Daddy-O

An entertaining little potboiler with rock, drag racing, beautiful girls, and a score by John Williams (yes, THAT John Williams, apparently), DADDY-O – if not, like, the most, cats, it's at least an above-average 1950s exploitation picture.

Dick Contino is Phil, a truck driver who moonlights as a rock 'n' roll singer at the local teen club (just like young Elvis, man). He meets a gorgeous woman (Sandra Giles of LOST, LONELY & VICIOUS) who loves hot cars and fast men and who challenges him to a midnight race through Griffith Park. Phil is arrested for drag racing, and in fact is under suspicion for vehicular homicide, because a guy named Sonny (who just happens to be Phil's best friend) was killed in the park that night. Phil is cleared of that charge, but in trying to uncover the real killer, puts himself and his new sweet-patootie in danger from drug runner Sidney Chillas (Bruno Ve Sota).

Favorite moment: Phil asks his sweetie if she'd like to hear him sing; she says, "Your singing can't be any worse than your driving." He immediately proves her wrong by ripping into a song called "Rock Candy Baby" that'll make you long for the melodious and lyrically mesmerizing "Nobody Lives on the Brownsville Road" from EEGAH! or even "Do the Jellyfish" from STING OF DEATH.

Second favorite moment: Phil "quietly sneaking" from a back alley into a gym to look for evidence in Sonny's death; he makes more noise than Keith Moon.

Least favorite moment: Nude, sweaty Bruno Ve Sota, hot from a steam bath, getting a rubdown. It's like watching somebody try to sculpt a replica of Mt. Rushmore in jello.

Second and third least favorite moments: Phil (who has adopted the professional name of "Daddy-O") sings "Angel Eyes" and "Wait'll I Get You Home". For some reason, his pants are pulled way, way up, so that his belt is roughly in the middle of his chest. This apparently helps him hit the high notes.

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.

Daddy-O is another in a very long line of Juvie D / rock and rollers that tried to look like an Elvis picture from a distance. Shot for only $100 grand on cheap sets and with few professional actors, the film makes King Creole look like Cabaret. Daddy-O would be just another badly dated grade Z picture but for one thing: Dick Contino's Blues. James Ellroy watched this clumsy oldster and then wrote a richly detailed -and thoroughly speculative - account of Contino's participation in the film while tracking a serial killer! The story is an action comedy masterpiece and to actually watch Daddy-O after reading DC Blues is like finding lost gold. The movie is admittedly pretty bad. Contino plays a singing truck driver (get it? Elvis drove a truck before he became famous) who meets a platinum bad girl out on the highway and finds his life spiralling downward. The songs are terrible, a shame really since Contino had a legitimate reputation as a musician, and the characters range from bland to dislikeable, with the exception of the myopic gym manager who is flat out wacky. The crime plot involves drug running, supposedly, although by the hour mark no drugs have actually been moved anywhere. With little story or character interest to engage the audience, there is not much to do except laugh at the dated hipster expressions, groan over the awful song numbers and wonder why Contino's pants are up near his ribcage. But watching the movie as a story within Dick Contino's Blues makes for a rich experience. The viewer sympathizes with Contino for having to take work which was so obviously beneath his musical talents, owing to the damage his reputation suffered following an accusation that he was a draft dodger. (He wasn't but the papers failed to tell the whole story.) Contino himself was not a good enough actor to save a film this hokey, plus he was five years older than Elvis and getting too long in the tooth to be a convincing Juvie D. But wondering how he found the time to play amateur sleuth amidst all of this - assuming that any part of Ellroy's crazy caper was even a little bit true - makes this a truly special movie.

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!"

A disastrously outdated and just basically unlikeable comedy/thriller/musical/torture device from the late 50's, Daddy-O chronicles the life of badass singer/womanizer/tough guy/knucklehead Pete Plum and his involuntary involvement in the drug dealing business. As the informative IMDb plot description states, Pete Plum a.k.a. the title character wears his pants far too high. I mean, this guy is to wearing pants what George W. Bush is to improving the US' relationship with foreign countries. He's *so* unbelievably bad at wearing pants, Joel and the 'bots even write a song dedicated to his pants-wearing skills (let's face it, it's pretty unlikely that you would watch this movie anywhere outside the MST3K show).

And there you have it, the one funny thing about this movie. As soon as the jokes about hiking pants up are over, the movie is pure pain. PURE, TOTAL PAIN. There's not an iota of anything of interest ever happening. It's just oh so dull, dull, dull! This junk brings a new meaning to the world "dreary". The only scene I even remember is when the fat boss takes off his shirt (oh, how I wish I could forget!). Beached whales are more appealing.

There is one positive aspect of this garbage, though: once you've seen it, you'll be more tolerant of boring movies. So the next time you walk out of whatever dreary, soapy melodrama Paul Haggis unleashes next upon his unsuspecting audience, and one of your friends complains about what a borefest it was, you can always say "hey, at least it wasn't as dull as Daddy-O".

Avoid.