Jamboree

This is one of those movies made up mostly of acts playing for the screen. But most of them are lightweights or just plain bad! You may want to see it for Fats Domino, Joe Williams, Slim Whitman and Jerry Lee Lewis. There is also the "plot" to get in the way, too. It's about these two singing teenagers...only what they sing is a long way from "rock" and is a total miscalculation as to being included in this movie. They also end up being extremely annoying!

This is the story of a duo two managers (there's no such a thing since Nelson Eddy and Janette MacDonald,so why not them?) pair in order to make money (Pete and Honey= bank and money).The managers have their own ambitions for their respective protégés and after a big hit ,they urge both of them to go single .Then the heartache begins.

Pete and Honey's songs are rather syrupy and bland but their story takes barely 50 % of the time and the rest is given over to the guests :some of them are exciting indeed:Jerry lee Lewis and his fiery "great balls of fire" Carl Perkins ' "glad all over" and doowop whizz kid Frankie Lymon's "your last chance" are gems .Plus Count Basie and Slim Whitman for jazz and C& W fans.

In New York City, Pete Porter and Honey Wynn are fresh-faced performers eager for their big break. Managers start pushing them onto the radio and they become the hot new sweetheart duo.

This would have been interesting if Connie Francis actually play the part of Honey Wynn. I don't know if she's any good as an actress but at least, that would have been historically interesting. At the end of the day, non of the written story is that compelling. Pete and Honey are very white bread. They just about have as much heat... next to non. What is more interesting are the real world music performers and a few familiar faces. I wonder if those local DJs were actually famous. Dick Clark is so young and in the same year, he's going nation-wide with American Bandstand. This is a piece of music history although it's not much of a film.

I believe this was put out only about a year after Dick Clark began hosting the long-running Amercian Bandstand television show. Clark plays an emcee in this film, similar to his role on that famous TV show. It's very interesting to see him as such a young guy. It was just about 50 years ago....hard to believe.

Joining him are some mega-stars from the early rock 'n roll era: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins Frankie Avalon and Fats Domino and some lesser-names like Jimmy Bowen, Jodie Sands, Buddy Knox and a bunch more.

For viewers looking for upbeat music, this was disappointing. Most of the songs were Connie Francis-type ballads. Also, the dubbing in here is horrible. It's obvious these singers were dubbing the music and - no surprise here - they weren't all the greatest of actors and the script was lame.....very lame. Hey, that's what you got with a lot of "rock" movies back then - some horrible scripts. I guess you just watch it to see the singers in their heyday.

The non musical stuff'll give the fast forward finger on your remote a real workout and some of the acts are on the forgettable side (i.e. Was Frankie Avalon really THAT bad?) but there are a few gems like Lyman And The Teens, Carl Perkins and, of course, Fats.