Shake, Rattle & Rock!

Well, I bought the DVD so I have to say that I like it. Solely because it's got Big Joe Turner in it along with Fats Domino. They're miming to what appear to be new versions of some of their own tracks. Just watching Big Joe "singing" is enough to get my vote. They're so little of him in his prime that I'm really grateful for anything I can get. Has an amusing call and response section with the young white teenage audience. And then he "appears" on TV. Fats Domino is his usual impeccable self. The plot and acting is all very silly but worth it for the brief performances. Has Margaret Dumont in as well with a wimpish husband although "the worm turns" by the end.

The premise of this film seems to have been inspired by the trials of real-life DJ Alan Freed and his attempts to bring Rock 'n' Roll to the mainstream despite protests by many of the older generation. Mike "Touch" Connors plays the role based on him and the opposition consists of Douglass Dumbrille and Margaret Dumont-both veterans of Marx Brothers movies. They, along with Sterling Holloway and other familiar character actors, provide some comic counterpoint in the proceedings. Fine musical performances by Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner, Tommy Charles, and Annitta Ray. Director Edward L. Cahn helms a zippy 75-mimute B-feature to its natural end, which wasn't surprising to me since I knew he made some good-and not so good-Our Gang shorts at M-G-M during its latter stage in the '40s. Oh, and the leading lady is Lisa Gaye who I remember being in Rock Around the Clock from a few years previous. So on that note, Shake, Rattle, and Rock! is worth a look for anyone interested in both the vintage musical performances and the amusing character turns throughout. P.S. Since I always like to cite players from my home state of Louisiana, here it's Fate Domino from New Orleans.

Before he was "Mannix" Mike Conners was billed as 'Touch' Conners and did this little 50s exploitation flick, that he would probably love to forget. It's the old saw about the older generation trying to put a halt to R&R, and the kids proving that it is just good, clean fun, as the jitterbug, black-bottom, etc. Somehow Sterling Hollaway (Waldo from "The Life of Riley") just doesn't measure up as the jive talking, smooth hipster, done so well in the 50s by Edd (Kookie) Byrnes. Fats and a few other groups that have since passed into obscurity perform some prehistoric tunes and the acting is sophomoric at best. A good one to watch-only if you are in the midst of a tremendous battle with your significant other or suffering a severe tooth-ache.

The early omens on this one weren't good; American International generally made lousy movies aimed mostly at the drive-in audience (and this was only their third year in operation), the director was Edward L. Cahn and the writer was Lou Rusoff, who was usually associated with American International's rather silly horror movies. Surprise! "Shake, Rattle and Rock" turned out to be a little gem, with two of the all-time greats of rhythm and blues, singer Joe Turner and singer-pianist-composer Antoine "Fats" Domino, and a plot that was genuinely entertaining in and of itself and wasn't just a way to mark time between the musical numbers. While other 1950's rock movies occasionally touched on the controversies over rock and the determination of some moralists to shut it down, Lou Rusoff decided to make the controversies the focal point of his film. It opens in the studio of a local TV station, where Garry Nelson (Touch Conners, the young, personable actor who later became a surprisingly credible private detective on the long-running CBS-TV series Mannix) is hosting a rock 'n' roll TV show with a group of teenage kids he's been able to pull off the streets and away from a life of crime by harnessing the righteous power of this music to lure them into wholesome recreation. Right now in the (unnamed) city where the film takes place he's built 78 rock 'n' roll clubs and got the young people in them interested in raising money for "safe" social causes. His latest project is to take over an abandoned building and turn it into a teen center.

But he's run afoul of self-appointed moralists Eustace Fentwick III (Douglass Dumbrille) and Georgianna Fitzdingle (the marvelous Margaret Dumont — so two supporting players in this film have Marx Brothers connections!), who organize a group with a tongue-twisting name to fight back against rock 'n' roll by organizing petitions and letter-writing campaigns to get the TV station to take Nelson's show off the air. He's also run afoul of gangsters Bugsy Smith (Paul Duboy, proving that they didn't break the mold after they made Sheldon Leonard) and his comic-relief sidekick Nick (Eddie Kafafian), who are upset that Nelson's rock 'n' roll clubs have turned potential hoodlums towards more constructive pursuits and thereby deprived Bugsy's gang of its biggest pool of young talent. Of course, Nelson has his own comic-relief sidekick, Albert "Axe" McAllister (Sterling Holloway, whom writer Rusoff and director Cahn try to pass off as a teenager even though he was already making movies in the early 1930's, before any authentic teenager alive in 1956 was even born!).

Fats Domino does two of his biggest hits, "Ain't That a Shame" and "I'm in Love Again," as well as "Honey Chile" (a song I've always liked that didn't get the attention it deserved because it was the flip side of an even greater Domino record, "Blueberry Hill"), and Turner sings "Feelin' Happy" — a rock adaptation of the 1930's Kansas City blues standard "Do You Wanna Jump, Children?" — twice, once over the opening credits and once on screen. He also does "Lipstick, Powder and Paint," "The Choker" and "Rock, Rock, Rock." The one white rock performer we see, Tommy Charles (doing a song by Wayne Walker called "Sweet Love on My Mind"), is O.K. but quite obviously not anywhere in the same league as Domino and Turner. "Shake, Rattle and Rock" turned out to be a minor gem, a genuinely entertaining movie even when Fats Domino and/or Joe Turner weren't on screen!

This golden oldie film, while somewhat shallow in the plot category, is nothing more than just plain entertainment. It consists mainly of good fifties rock n roll music by original artists of the day which really makes the film a joy to view. Also, unlike most of the teenage films of that time, some scenes show kids who are genuine teenagers rather than 20 or even 30 something adults pretending to be teens. This really adds a touch of quality to the movie. Besides the music, the anti-rock n roll adults add to the enjoyment as well. Although their respective rolls may have been intended to be mainly villainous, they come across as so ludicrous in their actions that they are truly funny. This is a movie for fun and enjoyment and not to be taken seriously.