Les Jeunes

Cliff Richard stars in The Young Ones, or Wonderful to be Young, from 1961, also starring Robert Morley, Carole Gray, and The Shadows.

This is a typical teenage movie with the "Hey, kids, let's put on a show" theme. The kids in this case are British, and their club is being closed due to the sale of the building for a high-rise. What no one knows is the developer, Hamilton Black (Robert Morley) is none other than the father of Nicky (Cliff Richard). Nicky, of course, works on behalf of his cronies but his back always goes out when they have to meet with the old man.

There's a renewal clause in the master lease, but Black is a good chess player - they can renew, but it's going to cost them 1500 pounds, a princely sum, up front. The kids decide to raise the money by putting on a show.

Like "Summer Holiday," "The Young Ones" is an exuberant, tuneful teen movie, with lots of singing and dancing. Richard doesn't force his acting - he says his lines in a natural manner, and his looks and charm do the rest. His early inspiration was Elvis, and some of his singing is definitely Elvis-like. But it's a different voice and persona -- he's a very smooth singer and his boyish handsomeness, unlike Elvis', is very nonthreatening. I can't imagine anyone breaking his records or coming out against him in a pulpit.

This is a very fun film. One can't help being impressed by Richard's longevity - 55 years later, he still looks great, he's still singing, and he's a Sir. He's almost Elvis-lite, a pop icon without the demons that caused us to lose Elvis all too soon.

Sir Cliff Richard was then England 's biggest star ,and the thing George Martin had in mind was to surpass his success,which meant a lot! It's 1961 ,still in the pre- Beatles days ,but girls (see the scene in the theater) already scream when the "mystery " singer appears on stage.

Nicky is a millionaire's son but he does not want to let the cat out of the bag ,for fear he may lose all his good pals (only his girlfriend knows);and,you would never believe it, daddy wants to destroy the youth club to build big buildings;and he is so wealthy he can buy everything ,"lock,stock and barrel " to be precise .

Blackman Sr is played by highly talented Robert Morley,who makes his character nicer than ,say ,Uncle Scroodge ( both Dicken's and Barks/Disney's)

Richard ,21,is good-looking ,and there's a good chemistry with Morley (who could easily have stolen most of the scenes he is in);his ballads are tuneful and pleasant ,particularly the title track;he is less at ease with pure rock and roll :Elvis Presley,he is definitely not.The talented Shadows have an instrumental and ,with hindsight,can be considered influential in the future of rock,which is not really the case with their singer.

Too bad the movie tries so hard to emulate the American musicals in an interminable sequence ;the best scenes ,from that point of view,are to be found in the youth club :the scene in which a deadpan Sir Cliff dances with the "star" is worth the price of admission;the illegal TV advertisement is also a good moment.

This is delightfully old -fashioned stuff,which retains a certain pristine charm.

This movie was made when this was what people were watching. Full of fun young people doing fun things. I love looking at the fashion and t he dancing. Cliff Richard was so cute back in the early days. The ketches on the stage are cute and there is enough of a plot to make it more than just another movie to star a famous band. Yes the shadows are awesome but they only add to it not steal they show. As for predictable...so what! Most movies today are predicable in some way. So don't let anyone sway you from not experiencing this movie, make you own opinion. Enjoy the movie for what it is and don't over examine it. The Young Ones was one of my faves when I was a teenager and still is today.

This is the kind of movie to spend your fee on when you were a British teenager in the early sixties. But there is hardly a story, and what there is is very predictable. The movie has two strong moments however: the first 10 minutes are really an example of how a musical can start at full-speed, and the part where Cliff Richard sings the title song, strolling along "the serpentine" in Hyde Park, London, with the lovely Carole Gray aside him. A little bit of a cult movie, and a very weak brother of West side story. But it has its place in history and millions have enjoyed it. Cliff's fans probably still do.

I watched this film not long after it was released and even then it felt cheesy and dated! The thing that screams out after recently watching it again, was that sadly Cliff was no actor and was a limited dancer. The flimsy storyline and the wooden acting makes it very much a 'B' film. The dialogue is all a bit too 'sugary' and 'golly gosh' let's put on a show and damn the consequences.' I remember seeing a similar but much older film, 'Strike up the Band,' with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Its in the same type of genre but 'The Young Ones,' lack the sparkle and energy of a Garland and Rooney! 'The Young Ones' tries too hard to to project the younger characters as innocents, who are out to to prove that the adults, like Robert Morley are 'fuddy duddies' - but all they simply achieve is to show how clueless and naive they really are. It would have been far better to have dispensed with Melvyn Hayes and Cliff's other unfunny sidekicks, and allowed the 'Shadows' to have had real speaking parts where Cliff could have played off the characters like Jet Harris and Hank Marvin, musicians he knew so well. As it was, Cliff gives a feeble, limp and lack lustre performance, and with corny gags and the contrived storyline, it all makes for a tedious experience.