Rock Around the Clock (1956), 6- B/W, WS

Orchestra manager Steve Hollis realizes that big-band music is dead. People want something new, but what? On their way to New York, Steve and his companion Corny, stop at a motel in a small...
1h 17min | Comedy, Music, Romance | 21 March 1956 | B/W, WS
Director: Fred F. Sears
Stars: Bill Haley and the Comets, The Platters, Ernie Freeman Combo.
Earl Barton ... choreography

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049682/

The first full-out rock 'n roll feature film (per IMDb trivia). I'm not a fan of rock 'n roll; in high school I listened to jazz; I graduated the year after the Beatles broke up.

~18 songs in the Soundtracks. I knew the one I'd like the most just from skimming the list: The Great Pretender, and done by the hit makers, The Platters. It's got even more depth when Freddie Mercury sang it.

When we first encounter the Comets, the kids are dancing in couples, and they're just jitterbugging. Turn off the sound, and this could be the caucasian version of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers from A Day at the Races ('37) or Strike Me Pink ('36).

The acting is deadly dull, as is the story. This film doesn't give any insight into the development of r'n'r, and the only black people are The Platters, who have specialties that still can be excised for southern comfort.

I'll be generous, mostly for The Platters' 2 songs.

Clover Prod., distr. Columbia, dir. Sears; 6-