Terrible movie with unappealing leads is not the time capsule you were hoping for. This simplistic story about college students who act like 12-year-olds bills itself as a musical and boasts a number of star names as guest performers. Instead we get a tedious story and a parade of hideous songs sung by Paul Hampton, Jill Corey and others.
Hampton plays a hayseed who cuts a record (and it's AWFUL) and courts local rich girl (Corey) but she's been going with local rich boy (Tom Laughlin) who thinks they are engaged. Oh dear! Comic relief by James Komack and Barbara Bostock falls flat. Anyway, Hampton's song becomes a hit and he appears on 'The Ed Sullivan Show" and meets some "big stars" who show up at the prom.
The "big stars" include 10-second snippets of Bob Crosby, Connee Boswell, Jose Melis, Mitch Miller, Freddy Martin's Band, and Toni Arden. The big pull is the first film appearance of Louis Prima and Keely Smith. In the last minutes of the movie, they finally come on and sing their super rendition of "That Ol' Black Magic" with Sam Butera on sax.
Prima and Smith are terrific, but the wait is excruciating. The film completely bypasses anything that's even close to rock and roll of the era, despite the huge popularity of Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, etc.
Frieda Inescort is stuck playing the society mother, and Francis De Sales plays the golfing father. The rest of the "college students" are played by nobodies.
