Le twist est roi

Another rock n roll/quasi-dramatic picture from the 60's, this film features that one hit wonder "Peppermint Twist," by Joey Dee. The film is USA network material, centering on a good o' Lounge Club in the city, where musicians are situated with bad acting roles and free booze. The film's highlight is seeing a young Joe Pesci as a stand-in guitarist for the Starliters. I understand Pesci had an ear for music before acting; this film would lead him to the latter.

Hey, Let's Twist is a time capsule to the youth culture of the Kennedy years. I remember seeing this at the tender age of 14 in theater back in Brooklyn. Those were interesting years.

This film purportedly shows how the famous Peppermint Lounge came to be. In the film restaurant owner Dino DeLuca has two sons Joey and Ricky who are into this new dance craze called The Twist and are even playing and writing about it. When dad has an anxiety attack and has to slow down, the boys take charge and turn his Italian Restaurant which was on the rocks anyway into a new youth club where they play and the kids twist the night away. More importantly it makes money so dad takes a new outlook on his two son's futures.

The dream almost dies when socialite Zohra Lampert starts patronizing the place and starts turning it into a Studio 54 operation where only the elite go. I guess we weren't ready for that in those years because The Peppermint Lounge nearly goes belly up. In the end the kids are all right.

Of course this is hardly the story of the real Peppermint Lounge which was mobbed up to the gills. But the period music is fine, Joey Dee and Teddy Randazzo are hardly great acting talents, still Hey Let's Twist is some interesting nostalgia.

Mediocre B movie capitalizing on the twist phase of the early 60's. Italian widower works day and night in a failing restaurant business putting his two boys Enrico and Rosario (Joey and Ricky) through `college in the east'. The boys come home for Christmas break with music on their minds, not wishing to return to school; they would rather be in pursuit of rock and roll. They tell dad who then passes out due to overwork; during his convalescence his boys turn the restaurant into the wildly successful `Peppermint Lounge'. Minor subplots are added in between songs. A big happy ending - they compromise by Ricky's return to school, Joey staying behind to play the twist at the Lounge and of course the boy gets the girl. As corny as this movie gets it's a gentle reminder about when music movies had some ethics and family values.

There was a time in 1961 or so when Elvis was gone off to Germany to be in the Army, that suddenly, and for a brief time, you found Italian boys from New York and Philadelphia coming out of the woodwork with hit after hit. All of them cleancut, good Italian boys you would not mind taking home to mother. (Elvis, on the other hand, was much more blatantly sexual then these boys would ever be..). So we had Frankie Avalon, Dion and the Belmonts, and the boys that just had letters for last names instead of Italian names that sounded "too ethnic". This movie is a snapshot sort of look at that time. Joey Dee (and the Starliters...) and Teddy Randazzo play brothers who want to be leaders of Twist bands and not be a lawyer or an teacher as their Father wishes. Father owns a failing Italian restaurant and struggles to put the two boys through college.. they explain that they want to leave college and pursue music careers and Pop is taken sick in bed from the shock. While he is sick, the boys turn dads "Neapolitan Gardens" restaurant into the "Peppermint Lounge", not out of meaness but because he restaurant is failing and they just know that the place can make money as a dance club. From here that plot goes on.

Overall a better than average genre picture. There is enough plot to hold your attention and the music is just great! If you are a fan of the era, or just want to see what was going on in America when Elvis was in the Army, this is one place to look.

Another film trying to capitalize quickly on the twist craze. This time it is Joey Dee and his 'Peppermint Twist' in the spotlight. An unimaginative little movie about two brothers turning their father's Italian Garden eating establishment into a money making dance club, the Peppermint Lounge. Of course the brothers have created an adaption to the twist, called the Peppermint Twist. Lip syncing is very bad. The script was probably rehearsed once or twice. But the close ups of twisting hips in tight capri pants makes up for all the short comings.

Singers Joey Dee and Teddy Randazzo share the lead. Zorba Lampert is the cute 'bad' girl. Also in the cast are Jo-Ann Campbell and Kay Armen.

Black & white tail shaker gives a glimpse at the culture of the early 60s.