Rock, Rock, Rock!

If you love rock and roll music then give this one a break. Most of the songs are totally out of sync which is fairly amusing and the story is boy loves girl then blah but what do you expect. There is wonderful music and a lot of the film is devoted to it. Some great dresses too. Tuesday Weld is cute and radiant and innocent and smacks of those childhood dreams that were killed by cynicism and growing old. Its a true fantasy trip that you can let yourself go with a bottle of something tasty. Beautiful scripts that make you feel warm inside. If you want an intellectual film them forget it but if you wan a laugh and a dance then this is your girlie wine drinking evening. It got me dancing in the living room. Love it.

Jaw-dropping black-and-white cheapie has typical teen scheming to get herself a strapless prom dress for the dance, which is being hosted by none other than Alan Freed (here desperately trying to sing and keep a beat). Tuesday Weld, very young and very green, opens the movie by bursting into song (with Connie Francis' vocals!). Corny, silly, deliriously dated but enjoyable on a garbage-flick level. Camp enthusiasts will be feasting on this trash-relic for years. Look fast for Valerie Harper as a rock-loving teen in the over-appreciative audience. ** from ****

Another rock 'n' roll quickie. Flimsy plot, but some very good musical performances. Future sex-kitten, thirteen year old Tuesday Weld makes her debut with the situation of trying to buy a dress for the prom. She 'lip syncs' to the voice of Connie Francis. Her boyfriend(Teddy Randazzo) wins a talent contest and somehow talks DJ Alan Freed into bringing a gaggle of talent to the prom. Randazzo's singing was about as boring as little Ivy Schulman's was dreadful.

Redeeming this film are the performances by The Moonglows, Chuck Berry, The Flamingos, Lavern Baker, The Johnny Burnett Trio and Frankie Lymon. The Bowties and the House Rockers were a joke. There were worse movies out there at the time. This is surely worth the price of admission and a cherry coke.

Note: I found it pretty cool that Miss Weld's character admits spending allowance money on playing Elvis records on the jukebox. Later, in 1961, she would actually play a sexpot trying to seduce him in WILD IN THE COUNTRY.

A movie that pre-dates music videos by a number of years, "Rock, Rock, Rock" showcased a number of well-known and not so well-known groups in a venue that, admittedly, had very little plot. However, this was 1956, and to have Alan Freed take groups that had, and still were having, so much social impact in "the real world" and put them together on celluloid was a marvellous event. Again, this was 1956, and I don't think I would have seen Cirino and the Bowties, Johnny Burnette, Teddy Randazzo, Jimmy Cavallo and the Houserockers anywhere else during that period. I watched/shouted to/screamed to/danced/to this movie in 1956 (at 10 years of age) and have seen it about 14-15 times since. I'm certain that had I seen it in 1999 for the first time, my point of view would have been much different, but that's only natural. After all, what kind of critical analysis will Pink Floyd's "The Wall" get in the year 2020? If you can look at this movie with "1956 eyes," you get a heck of a lot more than just "weak plot." By the way, Chubby Checker was NOT in this film.

The reason to see "Rock, Rock, Rock," like most 50s quickie rock 'n' roll pictures, is, of course, to see great stars like Chuck Berry, Lavern Baker, The Moonglows and The Flamingos. You also get a fair amount of dreck like Cirino and the Bowties and the insufferable Ivy Schulman. Plus, this picture obviously had a budget lower than the cost of a car. (You can tell that some shots look out of sync.) Then, there's Tuesday Weld with her songs dubbed (not too well) by Connie Francis! Still, the picture is fun and early rock 'n' roll DJ impressario Alan Freed looks like he's having a good time. Of course, it wouldn't last.