, bursting into song and dance at regular intervals.

Nicely shot in glorious colour although none of the tunes stick in the mind for long after being heard. The musical, or should that be alleged musical, that I reviewed before this was "La La Land" and this film is vastly superior to that mess of a film.

An enjoyable romp with the boys in nice scenery and for this type of film the plot is not too silly. A worthwhile watch from days sadly long gone by, just a bit of innocent fun which has not existed in films for some time now.

Cliff Movies (like any pop star's big screen cash-ins) aren't cinematic highlights. They're not meant to be. But they can be a bit of fun. This one has an older Cliff, slightly more mature story, and all the best Songs. Summer Holiday's the "classic" but here you will find Time Drags By, Oh Seniorita, This Day, and Pealla, amongst others.

Big international pop star and his backing band forgoes the fast travel jet life and concert halls in favour of hitchhiking and backroom bars. (Can you imagine Coldplay touring the US in a VW Camper and playing only village halls!?!)

US Plane accidentally drops bomb near backwater town that is supposed to be big star Cliffs next appearance. This sets the back drop for some classic sing song.

I can't bear to give Cliff Richard less than a 6 - I refuse.

"Finders Keepers" from 1966 is another film for Cliff's fans. He and the Shadows, playing themselves, go to a job and find the hotel deserted. An atom bomb has been dropped by mistake into the ocean and until it's found, no tourists, no fishing, no nothing. At the hotel there are spies and agents who want to find the bomb for their own purposes.

You want to talk about a bare bones plot, there it is. Cliff Richard is absolutely adorable. Over here in the States, we were all very busy with Beatlemania and the rest of the British invasion - for some reason, Cliff never caught on over here, though he was certainly popular everywhere else. Just one of those odd things - possibly the press claiming he was the British Elvis is what did it, as we had the original.

Richard is nothing like Elvis, of course. Too clean-cut, boyish, and wholesome, and though he could take on an Elvis style, his actual style was smooth and bright. No one just filmed him from the waist up, broke his records, or talked against him in church pulpits.

Here he and the Shadows perform with lots of energy, though the songs maybe aren't great. And they do stupid antics that the kids probably got a kick out of.

It's nowhere near as good as "A Hard Day's Night," and probably this film is best compared to one of Elvis' travelogues - beautiful scenery, some music, a cute guy and pretty women.

Richard just tried to be himself in these films, and that was more than enough. I think Presley deserved better films - he was more sexual and more intense. But for Cliff and the Shadows, while not as good as earlier films, this is a pleasant watch.

Yes, the plot is so thin you could floss your teeth with it. Yes, the pop idols can't act and the songs aren't the best. But if you accept the fact that this is a silly movie from the silliest decade of all, you'll waste an enjoyable 90 minutes on this film. Especially if you're a fan of Cliff Richard, the Shadows, and/or spy spoofs. Come on, who wouldn't want to see the boys gallavanting around a Spanish fiesta disguised (for no good reason) as a roving guitar troupe?

Last and least of Cliff Richard's trio of travelogues, it's actually of far greater interest as writer Michael Pertwee's second satire on the arms race of the sixties (the first being 'The Mouse on the Moon').

The same subject of a lost nuclear bomb was dealt with again the next year in the far more pretentious but much sillier 'The Day the Fish Came Out'.