Don't Knock the Twist

"Hank Ballard and the Midnighters" Wrote and Recorded "The Twist" as the B-Side of "Teardrops On Your Letter"...The "B" Got Some Play and Charted Modestly.

Then, 2 Years Later "Chubby Checker" Not Only Stole the Name from "Fats Domino" but Stole the Song "The Twist", almost a Clone of the Hank Ballard Record with the Same Vocal Style, and Not a Note or a Word Changed.

By a Turn that is Completely Inexplicable, the CC Version Shot to #1 and Ignited a "Twist-Craze" that Swept the Nation.

But Once the "Old Folks", not Only Parents, but Grand-Parents of the "Teens" Started Twisting the Night-Away....it was OVER for that Particular Novelty, Remembered Mostly for the "Geezers" Crashing the Party.

There were 3 "Twist-Movies", this was the Sequel to "Twist Around the Clock" ("Rock Around the Clock" & "Don't Knock the Rock"), and the Peppermint Flavored "Hey Let's Twist" (1961) Featuring "Joey Dee and the Starlighters.

Both Movies are Indicative of the Clueless Hollywood Horning in On Music and Life-Style of Teenagers. This Went On for a Few Years, with this being the Final-Insult.

The Saving Grace of the Genre was that Each Movie Did Manage to Include 1or2 "Nuggets" of Pure-Gold.

There's some Fools-Gold in this Movie...The Bristol Stomp (the Dovells), The Mashed Potatoes (Dee Dee Sharp-Music Only), Linda Scott, and that's About it, Unless You Want to Include that "Flash-in-the-Pan"...Chubby Checker.

The High-Light is Gene Chandler Doing "Duke of Earl" in Top-Hat and Monocle...The Low-Light and the Most Cringe-Inducing Moment Comes when Vic Dana Sings "Little Altar Boy".

You can tell right away that this is a quickie to join the parade of "twist" theme movies. A TV executive (Lang Jeffries)is trying to put together a TV special a couple weeks ahead of a competing station. He just happens to call on Chubby Checker to come to his rescue. Chubby wrangles Gene Chandler, Vic Dana, Linda Scott and the Dovells to appear. The spotlight ends up on a young dancer(Georgine Darcy).

Plenty of shimmy shakin' goin' on. Of course the talent, excluding Checker of course, are barely one hit wonders. Very little depth to the plot, but watching again will bring back some memories.

Also in the cast are Mari Blanchard, Stephen Preston and Nydia Westman.

In Don't Knock The Twist TV executive Lang Jeffries is told to take advantage of that latest dance craze The Twist and put together a television special featuring the latest rock and roll acts. Since Jeffries good buddy is none other than Chubby Checker he's got it made.

But girlfriend fashion designer Mari Blanchard has some ideas of her own especially after Jeffries discovers Georgina Darcy and Stephen Miller doing some wild and crazy dance routines. Her machinations almost ruin things for the twisters young and old.

All this is just an excuse to give the current rock and rollers like Linda Scott and Gene Chandler and Vic Dana a chance to show their stuff. And there's Chubby Checker doing a very good job playing Chubby Checker.

For those nostalgic for the era.

Hollywood just never did get it when it came to rock & roll in the early years, did they? I think I know one thing that was wrong with movies about rock in the pre-'Easy Rider' days--they were full o' SQUARES, man! This one is an effort by Columbia Pictures to capitalize on the Twist dance craze. It was produced by the noted cost-cutter Sam Katzman, the man responsible for the worst of Elvis Presley's films, and it shows. It's strictly formula: a simple, basic plot; lots of time consumed by (lip-synched) performances; and a few pretty girls wiggling around. Even so, this movie is comparatively bad for its type--and that means very bad.

The music is no saving grace here. It features Chubby Checker, who, despite his big hits, is no more than a peripheral character in rock & roll history. Vic Dana, the Dovells and Linda Scott are all but forgotten. Gene Chandler does do his big hit, "Duke of Earl," all duded up. That's not much of a highlight package. This flick is only for the fanatic who wants to see every old R&R film ever made.

Fans of REAR WINDOW curious to see Georgine "Miss Torso" Darcy up close and personal may want to check out schlockmeister Sam Katzman's DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST. Be forewarned, though: The closer you get the more likely you'll be yearning for the view from James Stewart's vantage point. Garbed in tacky outfits and shot with hard, unflattering lighting that emphasizes every wrinkle and crow's foot, poor Darcy looks haggard and careworn as the least convincing teenager this side of Stockard Channing in GREASE. The Katzman touch strikes again.

And again and again. Especially on the dance floor, where the hip-swiveling twisters provide an excuse for lingering shots of backfields in motion, zeroing in on one twitching female butt after another.

All of this leering leads to one of the film's, ahem, cheekiest moments: the psychotronic spectacle of sixtyish Hortense Petra -- the real-life Mrs. Sam Katzman -- twisting up a storm as the camera tilts down to ogle her outsize keister. Apparently Jungle Sam loved his wife not wisely but too well.

Other twisted sightings include a raven-haired Mari Blanchard as a haute couture designer of Twist fashions, Barbara Morrison, aka Mrs. Kipfer, the snooty English madame in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY ("Why, if it isn't Ah-n-gelo Mah-ggio!") as a society doyenne/twistin' fool, Frank Albertson (the flirty geezer with the 40 grand in PSYCHO) as a TV exec, and background actor extraordinaire Bess Flowers as a snooty oldster who winds up going 'round and around and up and a-down thanks to Chubby Checker, The Dovells and Gene Chandler.

The median age of the cast has got to be around 65 years old, making DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST something of a groundbreaker -- the first rock 'n' roll film aimed expressly at assisted living communities. Actually, the median age seems more like 75, what with the elderly extras playing Twist-happy revelers in the night club scenes. It isn't every day you see refugees from "Kick the Can" bopping to the beat of The Bristol Stomp and flashing their dentures at the Duke of Earl as he walks through his dukedom. Perhaps that's for the best.